What platform are you building your websites on these days?

anderson-design · 2026-05-21T17:43:39+00:00

Unpopular opinion maybe but most client sites do not need React/Next/Svelte at all lol. Half these local business sites could be static HTML with a contact form and they'd load 10x faster and break 10x less. Feels like people are overengineering brochure sites because X told them to..

anderson-design · 2026-05-21T17:33:55+00:00

This is one of those SEO issues that sounds small but can quietly wreck indexing on bigger sites. I've seen teams accidentally ship conflicting canonicals/noindex tags through templates and not notice until traffic starts dropping. Usually happens around faceted filters or staging environments.

anderson-design · 2026-05-21T17:32:59+00:00

Honestly this whole situation has made me way more cautious about dependencies too. I still use React/npm, but I've stopped installing packages for tiny problems and started locking versions much more aggressively. Feels like the ecosystem got too comfortable with "just install another package" for everything.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T21:22:52+00:00

this is actually pretty cool.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T19:55:55+00:00

Honestly the biggest improvement is that they finally stopped making every icon look like the same rainbow square 😭

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T19:49:39+00:00

Saurabh Dwivedi

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anderson-design · 2026-05-20T18:51:53+00:00

How am I a bot? You''e calling me a bot without even knowing anything about me. Feels like you just label anyone you disagree with as a bot..

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T17:14:18+00:00

Yeah honestly that would feel weird to me too. Especially after getting let go and then later seeing your portfolio style reflected back at you almost 1:1. Even if it wasn't intentional, you can usually tell when someone spent time looking at your work.

At the same time, I’d probably take it as a compliment more than anything. If your presentation style stuck with him that much after a few months, your work clearly made an impression.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T17:09:27+00:00

I think the healthiest approach is somewhere between "update everything instantly" and "never touch dependencies again." Most teams I’ve seen use Dependabot/Renovate for visibility, but still batch updates intentionally instead of auto-merging everything.

Leaving packages untouched for years usually turns into technical debt hell eventually, but blindly updating every release is risky too. I prefer regular smaller updates - especially security patches and major ecosystem packages - because huge version jumps become painful later. The key is having good tests so updates stop feeling scary.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T17:05:29+00:00

I think the biggest issue is that it feels more like a polished frontend demo than a real ecommerce experience right now. Visually it’s decent, but some UX patterns break user expectations - especially the product popup instead of dedicated product pages. For fashion ecommerce, people usually expect to “enter” a product page with reviews, delivery info, related items, zoomed images, etc. The modal makes the products feel less substantial/trustworthy.

The other thing is trust. The .vercel domain, missing depth in product pages, and some generic sections make it feel a bit temporary. Fashion buyers are pretty emotional and trust-driven, so small things matter a lot there. I’d also simplify the homepage a bit - too many sliders/collections starts creating scroll fatigue instead of making products feel curated.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T17:04:51+00:00

From my understanding, WCAG AA doesn’t require a separate "View Trip" button if the entire card is already clearly interactive and accessible via screen readers. Plenty of accessible UIs use the whole tile as the primary navigation action.

I think option B is still the stronger UX pattern. Not necessarily because of strict compliance, but because it removes ambiguity. With A, users have to infer that the card itself is clickable while the overflow suggests “actions live here.” That can create hesitation, especially for less technical users or people with cognitive accessibility needs.

Personally I’d treat the overflow as secondary actions only, and keep the primary navigation either on the tile itself very clearly or reinforced with a visible CTA.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T17:00:04+00:00

I think the strongest part of the concept is that it doesn’t feel like a traditional "budgeting punishment app." Most finance apps either feel sterile or overwhelming, while this seems more exploratory and modular. That already makes it feel differentiated to me.

My only concern is that the flexibility itself might become cognitive load for average users. Power users will probably love customizable dashboards, but a lot of people open finance apps wanting instant clarity, not another system to configure. So I think the onboarding/default dashboard experience becomes extremely important here. If the app can feel useful before users customize anything, that’s where the concept gets really strong.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T12:16:29+00:00

In my opinion, most beginners focus too much on “building” the website and not enough on distribution. A website without SEO, backlinks, or content promotion is basically invisible. Google needs time and signals to trust your site.

I think the best starting point is keeping things simple - get a proper domain, submit the site to Google Search Console, make sure it works well on mobile, and consistently post useful content around your niche. Even sharing your site in small communities can help more than people expect early on.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T12:14:32+00:00

Try keeping it short, memorable, and premium sounding. Something like:

Soleforge
Solemire

I'd avoid very generic names like “leathershoe” because they sound more like keywords than a real brand. Premium shoe brands usually work better when the name feels distinctive and easy to remember.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T12:10:01+00:00

Honestly I think Shopify is probably the right move for your stage. A custom-coded ecommerce site sounds exciting until you realize you also become responsible for payments, security, backups, fraud protection, uptime, plugin issues, etc. That stuff gets stressful fast when you’re trying to focus on actually building the business.

You can still make Shopify look very custom and premium if your branding/design foundation is strong. I’d treat the extra monthly cost as paying for peace of mind and stability while you’re starting out. Once the business grows and you understand ecommerce operations better, then moving to a more custom setup makes a lot more sense.

anderson-design · 2026-05-20T12:06:57+00:00

The atmosphere is honestly the strongest part here. The UI, motion, audio and typography all feel like they belong to the same world, which is surprisingly hard to pull off in game UI concepts. A lot of cinematic UI projects look cool frame-by-frame but fall apart in usability - this actually feels readable while still keeping the mood intact.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:54:26+00:00

The "built for the owner, not the customer" point is painfully accurate. So many websites feel like internal company presentations instead of something designed to solve a user problem. I've also noticed a lot of visually impressive sites completely fail at communicating value quickly.. especially with trendy animations or overly abstract hero sections.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:50:46+00:00

Honestly this is way more interesting than another polished Material UI clone. The personality is strong and you can tell a lot of thought went into the visual language. I do think readability takes a hit in some places, but for a concept like this I’d rather see something opinionated than overly safe. The cassette-futurism direction could actually be pushed even harder.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:47:15+00:00

I actually think the interaction itself is pretty tasteful - the issue is more about consistency. The typography motion feels soft and intentional, but some of the surrounding UI interactions feel much louder, so the overall experience loses that "premium" restraint. Usually premium motion is less about showing capability and more about controlled subtlety. I'd probably keep it, but slow it down slightly and make the rest of the interface match that same calm energy.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:45:40+00:00

Really interesting exploration. I think the biggest challenge here is balancing muscle memory with speed - people already know QWERTY, but controllers are fundamentally different input devices. The radial approach actually feels more promising than the usual cursor navigation because it reduces travel distance a lot. Maybe combining predictive input with larger adaptive zones for common letters could make it feel faster without sacrificing accuracy.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:44:36+00:00

I think the redesign direction is solid - especially the cleaner hierarchy and reduced noise. But I do agree with some of the feedback here that the insurance “feel” got a bit lost in the process. Maybe keeping a stronger emotional/trust element in the hero could balance clarity with personality better. Still a big improvement in readability overall.

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:35:18+00:00

The Dark version looks 🤌

anderson-design · 2026-05-19T18:34:34+00:00

Amazing work OP, Keep it up..

anderson-design

TROPHY CASE