9 ms·

I'm a designer who learned Django and launched her first webapp in 6 weeks

490 points by limedaring 16y ago

kenjackson 16y ago
The following really surprised me coming from a designer: Build the web app first, then design it.It was tempting to build the entire interface first but I deliberately ignored the design until I had things 90% working. This got me to constantly work on the code before working on the "fun stuff", plus encouraged me to launch quickly since as soon as the code was finished, all I had to do was quickly "skin" it before getting it live with the assumption that I would be iterating on the design after it launches. Also, if I needed to abandon the project due to some insurmountable code problem, the time wasted wouldn’t include the time spent on design. I'm impressed that the site looks so good, with design being skinned on afterwards. Was it literally just divs, spans, and lists, and then you did the CSS in one fell swoop (well one fell-iterative swoop)?
- xyzzyb 16y ago
  Django strongly enforces MVC (MVT to be pedantic) programming. The templates and backend programming are kept not just at arms length, but in separate rooms.
  - alnayyir 16y ago
    My day job is pretty much all Django, but I would like to point out that this overly popular trope about Django templates is unmerited and not unique/interesting. I would also like to point out that it's not a meaningful feature as templates still cannot be written in isolation by designers without a lot of previous agreed upon structure. The django apps model is similar in getting an unmerited amount of attention/praise.
    - stdbrouw 16y ago
      "I would also like to point out that it's not a meaningful feature as templates still cannot be written in isolation by designers without a lot of previous agreed upon structure." True. I don't know of any framework that's truly nailed developer-designer interaction, though. Good, short read: http://alexgaynor.net/2010/mar/29/designer-developer-relations/ http://alexgaynor.net/2010/mar/29/designer-developer-relatio...
      - alnayyir 16y ago
        > I don't know of any framework that's truly nailed developer-designer interaction, though. Never 'appen, icky hoomans are involved. That's like saying engineers and management will stop fighting over budgets and specifications.
- pestaa 16y ago
  Being a programmer first, this works backwards for me. If I would work on the fun stuff from day one, my sites would never get skinned. :)
  - slile 16y ago
    Yeah, I think a lot of it might be to target the areas you're uncomfortable with first to make sure you can get them right, and then end with what you're comfortable with and what you're good at. I think doing the reverse might sometimes end up being a subtle form of procrastination where you might be afraid of doing the part you're not as familiar with.
    - limedaring 16y ago
      Ugh, yes. Hitting a problem with my code, I would ignore the site for days until I realized that I was just procrastinating away from the uncomfortable. It sucks when you feel completely out of your element (me, learning design, others, perhaps working on design), especially when I was stuck on a problem and had no idea how to go further.
- limedaring 16y ago
  Pretty much correct — I built it in plain HTML/CSS to get it working, then retired to Photoshop to build how it would essentially look (which I took a lot from the existing weddingtype.com design, so that helped with the speed), then threw in CSS at the end. None of the extraneous pages, like "About", were built either until the CSS point, so it wasn't all design. Thank you!
  - justinph 16y ago
    Did you do wireframes or page description diagrams? I always need something to help me conceptualize what it is that I want to build, more than just a few bullet points or flowcharts. As a designer/developer, I find it easiest to just dive into photoshop and mock a few things up, even if they're not what I would consider final designs. It helps me think about how things will work, and what the user experience will be like.
    - limedaring 16y ago
      If I'm working on client work, then I always do wireframes first (giving a choice of three different layout/UX concepts). But for WIL, because I was working for myself and under a self imposed time constraint, I went straight from sketches --> PSDs --> CSS. I'm going to be revamping the profile pages in the near future, and that process will almost certainly include wireframing, since I have more time to do it "right".
  - psykotic 16y ago
    Gorgeous design! If I'm allowed a nitpick, the two buttons on the About page are nearly but not exactly aligned vertically, probably as an oversight.
    - limedaring 16y ago
      Definitely allowed to nitpick — in Firefox they were aligned but I can see now that in Chrome they aren't. Thanks for passing along!
- commanda 16y ago
  I think this makes a lot of sense. You have to build the cake before you can put the icing on it. Your CSS is invisible unless it has html to decorate.
- fosk 16y ago
  As a backend developer, I'm more productive with a top down approach instead. In a bottom-up approach I always fall into the trap of making an amazing backend full of cool features, when then I realize that only the 30% of them is required by the frontend.
- njharman 16y ago
  For long time I've been arguing that code / functionality should come before visual design. Never found anyone to agree with me.
  - thetylerhayes 16y ago
    Seems you just hadn't found the right people yet :)
  - synotic 16y ago
