This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by David Ocean
When you visit a website, you don’t immediately think, “Wow, they used good spacing and font choices!”
But you feel it.
You know when something looks clean, readable, and professional… and you definitely know when it doesn’t.
Today, we’re digging into the things that quietly make a massive difference:
Good typography
Smart color usage
Consistent theming with CSS variables
And even a little bit of magic with dark mode and SCSS
You don’t need to figure it all out manually.
A few CSS basics and a little help from AI can make it so much easier to nail that polished look.
Setting up color themes the smart way with CSS variables
If you’ve ever updated the color of a website manually line by painful line you know how annoying it can be.
This is why CSS variables are a game-changer.
They let you define a color once, and then reuse it everywhere.
Step 1: Define your variables at the top:
:root {
- primary-color: #2c3e50;
- secondary-color: #18bc9c;
- accent-color: #f39c12;
}
Step 2: Use them wherever you want:
body {
background: var( - primary-color);
color: var( - secondary-color);
}
button {
background: var( - accent-color);
}
If picking color palettes stresses you out, just prompt AI:
“Suggest a primary, secondary, and accent color combination for a modern website.”
You’ll get color combos ready to test. No more getting stuck picking between 300 shades of blue.
Light mode vs Dark mode: Why you should care
Dark mode isn’t just a trendy thing designers are obsessed with.
It actually makes a real difference, especially for people browsing at night or on OLED screens.
Good dark mode does three big things:
Reduces eye strain
Saves battery on newer phones
Makes your design feel way more polished
And the best part of it is that you don’t have to rebuild everything to support it.
A basic media query can handle it:
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
body {
background: #121212;
color: #f5f5f5;
}
}
Your site automatically switches depending on the user’s system settings.
Not sure how to flip your color palette cleanly? Try asking AI:
“Show me a CSS setup that switches between light mode and dark mode automatically.”
Way easier than manually setting every single color twice.
Why SCSS makes styling (way) less painful
Once you start getting comfortable with regular CSS, you’ll probably hit a point where you think:
“There’s gotta be a faster way to write this.”
There is. It’s called SCSS (a fancier version of CSS).
Here’s what SCSS lets you do:
A few superpowers SCSS gives you:
Variables:
Just like CSS variables, but simpler with $.Nesting:
You can put your styles inside each other, matching your HTML structure.Mixins:
Reusable blocks of code. Kind of like tiny little functions for CSS.
$primary-color: #3498db;
body {
color: $primary-color;
}
.container {
@include flex-center;
}
You’ll need a little setup (like a SCSS compiler), but it’s worth it once your projects start growing.
New to SCSS?
Tell AI:
“Write a SCSS example using a variable, a nested selector, and a mixin for center alignment.”
It’ll provide you a full usable template you can start playing with.
Real ways this makes your site instantly better
Consistent colors across your entire site without manually fixing every page
Automatic light/dark mode for a better user experience
Cleaner, faster stylesheets (and less frustration) if you use SCSS
Easier updates when you want to tweak your theme later
It’s not about showing off but it’s about making your life easier and making your site way more polished without extra effort.
What’s next
That brings us to the end of this series HTML & CSS Course for Beginners
If you’ve followed along, you now know how to build and style a webpage from the ground up. You’ve picked up the essentials and seen how AI can help you go faster without skipping the learning.
The next step is simple: keep going. Build something small. Break it. Fix it. Try a few prompts, tweak the results, and trust what you’ve learned.
This article is a summary of ‘Master HTML & CSS Coding with AI: Revolutionize Your Learning’ by D-Libro — read the full version at https://d-libro.com/course/html-css-coding-with-ai/.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by David Ocean