Shatsen UI is an amazing component

library, but if your app is starting to

look exactly the same like many other

apps out there, here's exactly why. It's

not because Shatsen is bad. It's really

not. It's because you're probably using

it the wrong way. And honestly, we've

seen this pattern before. It happened

with Bootstrap that you could instantly

spot a Bootstrap site. Then it happened

with Tailwind. Even today, a lot of

sites look exactly like Tailwind. Now,

Shhatsen is meant to be different. It's

meant to be customizable. It's meant to

help you build your own design system.

And yet a lot of shadian apps end up

looking exactly the same. After seeing

this pattern repeatedly, I've come to

realize that there are a few common

mistakes that a lot of you are making.

In case you're wondering, yes, I did

take a look at the latest Shad CN UI

update and these mistakes are still

applicable because they're not just

about features or tools, but they're

something more fundamental. So, if you

want your Shad CN UI app to look

beautiful and not boring, then keep

watching. Hey, my name is Ankita. I

teach concepts around web development,

AI, and SAS by building real projects

and focusing on practical decisions that

truly matter in production. I'm also

creating a video every single day until

Christmas. If there's a topic that

you're interested in, then definitely

comment below and let me know. I may

create a video on that. So, let's dive

in. The real mistake isn't the lack of

customization, it's delayed

customization. Your app has started to

look generic because you did not think

about customizing it at all. Now for

example the latest update of SHTN UI is

amazing. It exactly fixes this problem.

A lot of the shaden UI applications end

up looking the same. So with the latest

update you could simply create a new

project and then here you can build your

own shaden UI. You could pick a specific

preset that immediately changes what

component library you're going to use,

what style you're going to use, base

color, theme, icon libraries, fonts, and

so on. Now, this is intentionally done.

So, you could tweak the shadi component

library in your projects because the

challenge is that a lot of developers

just go with the defaults and never

change. As a result, our apps are

looking shateni. Now again, Shotsen is a

beautiful component library. So your

basic applications are also going to

look pretty good from the get- go.

However, if you want to stand out, you

want to create some sort of a brand,

going with the defaults isn't going to

cut it, which is why this specific

update really helps. However, that's not

all though. Here again, you're picking

the same some defaults. We're picking

the component library. We are picking

some style, icon library, radius, menu

color, and so on. However, the problem

still remains the same. Slowly people

are just going to adopt these common

customizations and suddenly your app is

going to look exactly the same just like

many other apps. So what are you going

to do then? Well, the minute you decide

what theme you want, colors you want and

so on. So once you set these defaults,

make sure you assess your entire

application and exactly how you want to

customize it. Instead of waiting later

and like maybe I'll customize it later

or pushing the decisions to tomorrow,

decide right now how exactly your your

app should look like. For example, pick

how you how you want your borders to

look like, what colors you want to go

for, what theme overall theme of your

application should be, the fonts in your

application, how would the different

headings look like, and so on. The way

chassen UI works is that once you

basically pick whatever theme you want,

it's going to add this to the URL, you

can just press create project, and now

you could simply create a project with a

specific preset. Now I have gone ahead

and created a project with a specific

preset for example. And if you go to

globals.css and this is an XJS project.

Now it has created all these different

CSS variables with different colors here

automatically because I chose lime as a

color. A lot of developers make a

mistake that they don't change these

values at all. So the key thing here is

decide early. Don't wait to theme later.

Decide early on what the overall theme

of your application is going to look

like. Be it icons, colors, border

radius, and spacing, spacing between

elements, and so on. All of these truly

matter. Now, I cannot believe that this

is something that a lot of developers

do. They end up copy pasting the

components with the shaden create

command or shaden add command to add the

components and after that they forget

about it. They don't update it. Even if

there might be a latest update in the

chat component ecosystem, they have no

idea about it. So you needed to treat

components as your source code, not just

simply snippets. You could use this

command npx shad cn at latest add all

override to override all the components

and update them and grab the latest from

shad cn registry. And this is a very

handy command and this is the best way

you can update them. You don't need to

copy paste them every single time.

That's very tedious. And in case you

just want to update one component, not

all of them. Then you could simply just

do shaden latest add card override. And

as you do, it's only going to update

that specific component. As you can see,

these are the changes here in the

background. And I'm saving it because

Shadian uses double quotes and I use

single quotes and my editor

automatically formatted it. But now you

can already see the types have changed.

It's no longer an H3. It is in fact div.

Similarly, it's no longer a P tag. It's

in fact a div. And obviously based on

the semantics of your application, this

could vary. So if you want to still keep

as a P, you could do so. But at least

you know that's a documented change and

that's how you want to build your

application. That's how you want to

build your car. Now this is the biggest

one. Many people customize chats by

adding random class name everywhere.

