I redesigned my app five times tonight and shipped one
Flash is a local coding agent. It runs on your machine, on your models, through Ollama, with a terminal UI and a web UI. Tonight I tried to make the web UI look like other apps. One at a time. The lineup Claude. Serif replies, a new greeting. Reverted. I like my font. Oh my pi. A powerline status bar, tool calls as terminal lines. Reverted. Cool, but not Flash. Qwen. A single pill for the input,…
Flash is a local coding tool that runs on your machine, offering both terminal and web user interfaces through Ollama. The creator of Flash experimented with five different designs in a single night, ultimately shipping one version (0.5.10).
The final design features a rounded panel for the conversation, with chats grouped under their respective projects in the sidebar. Each project can be folded away when not in use. The current chat is highlighted with an outlined border that smoothly transitions when switching. A new project form now suggests folders as you type, with a default path of "~/D" displaying Desktop, Documents, and Downloads.
Other notable changes in this version include a focus ring around the message box, a reduction in visual clutter by eliminating stray glow lines in dialogs, and an improved project creation process. The lesson highlighted by the author is that trying a new design only takes a few minutes, while keeping an unsuitable design can be a significant time investment.
Therefore, the creator encourages trying various designs, evaluating them thoroughly in different themes and on various devices, before settling on the one that feels right. The revert feature allows for easy rollback to previous versions if needed.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
