Before and After UI Redesign: What Actually Changes When You Level Up a Design

Design by @ui.abraham

There is nothing more satisfying in design than a before and after comparison. You see the original, you see the redesign, and the improvement is obvious. But can you articulate what actually changed? That is the harder question, and it is the one that helps you grow as a designer.

Designer @ui.abraham shared a before and after carousel that perfectly illustrates the gap between a functional design and a polished one. Let us break down what makes the redesign better and what principles you can extract from it.

The Before: Functional But Flat

Most before designs share the same characteristics. They work technically: the information is there, the buttons are present, the layout makes logical sense. But they feel generic. The spacing is inconsistent. The typography is uniform. The color palette is safe to the point of being forgettable. Everything is presentable but nothing is memorable.

This describes the majority of UI designs in the wild. They are not broken. They are just not optimized. They represent the baseline, the minimum viable interface.

The After: Intentional and Refined

The redesigned version looks different because a series of specific, deliberate changes were made. Let us break them down.

1. Hierarchy Got Sharper

In the before, all elements competed equally for attention. In the after, there is a clear primary focus. The headline is larger, the call to action is more visually distinct, and supporting elements are sized down to support rather than compete. This is not accidental. The designer made a decision about what matters most and used visual weight to enforce it.

The result is that a user looking at the design for the first time knows exactly where to look and what to do. That clarity is the difference between a design that converts and one that bounces.

2. Spacing Became Systematic

The before design likely used ad hoc spacing: 10 pixels here, 14 pixels there, maybe 12 pixels somewhere else. The after design uses a consistent spacing scale. Every margin and padding is a multiple of a base unit, typically 4 or 8 pixels. This creates rhythm and order that users feel subconsciously.

Consistent spacing also improves perceived quality. Users cannot articulate why a design feels more polished, but spacing consistency is often the reason. It signals that someone cared about the details.

3. Color Found Purpose

In the before, color was decorative. In the after, color is functional. The primary color draws attention to the most important action. Neutral colors provide structure. There is no fifth accent color that serves no purpose. Every color in the palette has a job.

This is one of the hardest changes to make because it requires restraint. Designers love adding colors. But removing colors that do not serve a purpose is what separates a refined palette from a chaotic one.

4. Typography Gained Hierarchy

The before likely used one font at two or three sizes. The after uses a type scale with clear relationships between heading levels. Primary headings are significantly larger and heavier than body text. Captions and metadata are smaller and lighter. The result is a reading order that guides the user through the content naturally.

Variable fonts and font pairings also come into play. A bold display font for headings paired with a clean sans-serif for body text creates contrast that makes the design feel intentional rather than default.

5. Microinteractions Added Life

The before is static. The after has subtle motion: a button that responds to hover, a card that lifts slightly when selected, a transition that smooths the shift between states. These microinteractions do not change the functionality. They change the feel. The design goes from a flat artifact to something that responds to the user, which builds engagement.

The Principle Behind Every Before and After

Every effective before and after redesign follows the same underlying principle: remove what does not serve the user and amplify what does. The before design has too many elements competing for attention. The after design has fewer elements, each with a clear purpose and appropriate visual weight.

This is why before and after comparisons are so powerful for learning. They make abstract design principles concrete. You can see hierarchy, spacing, color, typography, and motion changes side by side. That visual contrast teaches more than any article or course can.

How to Practice This Yourself

The best way to develop your eye is to do before and after redesigns yourself. Take an existing interface, screenshot it, and redesign one screen. Focus on one principle at a time. First, improve the hierarchy. Then, fix the spacing. Then, refine the color. Then, upgrade the typography. Finally, add a microinteraction or two.

This iterative approach builds a deep understanding of how each principle contributes to the overall design. You are not just copying what looks good. You are understanding why it works.

If you want structured learning to accelerate this process, the Interaction Design Foundation offers courses covering design principles, usability, and visual design that directly inform your ability to evaluate and improve interfaces.

And if you want to test your redesigns with real users, Base44 lets you build functional apps from your designs without writing code, so you can see how design decisions perform in the real world.

Design by @ui.abraham. See the original Instagram carousel.

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