Let's say you want a different variant

of a button and the default variance

that chats UI gives you is not

available. Now instead what they would

do is go here type equals button and now

add a class name W full change the bg

color to be amber all of a sudden and so

on. Now, this is a huge problem because

now you're creating these one-off

components. And if you want your primary

button to change, then change it

globally. Don't just create these

one-off changes. And if you think that

you need a brand new variant, instead of

adding a class name and overriding it

like this, go to button. There are all

these variants that are displayed here.

There's a default variant, secondary,

destructive, and a link. And if you want

some other variant like custom, although

custom is not a good name, let's say a

tertiary variant that you could just

simply add that and create a different

background here or whatever you want to

provide. And then once you add this,

pick that as a variant here because now

this will be available for you and you

could use it globally everywhere versus

these one-off changes because that's on

a design system that's exceptions that

you're creating. Real customizations do

happen globally and spacing scale,

typography rhythm, different variants

add to that specific design system. If

every screen needs a one-off fix, you

don't have a system, it's going to be

super chaotic and your app is going to

start to look ugly or different. So most

app looks the same because they breed

the same. And exactly why if you want to

stick to a specific way you want to

design it, do it globally as well. Now

the new shad CN flow absolutely helps

and you can create a project you can

have different customization it does

remove a ton of friction but if you stop

there your app is still going to look

very familiar the fix isn't more

customization it's intentional imbalance

so you could for example fix spacing

typography and even how users interact

with your application and push it harder

than the defaults That's how your

application is going to stop feeling

more shad. And the most underrated

technique is the density and spacing.

Most shad and UI have the same padding,

same card spacing, the same rhythm. They

literally breathe the same way. So

instead of tweaking components later,

decide early is this app going to be

compact or it's in fact going to be more

spacious. for example, and then

accordingly adjust your spacing skills

globally. Make lists more tighter, make

layouts more denser, or intentionally

make everything more airy, for example.

And when it comes to typography, it's

not just about the font choice. Yes,

most you can change the font choice and

font choice will allow you to make the

app look a lot different because fonts

are incredibly important. However,

[snorts] it's not just about the fonts.

If you want your UI to look different,

you have to increase the contrast

between headings, the labels. Be

intentional about the line height and

the tracking in your application.

Changing the font is not going to just

simply change the hierarchy because it's

going to be cosmetic. Now, another thing

is how a user interacts with the

application. And this is something that

no one touches it because the shads and

defaults are quite polite. They have

like subtle hover states. For example,

as you can see here, the same

transitions. That's fine if you want

everything to look familiar, but two

apps can look identical until you

interact with them. So, you could make

your interactions more snappier, for

example. So, interactions could be

something you could handle. So, you

could make them more snappier. You could

have stronger hover states. So, you

could have like more of a bump. As you

can see the hover states of my two

buttons for my model for stack nextjs

course. I have in fact tweaked the

shadow here and so on. So it doesn't

look like a shatzen UI application even

though I am using shatz and UI component

library. But you could also make more

deliberate motion decisions. For

example, as you can see how the app

flows from section to section. It

completely changes how our app feels

without changing the layout at all. And

that's where also this flow can actually

fit in. So chassis and UI component

library gets you 80% of the way there by

forcing early decisions around fonts,

radius, spacing, and theme. That part is

great. But the last 20% the part that

you that will make your app unique is

exactly how you tweak these defaults as

well. So if you keep tweaking these

defaults, that's exactly how your SHA CN

app stops to look like when you shhat

CNA and it's also stops to look super

boring. It is more intentional and it is

more snappy as you can see here with

these cards too. If you take a look,

this is a card component from Shadzen UI

for instance, but the interaction here

is making it look more snappier than

before. Now, [snorts] shotsen won't

exactly same your UIs. It will only

expose how you make your decisions and

will give you strong defaults. So, you

get 80% of the way there. But if you

want to avoid making like generic sites

like Bootstrap or classic Telvin CSS,

then you should to truly customize it

and use some of the tips that I have

explained in this specific video. Now,

if this was useful, I'm posting a video

every day and Christmas. So make sure to

subscribe, hit the like button and

comment below and let me know or what

type of content I should create next.

Now having said that as next steps if

you are interested in leveling up your

next skills then definitely check out

this specific nextJS 16 crash course.

It's a 5-hour long course that teaches

you by building cuz that's the theme on

this specific YouTube channel where we

go through building a app like Product

Hunt and I also teach you all the things

you need to know about Nex.js.

Definitely check that out if you're

interested. I'll see you in the next

one. I for