Lessons
Day 1
1Class Introduction
09:10 2The Design Flow Basics
18:27 3The Designer as Co-Creators
06:48 4Get to Know Your Material
17:07 5Responsive Vocab: Floats, Flows, & Images
11:58 6Mobile First: Working Small
09:46 7Future Friendly: Embrace Unpredictability
14:17Collaborating with Your Clients
13:52 9Prioritize Your Users
39:42 10Best Practices for Defining Success
08:58 11Intro to Scrum
04:24 12User Stories & Epics
35:53 13Content Basics
27:40 14Defining the Visual Language
22:31 15Starting with Type
35:31 16Starting with Grids
15:40 17Gutcheck & The Product Brief
22:03 18Working With Developers
12:33 19Communicating with Developers
16:25 20Finding a Common Language with Developers
06:28 21Code Literacy
04:37 22Sitemap & Wireframe Basics
33:48 23Prototyping Basics
12:02 24HTML Prototypes
13:28 25Code Literacy & Developer Tools
11:46 26Developer Lingo
07:23 27Interface Personality & Behavior Galleries
17:27 28Designing for Performance
18:19 29Progressive Enhancements
07:00 30Designing a System: Discovery to Pattern Library
12:25 31Workflow Examples
20:25 32Applying the Style Guide to the Pattern Library
09:08 33Alternative Workflow
23:04 34Alternative Workflow Part 2
21:52 35Tech Requirements
21:53 36Retrofitting an Existing Site
12:15 37Project Cupcake: Building a Site from Scratch
24:08Day 2
Lesson Info
The Designer as Co-Creators
So I just wanted to make a couple kind of quick final points before we move on. And these are the types of things that we want you guys to consider as you look at a lot of the stuff that we're gonna be talking about. Kind of keep these in the back of your minds. So the first is that if we think of the design process, the webdesign process. It's really kind of like this mobile. You kind of have all this stuff teetering and it's trying to kind of keep everything in balance. You know, we have budget and timeline, which are just these factors that are reality. You have kind of client expectations. They bring on their own expectations. They have their own goals, which could be business, creative, technology, content. You have your users. What are the user's needs? What are their wants? Can you support them and how do you prioritize them and how do you understand what they really are? And then of course, you have technology requirements and technology restrictions. You just have to be aware ...
of those. So if we kind of think of this as a way to frame everything you're doing, it creates a very kind of specific lens that you need to look through anything that you're designing and you can't just kind of keep it to yourself. One of the big things I think that's different between say webdesign is how we are co-creating. When I would do say a brochure for a client long ago or even a logo or something like that, it was a much more internal process. Now, of course, it involved the client and there was a lot of collaboration that would go back and forth, but the reality is that it was much more of this kind of little back and forth process and it didn't kind of represent the orchestration that happens in kind of experience when you are creating a website or an interactive experience. So it's much more kind of about this co-creation and what we wanna do is kind of show you how to make that happen. Now with that co-creation comes collaboration and so I think everything is really looking for ways to make it about collaboration and not documentation. And this also kind of represents that shift from waterfall where you really needed to document everything because you had to kind of get that final approval before it would go into that next phase and look for new ways just to have conversations with your client, to create dialogue. The product itself is the website. It's not gonna be these kind of fancy artifacts. And that very much leads to this thinking which is choose the right level of fidelity for the right type of communication. So often as a designer, I want to make things look good. But sometimes speed is more efficient than making it look good. And as a designer, that can be a really hard pill to swallow. But keep in mind that the end goal here is the website. It's not going to be all these beautiful artifacts that you're creating that are likely gonna be outdated very quickly. There's one thing that hopefully won't be out of date and that's gonna be what's in the browser. So the browser is the product. That's the canvas that we are essentially trying to build on top of. So no matter what kind of process you use, no matter what your skillset is, what we wanna make sure is that you guys internally are kind of looking for ways that you're comfortable with to get to a browser as quick as possible. Now for Jessie, that means something different than say the way I would do it. But we have the same type of goal, which is to kind of figure out how to get into the browser as quick as possible. And the other thing that's really important is we just wanna be clear that there's really no one way to do this. This is kind of like a couple of our ideas. This is how we work. This is how we've had success. You know, the tools, the technology, the techniques, they're all gonna