In the world of software development and digital design, there’s an unspoken rule that has dominated workflows for decades: design first, code later. Teams would typically create pixel-perfect mockups in tools like Figma, Photoshop, or Sketch before a single line of code was written. But at Nitroxis, we decided to break this tradition and experiment with something bold — Code First, Design Second.
This code-first approach flips the conventional order. Instead of spending weeks perfecting static designs, we start coding immediately, shaping the design in real time as the product comes to life. By using live coding tools and real-time previews, our designers and developers collaborate directly on the actual interface, making decisions based on how things feel and function in a live environment — not just how they look in a static mockup.
Why did we take this unconventional route? The answer is simple: speed, adaptability, and authenticity. When you design in code:
Changes happen instantly — no endless back-and-forth between design and development teams.
Function drives form, ensuring that user experience is never compromised by unrealistic design specs.
Creativity flourishes because the team can test bold ideas without waiting for another “design round.”
“Great design is not about how it looks in isolation, but how it works in the hands of the user.” – Adapted from Steve Jobs
Our experiment at Nitroxis was not just a creative exercise — it was a practical workflow test aimed at solving real bottlenecks we faced in traditional processes. And what we discovered might just change how you think about building digital products.
What is the “Code First, Design Second” Approach?
The Code First, Design Second approach is a workflow where developers start building the product directly in code, shaping its design as they go, instead of relying on a fully completed visual mockup beforehand. In other words, design evolves inside the codebase rather than being handed over from a separate design stage.
This method isn’t just about skipping design tools — it’s about integrating design thinking directly into the development process. The boundaries between “designer” and “developer” blur, and the final look and feel emerge organically through live iteration.
How It Differs from Traditional “Design First, Code Later” Workflows
In a design-first approach, the process typically follows these steps:
Designers create detailed wireframes and high-fidelity mockups.
Developers implement the designs in code.
QA tests for discrepancies and usability issues.
While this method ensures that branding and visual standards are locked in early, it has some inherent flaws:
Rigid visual specifications can lead to conflicts when design ideas don’t work well in code.
Slower iterations, as changes must go back through design approval before implementation.
Delayed functional testing, since development starts much later in the process.
In contrast, the code-first approach follows a leaner path:
Start with the functional skeleton in code.
Apply visual styling directly in the development environment.
Adjust design elements instantly based on live testing and team feedback.
This shift means the design is always working in a real environment — with actual browser rendering, real data, and live responsiveness.
Why Nitroxis Wanted to Explore This Method
At Nitroxis, we noticed a recurring challenge in our traditional design-first workflow:
Long delays between design approval and functional testing.
Mismatches between design intent and real-world usability.
Lost creative momentum during handoffs between teams.
By experimenting with designing through coding from day one, we aimed to:
Reduce wasted effort on concepts that don’t translate well to the final product.
Improve collaboration between designers and developers.
Deliver usable prototypes faster, enabling stakeholders to interact with something real much earlier in the project.
Fact: According to a 2023 UXPin study, teams that incorporate live coding in early design stages reduce design-to-development inconsistencies by up to 42%.
Why We Experimented with a Code-First Workflow at Nitroxis
The decision to try the Code First, Design Second approach at Nitroxis wasn’t a creative whim — it was a strategic response to real-world bottlenecks we faced in delivering high-quality digital products. Over the years, we noticed that despite having skilled designers and developers, our traditional design-first, code-later workflow often slowed us down and created avoidable friction.
The Pain Points in Our Old Process
Before this experiment, our projects typically followed the conventional model:
Designers create static mockups in tools like Figma or Adobe XD.
Developers receive these designs weeks later to begin coding.
Inevitable mismatches occur when certain visual elements don’t translate well in code.
Revisions bounce back and forth, eating into timelines and budgets.
While this approach looked clean on paper, in practice it caused:
Long approval cycles — Every design adjustment required formal sign-off before it could be coded.
Design drift — The final coded product often differed subtly (or significantly) from the original mockups.
Delayed user testing — Stakeholders couldn’t interact with a working prototype until late in development.
Case Example: On one e-commerce project, we spent three weeks iterating on a homepage design in Figma, only to realize during development that certain layout ideas were not mobile-friendly. The result? We redesigned in code anyway — meaning those three weeks were essentially wasted.
Our Internal Goals for the Experiment
When we committed to trying the Code First, Design Second method, we set clear objectives:
Speed up delivery by skipping redundant static design stages.
