Web Dev Links: Designing with Code and Imperfect Data

A couple of useful tips for my fellow web developers:

First, Matthew Ström talks about designing websites via code rather than tools like Sketch. “Recently I’ve had a few opportunities to use code to create design. In two of my bigger projects at The Wall Street Journal, writing code has led to new ideas. Problems that typically plague early designs — e.g. ‘how does this look with real content?’ — are easy to solve. By exploring visual ideas directly in code, I’ve started to see the amazing potential of code as a design tool.”

For what it’s worth, I do most of my design these days via code (including this latest incarnation of Opus). It feels so much more flexible, immediate, and web-ish. Via Sitepoint.

And second, Steven Garrity encourages designers to stop designing with perfect placeholder data. “It may not seem like it matters what you put in for a placeholder name. It won’t end up in the final product — it’s just a variable. Well, it does matter. The text you start with will subtly influence your approach to layout and style. It may limit the scope of options you allow yourself to consider, or more dangerously, obscure actual limits that you’ll run into later.”