evolve. They're all moving very fast. But that doesn't kind of mean that sets up this one kind of way that you have to do things. There's two kind of factors that are really important as to why there's no one way to do this. The first is gonna be your own team. What are their skillsets? How do you kind of work with each other to figure out? It's not like if you were to go to a company, everyone's gonna get fired because they saw some new speech that's some type of new way to work. Like let's get rid of our team and let's just start over. That's not gonna happen. The reality is, you're gonna have to work within the team and the skillset that you have. Of course that can evolve over time and that's something that I think as passionate people you're gonna look to do, but that doesn't mean that you don't have to kind of really consider that. And then the other side, of course, is just your clients. So your clients are gonna have their own culture. They're gonna have their own kind of process in the way they work. And so it's gonna be really important to understand what are their needs. It'd be one thing to say, you know what, we're just not gonna do Photoshop comps, as an example. But they may have a need for something like that. They may need to have some type of representation of the experience because they need to sell things up to their stakeholders. Your clients often have people above them that they need to kind of show what's going on and the progress that's being made. So you should always be trying to push them and educate them, but there is that balance between education and really understanding kind of their culture and their process so you can make sure you're setting them up for success, which is gonna set you up for success. I actually have a couple questions coming in from the chatroom and maybe you, Andy, can help me answer this. Does this class require any webdesign knowledge at all? Let's see, so I would say ideally you have a little bit. I think what we're gonna try to do is show you based on your knowledge as a designer, the types of things that you need to learn in order to kind of make sure that you're dovetailing with the right team. So you're not gonna need to learn how to code. That's gonna be kind of the big question and that'll be something that we'll address. We're not gonna teach you how to code. We're also not gonna teach you how to say use Photoshop, but what we do want you to do is kind of start to develop a little of that empathy for your team. So I think you don't need to have any web experience, but hopefully you're gonna have a little more confidence to try to take on some of those jobs and kind of find the right fit for you. It would be naive not to walk into a web production environment and not understand that that's where it's going. Exactly. It's learning just enough so you can have more informed conversations.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with RSVP
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
CityGirl
I've already taken several web design classes, but there were still some details that I found confusing. Andy and Jesse did a great job of explaining things like; programming languages and how they interact to form the structure of a site, work flow responsibilities between team members and the blurry lines between them; and agile methodologies applied to work flow. They used case studies to illustrate how this all happens, where variations crop up, and how to address them. If you're new to web design, or just want to understand the functions of other team members, this is a great real world look at the whole process. I haven't found this in any other class, either on-line or local. Andy and Jesse are both very experienced working designers with current knowledge. They're very responsive to questions and seem to really enjoy teaching. Having two instructors is a great benefit because you get double the perspective, knowledge, etc.
Junko Bridston
I worked with Andy when he was a Creative Director at Funny Garbage, a design studio in New York City. I found him to be knowledgeable, articulate, and lovely to work with. I learned so much from him at the beginning of my career. In response to a previous comment: it seems silly to dismiss this class because Andy wears t-shirts with his blazers. If you think leaders only wear suits and ties, then maybe this class isn't for you. But if you want to learn from someone with loads of experience and a friendly manner, I really recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.
user-3d865b
I was looking for a class that would not only address the web design basics but also their place and function as part of a workflow. This class did not disappoint and Andy's and Jesse's engaging presentation style made it easy for me to follow along during the 2-day live session. By using real life examples, the presenters provide plenty of tips and strategies how to best work with clients and developers alike — the many, often intangible ingredients that go beyond technical expertise and can make or break a project. Highly recommended.
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