Leah Thompson - UI details that connect - Laracon AU 2025

Leah Thompson from the Laravel DevRel team shows how to approach front-end development without fear by breaking designs into simple, repeatable steps. Through live demos of real Laravel sites, she demonstrates how spacing, typography, layering, and interaction can turn plain layouts into polished experiences. 📚 ## Chapters 01:05 Introduction to Leah and her role at Laravel 02:05 From maths teacher to front-end developer 03:10 Discovering Laravel through Laracon US and the community 04:40 Joining Laravel and shipping the Laracon US and Nightwatch sites 05:25 Feeling overwhelmed by designs and tight timelines 06:10 A step-by-step framework for building front ends 06:20 Step 1: spacing and padding for clarity and structure 06:45 Step 2: typography, fonts, weights, and hierarchy 07:10 Step 3: layering with shadows, gradients, and depth 07:25 Step 4: adding something fun or unexpected 07:40 Step 5: interaction and animation through subtle hovers 07:50 Live demo building the Laravel Blog homepage 12:30 Visual payoff from incremental improvements 14:20 Applying the same approach to the Forge marketing site 18:20 Shipping Laravel Learn and education-focused design 19:35 Building the new Forge marketing pages 24:20 Gradients, selection styling, and small delightful details https://x.com/leahtcodes https://bsky.app/profile/leaht.codes https://laracon.au