<story><title>Not a designer? Here’s how to make your web apps look awesome</title><url>http://tbbuck.com/how-to-make-your-web-apps-look-awesome/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>huhtenberg</author><text>&amp;#62; &lt;i&gt;Not a designer? Here’s how to make your web apps look awesome -&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hire a designer :)&lt;p&gt;--&lt;p&gt;I am saying this only half-jokingly. There&apos;s always a trade-off. Pre-made themes are great, but&lt;p&gt;(a) they are shared and have a mass-production stigma attached to them&lt;p&gt;(b) they are designed first and spec&apos;d second, which is the opposite of the normal process whereby the design follows from what it is that needs to be achieved with it.&lt;p&gt;The title should really be &quot;great looking designs on a budget&quot; rather than focusing on the lack of the designer skills. Because if there are funds available, then contracting out the design and getting exactly what you want beats the hell out of purchasing a theme.</text></comment>
<story><title>Not a designer? Here’s how to make your web apps look awesome</title><url>http://tbbuck.com/how-to-make-your-web-apps-look-awesome/</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>dglassan</author><text>This is the approach I took with Disrupt.fm&lt;p&gt;I almost convinced myself to spend around $7-800 on a design from 99designs before I found an awesome admin theme on themeforest for $20&lt;p&gt;Just because you purchase a theme from themeforest does not mean that your site will look like 500 other sites that have the same theme. I bought an admin template so that I could use the styles....not the structure and layout.You should purchase a theme knowing that it&apos;s going to be customized to fit your needs, not to just drop it in and be done...plus, chances are most of the admin templates are used on the backend for a bunch of websites that the public won&apos;t see.</text></comment>