Style Guides Are The New Photoshop (Fronteers 2012)

STYLE GUIDES ARE THE NEW PHOTOSHOP STEPHEN HAY @ FRONTEERS 2012

DESIGNING IN THE BROWSER Demonstrating our designs to clients as XHTML/CSS pages rather than as static Photoshop or Fireworks has streamlined our workﬂow and helped us to set and manage a client’s expectations better than ever before. Andy Clarke, “Time to stop showing clients static design visuals” (2008)

WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN (2009) Coming up with new and better workflows Designing in the browser Learning to live with constraints Designing systems, rather than sites

PHOTOSHOP IS IMPRACTICAL FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN MOCKUPS

PROBLEMS WITH “PHOTOSHOP” COMPS Design changes are time-consuming Too much manual work The image editor is a dependency Responsive design implies multiple and flexible layouts

REALITY (Screenshots by Adobe Edge Inspect)

WEB TECH IS VERY PRACTICAL FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN MOCKUPS

WEB-BASED COMPS: THE GOOD Doesn’t need to take much longer than Photoshop Automate trivial tasks Realistic presentation / real-life rendering State changes are easily visualized Free and open: everyone has a browser & editor No negative surprises for the client Possible prep for development They can be responsive

WE NEED TWO THINGS TO REPLACE PHOTOSHOP FOR COMPS

1. Static Web-based Comps2. Style Guides

STYLE GUIDES

STYLE GUIDES: THE GOOD No measuring State and breakpoint changes can be included Useful for future designers, devs & others Design consistency and maintainability

STYLE GUIDES IN THE WILD Apple Identity Guidelines

STYLE GUIDES IN THE WILD BBC GEL

ANNA DEBENHAM’S COLLECTION STYLE GUIDES, PATTERN LIBRARIES & TOOLS TO CREATE THEMhttp://gim.ie/fZyK

MY WEB STYLE GUIDE WISHLIST

Free-form writable

Taking screenshots should be automated

Update code snippets automatically when mockup code changes

Update screenshots automatically when something changes

Elements/modules should not have to be physically split into separate files

Syntax highlighting for code

AM I TOO DEMANDING? Free-form writable Automated screenshot-taking Update code snippets automatically Update screenshots automatically No separate files for code snippets Syntax highlighting

I COULD NOT FIND A SINGLE TOOL TO DO THIS

Sporf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sporf

Free-form writing DEXY + PANDOC (OR MARKDOWN) FILTER http://www.dexy.it/

Taking screenshots PHANTOM.JS + CASPER.JS http://casperjs.org/http://phantomjs.org/

Code & screenshot updating JINJA TEMPLATES + DEXY’S IDIOPIDAE FILTER

Syntax highlighting DEXY’S PYGMENTS FILTER

THE COMMAND LINEhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/evdaimon/337754011/

http://xkcd.com/149/

How this works Web-based mockup Style guide content in Markdown Style guide screenshots taken, code snippets extracted HTML CSS SCREEN CODE

1 Create a web-based mockup Use HTML, CSS & when necessary, JavaScript Your goal is to represent the design in the browser Your goal is not to create production code Your CSS should be modular (it will end up in your style guide!)

SMACSS MAKE CSS MORE MODULAR WITH… A LUMBERJACK.

2 Install Dexy & any dependencies If you’re a designer and can’t do it alone, ask a developer’s help. Before you ask for help, try going to the sites and following the instructions as best you can.

2 Install PhantomJS & CasperJS If you’re a designer and can’t do it alone, ask a developer’s help. Before you ask for help, try going to the sites and following the instructions as best you can.

3 Write your guide and use Jinja templates Use simple Markdown links to screenshots. Note the filenames you use.

4 Script your screenshots with CasperJS Keep things easy by adding a new casper.then() for each screenshot. Code brevity is not the goal.

5 Mark the CSS you want to export An export ends when another starts, or with @end.

6 Run Dexy Wow, that command line stuff is hard.

Changes in design? Run dexy again. Well, okay. In some cases you might want to do dexy cleanup followed by dexy setup and then dexy.

This is not without a learning curve. But what is?

Choose what works for you.Hopefully something here will inspire you to find your own way. Experiment!

These are new times.The problems we have with responsive workflow should encourage us to examine and evaluate our processes and tools.

Have fun.Make great stuff.KEEP LEARNING.Thanks!@stephenhay Special thanks to Ana Nelson

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Style Guides Are The New Photoshop (Fronteers 2012)

by Stephen Hay on Oct 04, 2012

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