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Shashwat Pritish
Shashwat Pritish

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Why Your UI Looks “Off” -- Part 2

You’re Probably Doing This

Be honest.

Your UI isn’t bad.

It’s not broken.

It’s not ugly.

But you know something’s wrong.

And chances are — you caused it without realizing.


You keep adding instead of removing

When something feels wrong, you add:

  • another border
  • another color
  • another shadow
  • another animation

Reality

More UI never fixes bad UI.

It only hides the problem.


You don’t trust whitespace

You feel uncomfortable leaving space empty.

So you fill it.

Text. Icons. Lines. Boxes.

Reality

Whitespace isn’t empty.

It’s what makes everything else look intentional.

None of these decisions felt wrong at the time.


You treat everything as equally important

Every button looks primary.

Every card wants attention.

Reality

Good UI has hierarchy.

Bad UI has democracy.


You change styles “just this once”

Different radius here.

Different shadow there.

Reality

That “just once” happens 20 times.

That’s why your UI feels messy.


You design screens, not experiences

Each screen looks fine alone.

Together, they don’t belong.

Reality

Good UI feels familiar across screens.


Truth

If your UI looks off, it’s rarely the framework.

It’s usually:

  • too much added
  • too little removed
  • no hierarchy
  • broken consistency

If you think these are the real problems — they’re not.

Those are just the symptoms.

The real issue lives one layer deeper.

It has nothing to do with colors.
Or spacing.
Or components.

Once you see it,
you’ll start noticing it everywhere.

  • In apps you admire.
  • In products you thought were “well designed”.

And uncomfortably —
in your own UI.

To be continued....

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