On UI kits

Many UI kits (frameworks, Design kits, component libraries…) are selling an easy path to a quick build. Most of the big ones out there offer a pretty comprehensive package for a low price (compared to hiring). The drawbacks are easy to grasp and clearly incompatible with long term growth and maintenance. Originality, flexibility, and custom requirements are always part of a project’s priorities, thus rarely make UI kits the ideal choice. That understandably doesn’t scare the 0-to-1 startup crowd.

The one who stuck around the longest in my design journey was The (twitter) bootstrap. I used it mainly for the grid and utility classes. I dropped it and made my own since I was using maybe 5% of it. I also toyed around Untitled UI because friends asks me about it. I saw it on dribbble and even got back to it a few times for pricing layout inspiration. I didn’t go very far once in Figma. I felt creatively constricted. Perhaps product designers are more comfortable in this type of templated environment.

I know many designers who, like me, tried UI kits, by curiosity or at the occasion of a project. None ended up using them for anything more than inspiration. Some struggled to work with them. Maybe it’s a generation thing… but that genuinely makes me wonder if UI kits are truly helpful. The chatter seems greater than the benefits. I witnessed their uprising since my debut on dribbble. Big UI design names packaged their best stuff in hope of passive income. Today open source design systems from big companies have joined the party. The libraries are plenty and ever more sophisticated. Figma lubricated the whole thing. Anyone is one click away from duplicating the perfect template directly in their project. Indie UI kits often end up being used without much customization and look like borderline plagiarism, and/or boring. Big design systems are underused, cluttering files. How hard is it to make a button component? Do we need all this arsenal?

Many kits boast hundreds of users and installs/downloads. It is a thing. So it must be financially viable for the creators and maintainers and provide enough value to the users. I can live with that… but I’m doubting the quotes I see in the testimonial sections. Does everyone use these tools then build custom upon them? Used only for early stage MVPs then everything gets rebuilt custom? Are they slowly depreciated? Kept around forever because they work so well?

Perhaps my questions and reactions are signs of how disconnected I am from the design world. Keep me honest and feel free to reach out.

← Index / Published on 2025-01-14