DEV Community

Cover image for Day 25–26 of Building Crowdwide — Making the UI Minimal!
Puneet Kumar Mishra
Puneet Kumar Mishra

Posted on

Day 25–26 of Building Crowdwide — Making the UI Minimal!

I was building a social media platform for users to raise their voices. I have made a special algorithm for them, and it works really well.

I got suggestions from @akhourianmolkumar, @effessdev, @technogamerz and more users to make the UI minimal.

I was very much interested in adding and showing features to users. Just in that curiosity, I forgot that the UI should be minimal and more comfortable.

I added a huge number of features to the dashboard. Whenever a user opens Crowdwide, they see a bunch of features.

Wherever they check, they get something like a feature.

They scroll, they get a feature.

They click, they get a feature.

They search, they get a feature.

They comment, they get features.

Their posts get reach, they get features.

Even after using Crowdwide for just 5 minutes, they look outside the window and see Crowdwide's features outside there... lol...

So, after noticing this...

I visited some other social media platforms, like Instagram, Reddit, Bluesky, and Twitter.

I noticed what they show when users log in.

I noted the features in their dashboards and decided to show only this much, with barely anything extra.

I made a new menu.

The top menu is clean now.

The side menu has a few useful options. Further, you can expand it to get others.

And on the other side, the communities section gets a new update, and now you'll be able to see communities there or join them. To create a new community, you have to open my community page.

And this is a major improvement in this.

Further, I noticed the post composer got a little more updated, and more options on the post page need to be put in a little dropdown.

And the second thing is about Widewave.

Many users aren't able to understand Widewave, and some feel it's not required at this stage.

Yeah, this was suggested by @akhourianmolkumar ,@effessdev and @technogamerz too.

So, I removed that too...

And now I feel it feels very, very much better and calmer than before!

UI is an important factor. I build the backend in a few days, but understanding the frontend takes longer.

And I think no frontend is perfect. Anything... anywhere... anyhow, something better exists in this case.

And I got some new users too. Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

18 members

72 posts shared

4 communities

It's growing, but sometimes it gets steady too!

And you might be thinking, why Day 25–26 together??

But on Day 25, I was working on both these features, so I hadn't updated anything. So, I just updated this and am now telling this to you!

I read and reply to every suggestion!

Links 🔗

🌐 Crowdwide: https://www.crowdwide.run.place/

💻 GitHub Repository: https://github.com/DeveloperPuneet/Crowdwide

Top comments (29)

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

Thanks broooooooooooo!!!!!
you implemented feedbacks so quick
and yeah now I'm in guilt that you've to remove your hard worked features but I think now it is more minimal and better UIX
I guess?

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar • • Edited

bro with profile icon make that profile to down side and a little bit big
small touch, but small bricks made house perfect.

can it be like this 👆

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Yes...
Good Idea...
Ill make this!

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

thanks, this is what looks like when akhouri systems Founder & CEO enters the chat... 😂

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

✔🤣

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

people how you are expert in UIX
My reply Le: akhouri-anmol-kumar.github.io/APIC...

by the way please do not reply peak marketing 😂

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Looks good tbh ✔

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

works fine too 😆
if you ever need a online image editing tool you may try it.

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Ill give it a try

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

thanks 😆

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Yes i feel this UI better...

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
akhourianmolkumar profile image
Akhouri Anmol Kumar •

see more feedbacks I've given

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Profile icon change was simple...
and just trying to make the line chart...

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
hordii_bohdan profile image
Bohdan Hordii •

Stripping CSS is the easy part; true minimalism is shaving DOM reflows off the client and keeping your pub/sub fan-out from incinerating connection pools the second those voices actually hit production.

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Absolutely! UI minimalism is just one part of the process. The real challenge is making sure Crowdwide stays responsive and scalable when real users start interacting with it. That’s something I’ll keep focusing on as development progresses.

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
madhabcoder profile image
Nilamadhab Senapati •

'They look outside the window and see Crowdwide's features' made me laugh out loud. Cutting features you built hurts more than building them, so respect for doing it on day 25 instead of day 250. Which feature was hardest to hide?

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

The hardest one to remove was Widewave. 😅 I spent the most time building it because I wanted to create something similar to Reddit, but it didn’t really work out for Crowdwide and made the platform more complex. So, based on the suggestions I received, I decided to remove it. the hardest part was hiding features I had spent hours building, especially the ones I thought would make Crowdwide stand out. But I realised that a cleaner UI with fewer distractions is better than a UI packed with features. Better to simplify now than regret it on day 250

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 •

Mention me @technogamerz 🤣

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

DONE 😎 :D

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 •

Hey, superstar Thanks 😊

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

😁😎

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 •

😊

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
effessdev profile image
EffessDev •

Mention me bro me too suggested 🥲

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

DONE!! :D

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
effessdev profile image
EffessDev •

Thanks 👍🙂

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน Thread
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

🙌🙌

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
technogamerz profile image
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐳𝐲 𝐆𝐢𝐫𝐥 • • Edited

18 members

72 posts shared

4 communities

Really impressive 👏🏻

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
puneetkumar2010 profile image
Puneet Kumar Mishra •

Thank you didi :D

💬 ชาวเน็ตแห่แชร์: puneetkumar/day of building crowdwide making the ui minimal nk - ประเด็นร้อน
 
marcusykim profile image
Marcus Kim •

The split between joining communities in the dashboard and creating one from your own community page is worth a quick findability test. Ask a first-time user to create a community without pointing them toward the menu, and note where they look before they succeed. Hiding post options in a dropdown can reduce clutter, but the primary creation path still needs a visible clue. With 18 members, a few observed attempts can give more useful feedback than a click-rate comparison.