Starting a FlutterFlow project – first steps: UI kit

Introduction

You’ve just opened FlutterFlow and are eager to create your first app. But where do you start? The journey can be overwhelming with so many components and options available. Don’t worry, we’re here to help!

In this beginner-friendly guide, we’ll walk you through the essential first steps of setting up your FlutterFlow project using our professionalUI Kit. This kit is designed to make your app development process smoother and more cohesive, ensuring that your UI elements are consistent and visually appealing.

Why start with a UI kit?

The first thing you’ll need for your app is a solid UI kit. A UI kit is a collection of pre-designed elements like buttons, text fields, dropdowns, and more, all styled to create a harmonious look and feel across your app. By using a UI kit, you ensure that all components in your app are in sync, with matching colors, borders, patterns, and text styles. This makes your app look so much more professional!

What’s inside a UI kit?

UI kits include a variety of elements that you’ll use throughout your app’s development process. Usually they have: 

1. Buttons
2. Containers
3. Text sizes
4. Choice chips
5. Dropdowns
6. Text fields
7. Main icons
8. Radio buttons
9. Bottom sheets
10. Custom chips

UI kits can contain much more (calendars, tabbars, pages, etc.) but they are app specific. The 10 mentioned above are needed for every single app, no matter what the use-case is!

Getting started with your UI kit

We have created a professional UI kit that you can get for free here. We use this UI kit in several of our productions apps and the user feedback has been amazing.

However, if you want to try build your own, let’s dive into how you can start creating a UI kit in your FlutterFlow project.

Step 1: Understanding the FF Theme settings

In the left sidebar of the FF app, you can find your Theme settings. Here you can manage colors, typography, icons, design & (most importantly for this guide) theme widgets. In the theme widgets section, you can create designs that will be used throughout your app. This is where you start. It looks like this:

Now when we create a widget in here (by pressing on the Create Widget button), we select the widget we want (let's say Button) and we can modify its settings:

And now when we change those settings, all buttons on the whole app that have that theme applied will be changed! This makes sure that all your widgets are in sync. 

Step 2: Create all ten theme widgets

Now it’s time to create the ten theme widgets for your app. Don’t forget, you can just get our UI kit for free here.

Every app is unique, so you want to make the UI kit to fit your project’s needs perfectly. Adjust the colors, fonts, and other styles to match your brand’s identity. FlutterFlow makes it easy to customize these elements without needing deep design skills.

Creating a bottom sheet & custom chips for a UI kit is part of the components, not the theme settings. So for these, you need to create some components.

Step 3: Using UI elements in your app

Now whenever you need to use any of the ten elements mentioned above, always use one from your UI kit. This way, even if half a year from now you hate your design, you can easily change it in a matter of minutes, not weeks!

Why consistency matters

Consistency in design is crucial for a professional-looking app. It enhances user experience by making the app intuitive and easy to navigate. With a well-built UI kit, you can ensure that every element of your app looks and feels like it belongs together. Imagine yourself using an app where sometimes the page title is bold and sometimes it isn’t, or where sometimes a pop-up comes with a filled button and sometimes with an empty button, and so on…

Conclusion

Starting your FlutterFlow project with a UI kit is a smart move.It saves you time and effort while providing a solid foundation for a visually appealing and cohesive app. Whether you’re creating buttons, text fields, or dropdowns, having a consistent style will elevate your app’s user experience.

Our “Professional UI kit”

You can use our Professional UI Kit for free and start building beautiful apps today. We also give some nice extras in there like custom selectable chips & a custom dialog for informative messages.