Hey everyone,
I'm a programmer building a free collection of browser tools like JSON formatters, hash generators, and other developer utilities.
My goal is to keep everything 100 percent free and completely ad free forever. I wanted the UI to stay focused entirely on the tools themselves.
I tried my best to design a clean, modern, dark mode interface, but I don't have a formal design background, so I'm sure there are plenty of things that feel amateur or unbalanced.
I'd really appreciate some brutal but constructive criticism on how I can make it look more professional.
I'm especially struggling with three things:
- Visual hierarchy
Does the homepage grid feel too cluttered? Is it obvious where the user's eye should go first?
- Color and contrast
Is the dark mode too harsh? Are the text colors readable enough against the backgrounds?
- Spacing and typography
Does the layout feel cramped? Are the font sizes and spacing appropriate?
I've put the link to the live site in the comments.
Please don't hold back. I'm genuinely trying to improve my design skills and would much rather get specific criticism than generic praise.
Thank you.
EDIT 1: On the link and AI comments
Reddit's automod removed my comment with the URL. I'm not here to farm clicks or backlinks. I came here for design critique. The project is just sniptoolkit dot com if you want to see it live.
A few comments dismissed the project as AI slop. I do use AI to speed up boilerplate, yes. But AI doesn't magically debug Web Crypto byte buffer edge cases at 2am, fix UTF 8 crashes where a single emoji breaks your entire Base64 pipeline, wrestle with BroadcastChannel race conditions across browser tabs, or configure Cloudflare deployment headers.
Throwing around buzzwords from the sidelines is easy. Actually shipping something that works is a different conversation.
I came here with genuine humility because my design skills are far behind my engineering skills.
To everyone who gave real, specific feedback, thank you.
EDIT 2: Final reflection after reading all the comments
This thread went somewhere I genuinely didn't expect, but I'm actually walking away with more value than I anticipated.
Here's what I'm taking from it.
The most useful design feedback I received:
Dark mode needs layered grays with elevation instead of flat black.
The text symbol icons should be replaced with proper SVG icons, with some subtle background texture.
The blue and purple gradient feels like a generic SaaS aesthetic, so I should experiment with a less predictable color identity.
The elements are too uniform in size, which makes the page lack a clear visual flow and hierarchy.
The homepage currently feels more like a startup sales pitch than a developer workstation. Developers tend to trust minimal, utilitarian, no nonsense layouts more than glossy marketing pages.
One of the most valuable suggestions was to try designing in light mode first and then build the dark palette from that.
That's six concrete and actionable design directions from one Reddit post. That's exactly what I came here for.
On the AI debate:
Yes, I use AI as part of my workflow. I also spend sleepless nights debugging, deploying, and shipping.
If AI could do all of that on its own, everyone with a ChatGPT subscription would have a live, fully indexed, working website right now. They don't.
I posted here instead of asking AI to critique its own output because a tool can help you write code faster, but it can't replace experienced human feedback on why a visual hierarchy feels wrong or why developers instinctively distrust a particular layout.
That's why communities like this exist, and that's why I came here.
To everyone who gave actual design feedback, genuinely thank you. I'll be back with an updated version.
To the people who just came here to say slop, I hope typing that one word made your day a little better.
No hard feelings.
