Introduction
Good UX/UI design goes beyond creating beautiful screens – it also means designing with practicality and development in mind. Every design decision, from spacing to icons, affects how quickly developers can implement features, how scalable the system becomes, and how consistent the final product feels.
In this blog, I’m sharing 10 practical UX tips for designers from a developer’s point of view from a developer’s perspective. These tips will help you create cleaner, smarter, and more developer-friendly interfaces that speed up the entire workflow.
Table of Contents
- Use a unified icon pack
- Keep spacing and layout consistent
- Avoid over-complex animations
- Use design tokens (colors, fonts, shadows)
- Don’t mix random fonts
- Keep states clearly defined
- Use realistic data in mockups
- Maintain component reusability
- Respect front-end constraints (tables, grids, charts)
- Provide clear interaction notes
1. Use a Unified Icon Pack
Instead of designing custom icons for every component, choose a consistent icon library like FontAwesome, Material Icons, or Lucide. It keeps the UI visually unified and saves huge development time since devs don’t need to slice, optimize, or maintain multiple icon formats.
2. Keep Spacing & Layout Consistent
Define standard spacing (4, 8, 12, 16, 24px…) and stick to it. Inconsistent spacing is one of the hardest things for developers to fix across pages. A spacing system reduces CSS overrides, improves responsiveness, and makes the final product extremely clean.
3. Avoid Over-Complex Animations
Animations that look great in Figma may be difficult or performance-heavy in the browser. Stick to simple transitions or micro-interactions unless absolutely needed. Always consider how it will be implemented with CSS/JS without hurting performance.
4. Use Design Tokens (Colors, Fonts, Shadows)
Define a clean set of color tokens, font sizes, shadows, and border radiuses. Developers rely on these tokens to build scalable design systems. Random colors or different radiuses on every screen create unnecessary technical debt.
5. Don’t Mix Random Fonts
Use at most one or two typography families. Mixing too many fonts breaks the hierarchy and complicates development. A predictable typography scale (H1, H2, body, caption) helps devs map Figma styles directly to code.
6. Keep States Clearly Defined
Design all states: default, hover, active, disabled, loading, error, empty. Missing states force developers to guess or reuse wrong styles. Clear state definitions → cleaner UI and a faster development cycle.
7. Use Realistic Data in Mockups
Avoid dummy “Lorem ipsum” and fake numbers. Use realistic field lengths, real names, typical dates, and edge cases. It helps developers understand layouts, overflow scenarios, truncation rules, and responsive behavior.
8. Maintain Component Reusability
If multiple panels or cards look similar, create a single reusable component in the design. When designers create repeated but slightly different components, developers need extra work to merge or rewrite them. Reusable components speed up development and reduce bugs.
9. Respect FE Constraints (Tables, Grids, Charts)
Designing complex tables or responsive grids without understanding FE limitations leads to unreadable layouts. Always ensure columns, hierarchy, and responsive behavior remain flexible. For charts, stick to patterns that can be implemented using standard libraries like D3, Chart.js, or Highcharts.
10. Provide Clear Interaction Notes
Add small notes in Figma for behavior – tooltip text, click actions, dropdown logic, empty states, validation rules, drag & drop behaviors, etc. Developers shouldn’t guess how something works. Clear descriptions reduce meetings and avoid miscommunication.