Why React will make UI designers redundant... eventually

A thought occurred to me today as I was knee-deep in a Material UI codebase: For a lot of MVP's, hiring a visual designer is largely irrelevant now.

Bootstrap popularized the idea of prefabbed component sets, but using it relies heavily on a soup of CSS classes ugly HTML. Because of this, most Bootstrap codebases I've worked on turn into a confusing mess of CSS overrides. Gross.

React components eliminate that entropy. Instead of shipping a framework consisting of complex markup that only works when used a certain way, frameworks like Material UI are able to deliver visually challenged developers a framework for developing pleasant-looking interfaces with ease.

Obviously, great products require forward thinking visual design direction and the aid of a dedicated designer---especially in the consumer space. And someone needs to direct the user's experience regardless of the interface aesthetic.

But for delivering rapid value, interface componentization means we're able to develop fully-working, beautiful prototypes without full mockups.

The way I see it, this trend will continue. Component sets will mature, React will be replaced by another more powerful component-based library, and new methods for rapid UI prototyping will emerge.