improving-streamlit-design

Streamlit visual design

Small touches that make apps feel polished.

Related skills: Visual design works hand-in-hand with other skills:

• choosing-streamlit-selection-widgets → Choosing the right widget (segmented control, pills, toggle)
• displaying-streamlit-data → Column config, sparklines, bordered metrics
• using-streamlit-layouts → Containers, alignment, dashboard cards

Page config

Set browser tab title, icon, and layout. Place this at the top of your script to avoid visual blinking:

st.set_page_config(
    page_title="My Dashboard",
    page_icon=":material/analytics:",
    layout="wide",  # Use "wide" for dashboards with lots of data
)

Layout options:

• layout="centered" (default) → Best for most apps, content is constrained to a readable width
• layout="wide" → Full-width, good for dashboards and data-heavy apps

App logo

Add a logo to the sidebar/header:

st.logo("logo.png")

Icons over emojis

Use Material icons for a cleaner, more professional look.

# GOOD: Material icons
st.markdown(":material/settings:")
st.markdown(":material/calendar_today:")
st.markdown(":material/dashboard:")
st.markdown(":material/person:")

# SPARINGLY: Emojis for special occasions
st.markdown("Celebration! 🎉")

Format: :material/icon_name:

Find icons: https://fonts.google.com/icons

Popular icons by category:

Badges for status

For standalone badges:

st.badge("Active", icon=":material/check:", color="green")
st.badge("Pending", icon=":material/schedule:", color="orange")
st.badge("Deprecated", color="red")

For inline badges in text:

st.markdown("""
:green-badge[Active] :orange-badge[Pending] :red-badge[Deprecated] :blue-badge[New]
""")

Avoid the old verbose syntax:

# OLD (still works but cluttered)
st.markdown(":orange-background[:orange[Pending]]")

Spacing: remove dividers

Dividers (st.divider() or ---) look heavy. Just remove them—Streamlit's default spacing is usually enough.

# BAD
st.header("Section 1")
st.write("Content")
st.divider()  # Too heavy
st.header("Section 2")

# GOOD
st.header("Section 1")
st.write("Content")
st.header("Section 2")

If you genuinely need spacing:

st.space("small")   # Small gap
st.space("medium")  # Medium gap
st.space("large")   # Large gap
st.space(50)        # Custom pixels for fine-tuning

Don't systematically replace dividers with st.space()—it can look weird too.

Sentence casing

Use sentence casing for titles and labels. Title Case Feels Shouty.

# GOOD
st.title("Upload your data")
st.selectbox("Select a region", options)
st.button("Save changes")

# BAD
st.title("Upload Your Data")
st.selectbox("Select A Region", options)

Caption over info

st.info() is too heavy for simple informational text.

# GOOD: Lighter
st.caption("Data last updated 5 minutes ago")

# BAD: Too heavy
st.info("Data last updated 5 minutes ago")

When to use what:

• st.caption → Simple info, metadata, timestamps
• st.info → Important instructions
• st.warning → Caution, potential issues
• st.error → Errors that block progress
• st.success → Confirmation of action
• st.toast → Lightweight confirmation that auto-dismisses

Text alignment

Use text_alignment for text elements:

st.title("Centered title", text_alignment="center")
st.write("Right aligned", text_alignment="right")
st.caption("Justified text", text_alignment="justify")

Options: "left" (default), "center", "right", "justify"

Note: horizontal_alignment on containers positions elements but also sets their text_alignment. If you need different text alignment within a horizontally-aligned container, override text_alignment on the text element itself.

Icons in callouts and expanders

Material icons can make callouts and expanders look nicer:

st.info("Processing complete", icon=":material/check_circle:")
st.warning("Rate limit approaching", icon=":material/warning:")
st.error("Connection failed", icon=":material/error:")
st.success("Saved!", icon=":material/thumb_up:")

with st.expander("Settings", icon=":material/settings:"):
    st.write("Configure your preferences")

Other elements like st.button and st.tabs also support icons—worth considering when it adds clarity.

References

• st.set_page_config
• st.logo
• st.badge
• st.space
• st.markdown
• st.toast