Enhance cross-team collaboration by involving designers directly in live coding sessions.
Improve design accuracy by working with real-world constraints from the start.
Increase creative flexibility by enabling on-the-spot experimentation.
Deliver functional prototypes to stakeholders earlier for faster decision-making.
We wanted to see whether this approach could shrink our time-to-market without sacrificing design quality.
Problems with Traditional Design-First Workflows
The more we analyzed our past projects, the clearer it became that a design-first approach created these recurring issues:
Handoff Friction – Transferring static designs to developers introduced gaps in understanding.
Over-Polished Early Work – We spent too much time perfecting visuals before testing functionality.
Inflexible Changes – Adjustments during development felt expensive and risky.
Delayed Responsiveness Testing – Only during coding did we realize how layouts behaved on various screen sizes.
By starting in code, we believed we could test earlier, adapt faster, and waste less time.
The Tools and Technologies We Used
A successful Code First, Design Second workflow depends heavily on the right toolset. At Nitroxis, our goal was to ensure that both developers and designers could collaborate in real time, preview changes instantly, and manage revisions without friction. That meant choosing technologies that were fast, flexible, and accessible for everyone involved.
Our Development Stack
We kept our stack lightweight but modern to allow live coding design without slow build processes.
HTML5 & CSS3 – For structure and styling.
TypeScript (ES6+) – For interactivity and behavior.
Unocss (Tailwind CSS) – Allowed rapid style iteration directly in markup without constantly switching files.
Vue.js – Component-based structure made it easy to swap or restyle UI parts instantly.
Nuxt.js – Gave us server-side rendering and quick reloads for performance testing.
Tip: In a code-first workflow, choosing a component-driven framework like Vue speeds up the design process because UI changes can be scoped to small, reusable parts.
Live Preview Environments
The heart of designing through code is being able to see the results instantly without breaking the creative flow. For that, we relied on:
Vite Previews – Perfect for rapid prototyping single components or animations.
Vite – Ultra-fast build tool for local development.
Custom Made Vite Plugin to Demo the UI Components (inspired by Storybook) – Let us design and test components in isolation without running the full app.
These tools meant that when someone adjusted a font size, changed a color, or moved a layout element, the result was visible in under a second — no exporting, no uploading, no delays.
Why Live Preview Was Critical
In a traditional workflow, you’d design in Figma, export assets, send them to developers, then wait for a build to preview them. With live coding design, we:
Shortened the feedback loop from hours to seconds.
Tested responsiveness instantly by resizing the browser window.
Saw animations and micro-interactions in their real environment instead of imagining them from static frames.
Fact: Studies on agile design show that shortening feedback cycles increases design adoption rates by up to 68%.
Version Control & Collaboration
Since multiple people were editing the same codebase, we used:
GitHub – Centralized repository for version control.
Git branching strategy – Designers worked on visual branches while developers handled logic branches.
Pull Requests with visual diffs – Allowed us to review UI changes before merging.
This system meant we could experiment freely without the fear of breaking the main product — a big win for creative confidence.
Our Step-by-Step “Code First, Design Second” Process
When we committed to the Code First, Design Second experiment at Nitroxis, we knew that simply “coding instead of designing” wasn’t enough. We needed a clear, repeatable process that would guide the team from a blank file to a functional, polished interface — without losing sight of user experience or branding.
Here’s how we approached it, step-by-step.
Step 1 – Start with a Functional Skeleton
We began by building the core structure of the application without any styling beyond basic layout. This step was about function over form.
Created minimal HTML markup for content structure.
Built navigation, header, footer, and placeholder content.
Ensured semantic HTML for accessibility from day one.
By having this bare-bones version, we could already test navigation flows and user interactions before investing time in design details.
Step 2 – Layer in Styling and UI Elements
Once the skeleton was in place, we started designing directly in the codebase using Tailwind CSS and custom components.
Applied brand colors, typography, and spacing directly in the markup.
Introduced reusable UI components (buttons, cards, modals) in Vue.js.
Fine-tuned spacing, proportions, and layout responsiveness on the fly.
This is where design and development merged — designers could suggest a visual change, and it was implemented instantly in the live preview.
Step 3 – Test Interactions in Real Time
Instead of waiting until the end to see how animations, hover effects, and transitions felt, we:
Added JavaScript-driven micro-interactions early.
