The Eye for good design

Nowadays, everyone can build something that works. AI made sure of that. A few years ago that alone was enough to stand out — now it's just the starting line.

So what actually makes people pick one thing over another?

Taste. That's it. How it feels, how it looks, whether someone clearly cared about the details.

People think taste is just liking stuff. It's not. Liking something is passive — it just happens to you. Taste is active. It's being able to look at a screen and say "that spacing is off" or "that button shouldn't be there" and actually know why.

And here's the good part: you can train it.

Look at good stuff. A lot of it.

Simple one. You won't develop an eye for quality by looking at average work all day. Go find the best designers, the best apps, the best writing — whatever your thing is — and study it constantly.

Find a few people whose taste you trust, then look at who they're into. You'll end up down a rabbit hole of good work pretty fast, and that's exactly where you want to be.

Stop saying "I like it." Say why.

This is the actual skill. Anyone can say something looks good. Almost nobody can say why.

Next time something catches your eye, don't just move on. Stop and dig. Is it the spacing? The font? The way it loads? Keep asking until "it feels clean" turns into something you can actually point at.

Do this enough and you stop just reacting to design. You start seeing it.

Make stuff. Show people. Get roasted.

You can study all day, but nothing builds your eye like actually making things and having people tear them apart.

Don't ask "what do you think?" That gets you nothing. Ask "what's confusing here?" or "what would you delete?" Real questions get real answers.

Your first stuff is going to be bad. That's fine — it's actually a good sign. It means your taste is already better than your hands. Everyone starts there. Keep going and the gap closes.