Why I Stopped Building UIs First And Started With the API

For years, I’d start every project the same way: Open Figma → mock the UI → build the components → then hook it up to the backend. It worked.

But it was slow. Rigid. And almost always led to rework.

At some point, I flipped the process. Now, I build the API first and everything else bends around it.

🧱 Your API is the Product
Whether it’s internal tooling, SaaS, or a dApp - the interface is just a layer. The real work happens behind the scenes:

• What data moves where
• What rules get enforced
• What breaks under pressure

If you build that first, the UI becomes a consumer, not the foundation.
Suddenly you can test, mock, and even automate everything - before worrying about design.

⚡ Benefits I Didn’t Expect

• Cleaner logic: Building APIs early forces you to think in endpoints, not pixels.
• Easier team splits: Backend and frontend can actually work in parallel - no blockers.
• Better testing: You can write Postman tests and bash scripts before you even touch buttons.
• More reusable code: The same API can power a dashboard, a mobile app, and an automation flow.

👎 Why UI-First Slowed Me Down

• You design before you understand the system
• You change flows and have to rebuild half your UI
• You forget edge cases until the backend fails
• You over-engineer things that would’ve been solved with a better endpoint
• UI-first looks fast. Until you realize you built a shell without a brain.

🚧 What It Looks Like in Practice
Define endpoints first:

• What data do I need? What needs to be read/written?
• Even a dumb GET /user/stats tells you something about the product.

Stub or build minimal logic: Return hardcoded values if needed - just get the shape right.

Write quick tests/scripts: Hit your endpoints with curl, Postman, or a simple Make.com flow.

Then design around that reality: Now your UI has boundaries. It consumes real data. It makes fewer assumptions.

Final Thought
When you treat your API as the source of truth, you stop designing fantasies. You build things you can test, deploy, and grow - faster and with fewer rewrites.

Frontend is important. But the API is what makes it real.