New to HE, so this may have been asked before. Is there a github repo or folder to ssh into to make some changes to the look of the backend UI? I get that the focus here has been on making things work, but its.... pretty bad.
I'd like to see the option to at least theme what is there now is CSS overrides to fix the obvious things. A spot to write custom js would be nice too to do things like simple animations and control some of the default behaviors.
Nope, what you see is what you get.
Bummer - would have been nice to be able to develop the UI
I'm just curious what you think it would be to "fix the obvious things," and I'm also curious if you've seen the v1 UI (which I actually didn't mind) and if you're talking desktop or mobile. I don't find it that bad. 
If you happen to be talking specifically about custom apps, you can indeed use custom HTML in those, but various sections of your app UI will get converted to HTML, including heading elements and whatnot, so it's best to stick to simple formatting in my opinion so as to not disrupt those--but aside from certain custom apps like Advanced Button Controller that (IMHO) do it well, I think I'd rather see the Hubitat default on most. (It would definitely be nice if Hubitat styled some of these differently, though--why is a section heading smaller and not more prominent, perhaps bolder, than paragraph text within that section?)
For the rest of the admin UI itself, some if it was inspired by the ST styles, likely either using the same JavaScript library/framework or one they customized to strongly emulate it. This changed a bit with v2, but parts of it are still quite reminiscent. I probably don't mind it as much since I was already familiar with it.
In any case, the ideal situation is one in which you aren't in the Hubitat UI every day. Their focus is, after all, on automation, and so after you get things set up, you shouldn't need to use it except to add/remove devices or modify these automations. (I keep telling that to myself and yet I'm also in it every day trying to perfect something I think I can do better...)
If you do need manual device control, the admin UI certainly isn't the best place to do that--it doesn't try to do much to make it friendly and just exposes you the functions and attributes of the device driver. Hubitat Dashboard was created for that purpose; unfortunately, it requires some manual setup (i.e., you need to create the dashboard and there is no default "everything Dashboard" you can just have created and modify to suit your needs). Adding to this unfortunate situation is that the Dashboard feature is, in my opinion, the part of Hubitat's UI most in need of UI improvements, but you can at least customize some things (colors, backgrounds, etc.) to make it look better to you.
I suppose when I say obvious I mean things like:
Tables having almost no formatting. Large lists look quite odd when some list items have children (like the rule machine).
Editing devices looks pretty bad. If a lock has 4 codes that you can already read, that should be a clickable list or a drop-down. Telling the user to pick an ID is silly.
Pressing buttons don't always indicate it's done anything. Trying to delete a lock code shows no indication anything is happening. To the average user, this is broken.
Temps on everything don't list of it's F or C and the readout is pretty much unformatted text in a blob.
The Dashboards aren't very good looking. From the way the toggles and sliders work down to the base theme. This leaves quite a bit to be desired.
I completely understand that this is supposed to be a set and forget kind of thing. But I think it's safe to say a large number of us like to tinker, which is why we're here.
Overall, the UI looks very incomplete to the point where it comes across as an open beta. I spent quite a bit of time reading logs to see if anything was actually happening. I applaud the effort made pushing functionality. Unfortunately, it's come at the cost of a user friendly UI.
There will be a time where HE will need to take more seriously UX if they want to gain adoptation. We had discussed this in the Foruns before.
I personally believe we are not there yet. They still have more critical stuff to fix/add/improve.
However I do agree that they need to take more attention in actions generating responses. If an action generates another action, there needs to a feedback response that acknowledges the outputs of the action.
I wasted almost 3h today until I realized that I had created n amounts of tiles on the Dashboard, when I thought they were not created. All of this because strangely on a custom grid the add tile function can place a tile out of view.
The Android/IOS is "coming soon". We will soon spend even less time on the UI. I agree with your points above but I also want to load the page quick as well.
this
I now make it a habit to keep the live logging window open anything I have to do anything. Between the Zigbee issues and the fact that the UI does not provide feedback to a click, I find the only way to get that feedback, especially when things don't always happen reliably, is to watch the live log.
Agreed. Watching a live log isn't really an option for most users since that isn't exactly nice to look at either. I'm a developer, so I love the hell out of verbose logging. But I wouldn't turn this over to my dad to set up on his own.
Navat604,
To your point about load times, adding to the UI framework wouldn't really increase load times in any appreciable way. Most modern frameworks even remove dependencies you're not using.
Also, this is local. So it'll be pretty snappy no matter what.
Curious, is this how you think we should be spending our engineering resources?
No. Which is why in the first post I asked if I could do it.
Send me a PM if you are serious about working on UI implementation.
This is a true example of what i mention the other day about bringing the community to support development on bottom of the line priorities.
@cjackson234 as a member of the community I truly appreciate your willingness to help develop HE 
UI developer over here.. very new to Hubitat (just got it today!) but am very interested in working on UI as I feel most products out there dont give the UI enough love.. let me know how
I would agree that the UI across the board is pretty terrible. It is clearly an after thought.
Dashboards are a real joke when you have a Hue multicolored light bulb. You have to tap on the bulb to open a second screen and then you have to tap on this ugly light bulb icon to turn the light on or off.
I realize that if you have automated things enough, you don’t really use the UI much. But it seems the most straightforward way to edit rules and device states is with a json object and a rest api call. I’m planning to do a simple web page with buttons for my husband to trigger lights so I don’t have to monkey with this Dashboard.
Don’t get me wrong — I’m pleased with the HE. It gives me a reliable zwave and hue controller on my local network. But it is not “batteries included” and will take several weeks to get this thing to behave like Smartthings did before they rolled out their abomination of an upgrade.
Yeah. I agree with that statement.
I know all users want different things, but for me, if I have to go to the UI to check/do something then my automations are not working as they should.
So for me, the dashboard is not that important.
Glad we are not all the same though. What a boring world that would be.
I've never been able to get anyone in my family to be interested in ANY UI, ever. They are happy that it just works, or to turn on switches. If there's a requirement to go onto a phone/tablet it just won't be done around here. 
There's only one person who's ever looked at a dashboard in this home... me. Couldn't interest them in StaplesConnect, SmartThings or Hubitat. Equal opportunity ignoring. 
If there's only ONE person using a dashboard, how much effort do I need to invest?
If HE is to attract new home automation enthusiasts and not just the power users or ex-ST/Wink/HA then an a more newbie friendly UI is a plus.
Regarding my griping about UI, I promise I treat all software equally unfairly.
I think using the Microsoft Adaptive Card UI framework would be a good way to create better UI tiles that can be used in several places. You could present a card for a Hue bulb to turn on a light with a “more” button that would engage the light and pop up another card to change color. These cards could be used in. Native iOS app, or Outlook, or in a bot framework.
https://adaptivecards.io/designer/
Since HE has a nice Maker API, this could be a useful way of getting a professional UI up quickly as it’s easy to engage REST api calls from these Adaptive Ui cards.
Download the Hubitat app
