The 3 Pillars of Great Design
As engineers, we often avoid design work — and I was no exception. I loved writing frontend and backend code, setting up CI/CD pipelines, and solving complex technical problems. But when it came to design? Definitely not my thing. Still, a question started bothering me: why was I spending so much time choosing tech stacks and planning architecture, yet ignoring design — the very first thing users see and interact with? After all, nobody wants to use a poorly designed app.
I eventually realized that no one really cares how fast or scalable your app is if the design isn’t up to the mark. This hit me harder once I started building SaaS products — seeing how much user perception depended on visuals. That’s when I decided to learn design — not to become a professional in Figma or Framer, but just enough to create clean, intuitive interfaces. AI tools also helped me a lot in this process, especially when experimenting with layouts and colors.
We all visit dozens of websites every day, and for engineers, that number is even higher. But before, I never paid attention to how things were designed — even though I could tell when something looked good or bad. Once I started learning design, I naturally began noticing the small things — spacing, colors, typography, etc. Whenever I visited a website, I paid attention to what made it stand out. Over time, I started seeing patterns that separate a good design from a great one.
To remember what I liked, I built a small design bank — taking screenshots of well-designed components and noting fonts, colors, and themes that caught my eye. That habit helped me develop my own design sense.
The first step to developing a good design sense is awareness — paying attention to the products you use, noticing what feels clean and seamless, and saving designs that inspire you.
Now, let’s discuss the three main elements of great UI/UX:
1. Useful
A useful design helps users achieve what the app was built for — efficiently and clearly. As developers, we often focus on solving the problem itself, but the real test lies in whether users can accomplish their goals easily and seamlessly. You might solve a complex problem brilliantly, but if the experience isn’t simple for the user, it won’t matter. In the end, usefulness means helping people do what they came to do — in a way that feels natural and practical.
2. Usable
Once a design is useful, the next step is making it usable — simple, intuitive, and easy to interact with. If users have to stop and think about what to do next, something isn’t right. I’ve learned that even a small friction point can make users leave, so usability is about removing those barriers and helping people complete their tasks smoothly and confidently.
3. Beautiful
Finally, a design should be beautiful — but beauty should never come at the expense of usefulness or usability. A good design doesn’t just look good; it builds trust, creates an emotional connection, and makes the experience memorable.
Here are a few things that help create beautiful, consistent interfaces:
- Focus on color and contrast, hierarchy, alignment, typography, layout, and spacing.
- Stay consistent with your design system across the app.
- Use tasteful animations and micro-interactions.
- Use subtle gradients and soft shadows to add depth.
- Pay attention to details and maintain precise spacing (an 8px grid works great).
- Leave enough whitespace — it gives the design room to breathe.
- Keep navigation intuitive and your visual language cohesive.
- Prioritize iteration over perfection.
A beautiful design isn’t about complexity — it’s about balance, care, and clarity.
Learning design changed the way I build products. It made me think beyond code — about how people actually feel when using what I create. Now, I see design, development, and functionality as one complete craft, not separate pieces. Whether I’m working on a landing page or a full SaaS app, I always remind myself of one thing: a great product is useful, usable, and beautiful — in that order.