I have a problem. If its something new, I sign up for it or I want to buy it. There is something about the new big thing that just draws me to it.
Apparently, I signed up for an app called Marvel. It is an interactive prototyping web app. It is similar to Invsion and a few other floating around out there.
I got an email about a new Sketch plugin, so I had to try at least it out. Even though I have no prototypes ready for the app.
This has been something that I want to explore more. I like the idea of the views you mockup having something to interact with. It helps for me to be able to interact with my projects. That is why I think I like starting off in code so much.
The process to get your sketch files to the app was so simple with the Dropbox integration or the plugin right in Sketch. Marvel dedicated form my Sketch file that I was using an iPhone 6 art board and loaded my design in a lovely iPhone skin.
I will attach the art board that I did use. I think that I might try to design a few views of an app idea I have been kicking around the last weeks. But, enjoy this screenshot.
Over two weeks ago, I had a long talk with a friend. We touched on a number of topics but one thing really stuck out to me. He kept asking me “why didn’t you?” and “Why don’t you do that?”
I had nothing to say. I had no legitimate reasons for not at least trying to achieve some of those things I have always wanted to achieve. I made a blog in January of 2014. During the next 14 months, I posted exactly 2 articles. I wrote just about once a week. But, I never hit submit. I keep worrying about what would happen if someone found it. If you log into my godaddy account you will find a pile of unused domains for all of my ideas over the year. Some of them I even renew each year in hopes I get over the hump and do something about it.
What I learned over these few weeks was something really simple. The biggest hurdle was and will continue to be me.
This week I am going to shift things back to design and my struggles there. I want to spend more time learning all about Sketch and trying to prototype an idea I have been kicking around.
Web hosting is one of those areas that I just had to deal with. I have number of different projects scattered across the web on different services. My own shared hosted, Github Pages, Heroku, paperplane.io just to name of a few.
There is one thing that is common among all of them. There is either a key feature lacking, a speed issue or just a pain to manage.
I pay around 10 bucks a month for a hostgator basic storage package. I have had great luck with them but if I start to use to many resources you will see a performance hit. It is still a FTP workflow which was hard to work with still this morning.
After getting really annoyed by my git to ftp workflow. I found http://dploy.io/. This service is from the people who have brought you Beanstalk which was a git hosting and deployment app. This app is focused on deployment. It connected to my Github and gave it my hostgator credentials and set it up as a one click push to Github when I was ready to go with a deployment. It was the perfect piece to my workflow. I think it will be well worth the money just to have that extra hook in there for me. I know I can set this up manually but it is nice to be able to do this for my small number of projects and not have to worry about files and falling behind with my repos.
As I went to hit publish, I found this https://surge.sh/. According, to their site “Surge makes it easy for developers to deploy projects to a production-quality CDN through Grunt, Gulp, npm.” I think these two tools could really improve my workflow.
There is something that happens to me when I am facing with a tragedy. After everything settles down and the reality of the situation has hit me, I start thinking. It makes me take stock of almost everything. What Am I Doing? Should I be something? I kind of just want to Netflix. My head starts racing with all these questions and thoughts. I thought to write them down this time.
I want to keep my emotions low for this post. It is not worth it to be angry at your mom for forgetting the pizza bagels. It is not worth pausing your dreams for anything.
Sometimes I felt selfish that I was thinking like this during a time of mourning. But, these are the moments that shape us, no matter where the motivation and inspiration strike. We just have to follow it.
I want whoever reads this post to do one thing. Stop right now and think. What do I want to be remembered for? What is your legacy?
Let’s start something right here and right now. If you want to write, write every morning and post it somewhere. If you think its garbage, who cares? If you have some concerns about internet trolls, turn off your comments.
Want to be a great designer? Start a blog and once a month redesign a famous app and post your mockups.
Want to make music? Want to be a photographer?
We learn by teaching and sharing with others. We learn by doing a ton of stuff. We can all allow 30 minutes a day to our passion and for us. If you can’t do it every day, try once a week.
Let’s start and let’s start together, and share our work and encourage each other. This is the year of doing. This is the year you create that thing and leave your mark on the world. This is the year you quit your job and make apps for the Apple Watch. There is no better feeling in the world then when you hit submit.
We still have a lot of problems to solve. We need you.
Whatever machine I am working on I always have a regular install of Chrome and then a Canary build. You can install Canary alongside a regular Chrome build so there is almost no reason to not have it. The updates come fast and today I noticed a new tool in the dev tools.
I have been looking to find those CSS properties that are slowing coming into support but that I might not relay on just yet in a project. Lately, I have been focusing a lot on Sketch. I wanted to dig back into some CSS action. I actually found a place for flexbox in something I was coding today. It got me out of a jam . Mix Blend Mode allows you to control how content should blend with the content of the element that it sits on and the background. Below is a list of all the different values you can use.
I started daily blogging over 2 weeks ago. Today is day 16 and I struggled to come up with a topic. So, I do plan on trying to update this every day for as long as I can. I want to see how long of a streak I can go for. I also want to start working on some more in-depth material. I really enjoyed curating some of these posts and even some of the past few days link round ups. I think there is some value in those as well.
I use Chrome Devtools hours each day. The chrome team is always updating them and adding new stuff to make everything easier. Ever developer seems to have their own style and workflow in their setup. Every project I work on will equal significant time in devtools so know any shortcuts and speed tricks is essential.
Cmd + Click on CSS styles to find it in the original file
Podcasts are becoming an essential part of my day. I have a long list of things that I subscribe but below will be a list of podcasts that will help you on your journey of coding and building things.
Shop Talk – If you do any design or development work this is a must listen. Great guests and
Build & Launch – Weekly podcast focused on shipping small projects. A few things will happen after listening. You will immediately want to take one of your ideas and just start hacking on it and for some reason I have the urge to podcast after listening to this. Episodes are really short so you can
Developer Tea – For developers hosted by a developer. Host Jonathan Cutrell promises to keep these short and the topics are all very current
Today I got a wire frame on a napkin and was told to go build. I started going right into code and something felt wrong. I rushed into the project and didn’t really think about what we were trying to do.
I moved elements around and tweaked CSS and everything looked like shit and I had an ugly file and nothing I was happy with.
I opened up an account with uxpin and started laying out my ideas. Quickly the road blocks from my code went away. It’s important to have multiple ways to attack a project.
Sometimes it’s code or even just a piece of paper. It’s always nice to have a fallback when something is not working right. I think I will make sure to have a few prototyping methods
