Is it just me or do all of the templates and apps in the showcase look cheap. It seems that design and UI are not among Bubble’s strengths.
I see that Figma designs can be imported but is not a 1:1 conversion. What do you think is the best way to build something clean and beautiful in Bubble?
Just make use of the html and css magic, and take benefits of the Bubble database and powerful workflows / plug-ins / API connector.
You can plug your DB to the html / css component, in and out thanks to Javascript.
There’s anything you can’t do!
come on, all of them ?
It may be helpful to know what you’re comparing against. Care to share?
@jared.gibb For example, Webflow seems to have really beautiful design templates and I’ve seen websites built on Webflow that look beautiful, but from what I understand, Webflow is more for websites than web apps.
When you look at examples of CRM UI in Dribbble, there are a lot of clean and beautiful designs there, but I have yet to find an app built on Bubble that can match many of those.
Hey man,
This was my main motivation to learn bubble…I was curious why they all look bland and with no care for aesthetic! And I had been searching and I fully agree with you - they mostly all look windows 95’ish.
But then I heard about Gregory John! Check him out on twitter https://twitter.com/_gregoryjohn
He’s the founder of buildcamp.io and he’s got lots of resources for design-conscious bubble makers.
Buildcamp itsself looks so dope…and on mobile as well! Lemme know what you think
Yeah I feel you about the figma integration as well. I tried it but it doesn’t accommodate groups so you’re literally gonna have to start from scratch.
Makes a great business opportunity for front end designers
I agree that most Bubble sites I see aren’t that great on design, but that’s down to the design skills of the builder, not Bubble. Bubble builders often have expertise in a field and want to build a tool that solves a problem. They are focusing on the technical aspects of building the app, the logic, database and functional elements.
Design is an entirely different skill set and side of the brain. So I think there’s a need for Bubble consultants with a design background to be available for hire to help with basic things like font selection, color schemes, layouts, imagery, etc. Those little tweaks can be the difference between an app that looks home-made vs. one that looks highly professional.
Re: Webflow, I used to use it but left it and eventually found Bubble. Webflow has a lot of fancy design bells and whistles and a lot of its users seem to be designers. If you want to build a fancy looking site, it’s a good nocode choice. But if you want to build a website that DOES something as a tool, Webflow doesn’t have nearly the functionality of Bubble. And a lot of the fancy design flourishes actually can be a detriment to an app’s functionality because they slow down the app and annoy the user.
Final note is think of the largest and most successful apps… Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google… and check out their sites. Their design is in no way fancy or advanced. It’s usually pretty basic because those apps DO something and so the focus is on speed and functionality.
@ed727 Great reply and I totally agree with what you said. Based on the capabilities of Bubble, I see no reason why a beautiful looking app can’t be built on Bubble, but I’m surprised that literally nobody has come along and built an app on Bubble with an emphasis on design (like they do with Webflow).
I agree that the big tech apps like Facebook, Twitter, etc aren’t great examples of design, but I would also argue that those are different use cases and I personally don’t have priorities that align with those platforms. For my current web app project, it is important to prioritize UI/UX in a way that makes the process very intuitive for the user, so ideally the app would strike a balance between UI/UX and performance.
Is there a good third party design solution that works with Bubble? Any good UI kits out there that can be used with Bubble?
Check out Reakto 
I used Dribble for inspiration on my eLearning Hub. What do you think? 
For All Your No-Code Education Needs:
There are quite a few
@help do you know if those were built off of templates or built more from scratch? I’m wondering if there is a platform with a library of nice looking components that we can use to replicate something like what you’re showing in those examples. Our app project is more complex than any other that I’ve seen on Bubble.
Below, are some examples of functionality that we’ll require for the project:
From what I know, (I built ProductFlare and SendPilot) but having spoken to the other devs, they were all from scratch.
Regardless, that shouldn’t be a worry because there are tons of great templates as a starting point (like a traditional framework) you can start with that will give you a headstart.
Going by your feature list - there’s nothing there I haven’t seen built in Bubble (obviously not in one app) before, so I’d say it’s definitely doable.
There are tons of API’s and plugins you can use for things like Docusign, and implementing external API’s is also supported.
I’ve built a number of apps that have lead lists, mail campaigns, scheduling etc etc without issue - for example a CRM I built a while ago and later sold 
Hope that helps
Hey @flipmatrix-mike,
You can find all the official Bubble Coaches at bubble.io/coaching - @J805 is an official coach
Ours is definitely not quite Dribbble level, but it’s pretty decent. www.knowtheterrain.io (desktop only for now!)