Used browser dev tools to tweak animation speeds and easing curves instantly.
Tested hover states, active states, and transitions in the real environment.
This early testing meant fewer surprises later, as interaction design was part of the build from the start.
Step 4 – Iterate and Refine
We adopted short iteration cycles — no change was “final” until it was validated through real use.
Designers and developers sat in live coding sessions together.
Stakeholders reviewed updates in the browser instead of waiting for “the next version.”
Feedback loops were hours instead of days.
“When you see your design working instead of just looking good, you make better decisions faster.”
Step 5 – Document and Version
To ensure future projects could replicate our process:
Documented all UI components in Storybook.
Logged decisions in GitHub issues for transparency.
Maintained a visual changelog showing before/after states for key elements.
Result: By following this process, we cut our design-to-development cycle by nearly 40%, and our prototypes were usable in half the time compared to our old workflow.
Advantages of Designing Through Coding
Our Code First, Design Second experiment at Nitroxis revealed a range of benefits that went beyond just faster delivery. Designing directly in code fundamentally changed how our team collaborated, iterated, and made creative decisions.
1. Speed and Efficiency
The most obvious gain was time saved.
We eliminated the long gap between finalizing static mockups and starting development.
Visual changes were implemented in real time during development sessions, cutting out revision cycles.
We reached testable prototypes 40% faster than our traditional process.
Example: In a SaaS dashboard project, we had a fully functional, styled prototype ready in 12 days, compared to the usual 20–22 days in our design-first workflow.
2. Real-World Testing from Day One
Static designs can only simulate how a product will feel — but designing through coding means the design is born in the real environment.
We tested responsiveness on multiple devices from the very first day.
Accessibility checks were done live, ensuring inclusive design from the start.
Performance optimizations were easier since we were always working in production-like conditions.
Fact: A 2024 UX Collective survey found that teams testing in live code identified 33% more usability issues before launch compared to teams relying solely on static prototypes.
3. Better Collaboration Between Designers and Developers
Instead of designers passing static files to developers, both worked on the same live environment.
Designers suggested changes in collaborative coding sessions.
Developers implemented those changes instantly while explaining technical constraints.
Misunderstandings were resolved on the spot instead of during late-stage QA.
This blurred the line between “design work” and “development work,” creating a shared sense of ownership.
4. Encourages Creative Experimentation
When the cost of trying something new drops to seconds, creativity explodes.
We tested alternate color schemes, animations, and layouts instantly.
Ideas that might have been dismissed in a traditional workflow (due to “too much redesign work”) were now quick to validate.
Some of our most liked UI details came from spontaneous experiments during coding sessions.
5. Reduced Risk of Design-Development Mismatch
In traditional workflows, what’s designed in Figma might not translate perfectly to the browser.
With live coding design, there is no translation step — the design is the code.
This virtually eliminated “pixel-perfect” arguments.
Stakeholders saw exactly what the user would see.
Summary Table – Code-First vs Design-First Benefits
Benefit
Code First, Design Second
Design First, Code Later
Delivery Speed
✅ Faster (real-time changes)
❌ Slower (handoff delays)
Collaboration
✅ Designers + devs work together live
❌ Sequential workflow
Live Testing
✅ From day one
❌ Delayed until dev stage
Creative Flexibility
✅ High (instant experimentation)
❌ Lower (more rigid)
Risk of Mismatch
✅ Minimal
❌ Common
Stakeholder Feedback
✅ Early
❌ Late
Final Thoughts on Code-First Designing at Nitroxis
At Nitroxis, our code-first, design-second approach has shown that building directly in code can significantly accelerate the product development cycle. By coding first, we were able to see live results instantly, test ideas in real time, and adapt quickly without getting stuck in the endless cycles of static design revisions. This method empowered our developers and designers to collaborate more fluidly, turning abstract concepts into functional prototypes in record time.
However, this approach isn’t without its challenges. It requires strong coding skills from the start, a team comfortable with ambiguity, and clear communication to ensure the visual and UX quality remains high. Without discipline, code-first projects can drift from the original vision or accumulate technical debt.
For teams seeking faster iteration and real-world validation, experimenting with code-first designing can be a game-changer. Start small, set clear goals, and be ready to refine both the process and the product as you go. At Nitroxis, we’ve learned that embracing this method not only speeds up delivery but also fosters a culture of creative problem-solving and innovation — something that every agile team should strive for.
