Okay, so you decided it wouldn’t be boring and that I’m not big-headed in thinking that people might actually want to watch me coding, so I’m quite excited to announce that the build-along will be going ahead!
Entry is now closed. Thanks all who sent in a PSD, watch this space for a launch article.
Obviously there need to be some terms and conditions. Apologies if these seem a little harsh(ly worded) but they are as follows:
- PSDs only. Sorry, I don’t work with Fireworks enough to make me quick enough for this type of exercise.
- The PSD I choose is my choice. I am only doing one and it’ll most likely be one that’s fun but not mountains of work; I need to be able to do it in a night.
- CSS and HTML only. No Javascript as I don’t know Javascript; you would not want me even attempting it!
- The code I provide will be final. Progressive enhancement will be used, it won’t look the same in every browser, you won’t get to make any change requests or ask for bug fixes after the fact. Naturally I’m going to do a good job, you won’t end up with any messy code, but as this is entirely free I can’t take instruction.
- If you’re, for whatever reason, unhappy with the outcome I’m afraid you’re stuck with it… Whether the final page goes into production or not is entirely up to you.
- The PSD must be all above board; I won’t be building you a new adult dating site ;)
- This one is entirely your responsibility but I strongly advise you are fully transparent if your PSD will be sold on to a client. I have no qualms with you making a profit on my work but make sure your client is cool with it, especially when their site design will be being made totally public.
I’m keen to keep this as informal as possible, but the format will take:
- If you want me to build your PSD please email a full-size JPG of your design by Wednesday 2 November 2011 to harry at csswizardry dot com with the subject line Build-along. This subject line is vital as I’m going to set up a Gmail rule to group stuff. Any non-conforming emails might get overlooked.
- I’ll look at the JPGs and choose one to build. I’ll announce the person I choose in a blog post and also email them directly, at which point they reply with their actual PSD file. If your PSD didn’t get chosen then I will not email you I’m afraid; that’d take forever!
- The PSD must be properly constructed. I don’t want to be battling with any Layer 12 Copy 4 v2 stuff!
- Make sure you provide any font-files or Typekit etc information if your design uses them.
- I’m most likely going to be building the PSD on Friday 4 November 2011. The reason for this is that if it keeps me up into the early hours then I’d rather that was on a weekend rather than a work-night. This does mean that if you want to follow along then you’ll have to be in on a Friday evening, no pub!
- I’ll announce the URL in a blog post and Twitter, you can follow along live.
- The code will be getting committed to GitHub, too, so make sure you’re okay with that!
This all seems a bit formal, I realise, but it really won’t be. I just need to make sure I have all the stuff in the right place at the right time!
Pop any questions in the comments and I’ll update the post as necessary. Please hashtag any and all tweets about the event with #buildAlong.
So, in summary:
- Get a nice, neat, tidy PSD together.
- Send me a JPG of it as per the exact email rules.
- I’ll announce whose PSD I’ll be building in a blog post.
- Be around at about 7pm UTC (Dublin, Edinburgh, Lisbon, London) on Friday 4th November to watch along as I code.
- You will get a HTML/CSS single page template emailed back to you once it’s done.
Right, get emailing me!
Update
While there are loads of you interested in watching this event, no one has sent in a PSD. Not one! Mention this to friends, your boss, your designer, anyone. Without a PSD the build-along can’t run :(
By Harry Roberts on Thursday, October 27th, 2011 in Web Development. Tags: Build-along, CSS, HTML | 9 Comments »
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Harry Atkins said on 27 October, 2011 at 6:12 pm
THis sounds like a great idea! OIt will be interesting to watch the process and how you choose to code your pages : )
I’ll definitely be emailing a PSD.
Looking forward to it.
Zathrus Writer said on 27 October, 2011 at 9:06 pm
your idea inspired me to try it out as well sometime and even push it a little bit further… doing a real live streaming of my desktop as i code!
it seems to be even more interesting than just having to refresh the page every 5 minutes :-)
if you’d like to try that out, it’s quite simple actually… you only need to:
1. setup account at http://www.ustream.tv
2. use VH Screen Capture driver to capture your desktop to a webcam-like interface (which is streamable via ustream) – http://www.splitmedialabs.com/media-toolkits/vh-video-sdk/vh-screen-capture
3. download Adobe Flash Media Live Encoder to improve quality of the picture you will be sending to stream: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashmediaserver/flashmediaencoder/
… more info about how to use this is found directly on te ustream page when you click the “Go Live” button (there is a “higher quality” button on the page)
it’s amazing and people would probably love to actually SEE you coding :-)
Ryan Munger said on 27 October, 2011 at 11:02 pm
If you did a 9 hour screen cast of you coding out a site I would watch every second of it. Then, I would probably go back and watch it again.
Would you have any desire into capturing the process on video? If so, I would love for you to post it!
Denise said on 28 October, 2011 at 12:59 pm
Hey Harry, great idea, like the other 2 commenters, I would be interested in watching, capturing on video or streaming, if you can set it up. Otherwise will be refreshing on the night.
Roy said on 28 October, 2011 at 1:09 pm
Sounds like a really interesting idea. I just hope I can stay up long enough to watch the action.
Rijesh said on 28 October, 2011 at 2:01 pm
Hi Harry
This is indeed a nice initiative. It would be nice to watch someone do professional-quality work with best practices and learn something from it. Especially for newbies like me.
However, I live on the other side of the planet (India) and it might be difficult for me to follow your entire program live. It would be helpful if you could upload a recorded video of the build-along that people like me could download and watch at a convenient time.
Best of luck with this venture and hope to see more such stuff in future too :)
Kevin Marozas said on 1 November, 2011 at 2:25 pm
Our developer showed us this post and as a designer (who doesn’t code), asked us if we would be interested in participating as well. I am intrigued by the relationship between (old school graphic designer) and developer and want to learn better ways to communicate my “surface” design ideas into better photoshop files for my developer and easier code translation for him. We sent in a jpg, since no one else has.
Matt Ward said on 2 November, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Definitely a cool idea and if I still used Photoshop in that capacity, I might consider it! I’ve moved towards designing right in the browser though and am finding that I only turn to Photoshop to create individual graphical elements, not designing the entire site.
Hopefully you get some awesome PSDs soon though
Michael Keplinger said on 3 November, 2011 at 1:28 am
Hi Harry,
I submitted our site for your design. Hopefully we get picked.
Best, Michael