    Depends whether you're innovating in the frontend or the backend. The user interface for the iPhone was completely designed before any of the frontend was coded. There's a great comment by tlrobinson somewhere about how the iPhone was designed and developed but I can't seem to find it. Also consider New Twitter. I don't understand how you'd start coding the HTML and the JavaScript without understanding the visual design for how the dynamic, two-pane interface was expected to work. But if you're building a search engine, then you can probably put off the design until later. The analog is that you really wouldn't (or shouldn't) start writing code until you had an idea (a design or an architecture) of what you were trying to write. Same way you wouldn't start to code an interaction (HTML+JavaScript+CSS) if you had no idea what that interaction looked like.
  - dools 16y ago
    There's a fair bit of noise for content preceding design in web mockups, same principle.
  - rudasn 16y ago
    - "Hey can you build me a house?" - "Sure, how big do you want it? How many rooms?" - "I'll tell you what. Build the house and we see how it goes".
    - ryanelkins 16y ago
      There's a difference between visual design and architectural design.
    - njharman 16y ago
- zepolen 16y ago
  Why would you be impressed. That was after all the entire point of CSS; Different skins on the same html.
tudorizer 16y ago
It's a pretty good thing you did there: improving your weakness in coding and leaving your strong points for later (design). Thumbs up for you. And your a girl, which makes your story even more awesome!
- deleted 16y ago
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- mediacrisis 16y ago
  I understand it's refreshing and promising to see women in programming roles, but (and I say this realizing it may or may not be the intent of such statements) it's a bit condescending when someone comments along the lines of "and she's a woman too!" like its a surprise.
  - tudorizer 16y ago
    Oh man, down-voted for that!? I wonder what makes you put a negative twist to my congrats. You should check the demographics of genders with such stories.
    - jedsmith 16y ago
      It's like saying "congratulations on your promotion to CEO, Fred, and even more so because you're black. Cool that we've started to move on from the whole racism thing in America, huh?" Regardless of what you meant, you're pointing out the difference rather than just treating everyone equally. Just congratulate the OP on teaching herself Django and developing an app within weeks, not because she isn't your gender.
      - tudorizer 16y ago
        Nope. I'm not changing that. This job is so dominated by guys, it's getting boring sometimes. Diversity gets an upvote from me, even if it's followed by downvotes from futile justice.
sfphotoarts 16y ago
"Nothing kills a new idea better than taking too much time on it." I feel like this might be true of very simplistic ideas, I don't think it holds in any generally applicable form. Some ideas take time to fully germinate and flourish. Imagine if the original pyramid builder had put down the first level and 'launched'. I think what is clear and of general applicability is that its important to launch at the right time. Some ideas are timely and need to be synchronized with what else is going on in the internet space. Some ideas are just ahead of their time and premature launch is a waste. Some ideas come too late. Like bringing out a faster fax machine now vs 10 years ago. The idea that startups should be a frenzy of quickly thrown together systems only holds because they are built using tools that are solid and robust. That said, your site looks fabulous, it has all the charm and modern design of tumblr and the right colors, the right voice and just a great looking site.
- markszcz 16y ago
  Yes, +1 to the site looking great. I would also say that quote goes hand in hand with this one: "If you’re learning a new language, don’t do tutorials verbatim" So true, there will never be a tutorial for exactly what your working on because if there is, why are you reinventing the wheel? Also if your busy with tutorials, you might spend to much time on them and never accomplish your main objective. By then your will to finish starts to diminish.
- nbashaw 16y ago
  She's talking about personal motivation, not market timing.
limedaring 16y ago
I would love feedback about the product and any interesting ideas about growing/monetizing. Thanks HN! :)
- markszcz 16y ago
  What do you think about this? Testimonials for each designer. A design someone posts might be beautiful but what if they lack in the delivery department. Some sort of customer reviews would be nice to have and let people know how dependable they are. -update Going back and playing around with the site a little more its obvious that your the gateway for each of these designers. By incorporating a rating system for each designer you could be the "Angie's list" of wedding desigers
  - thetylerhayes 16y ago
    I like the customer reviews idea -- Airbnb- or Yelp-style come to mind, though by no means are they the only models which should be considered for influence -- and it's important to keep in mind opening these flood gates should never be taken lightly.
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Interesting. Also creates a "chicken and the egg" problem — if someone wanted to rate their designer who didn't have a profile, what would happen? How would I convince people to rate their designers unless I tracked them finding the designer though the site in the first place, getting into a bigger middleman position that I originally wanted to be in? Good questions to ask myself, thanks for the comment. :)
- JonLim 16y ago
  I left a comment, but it didn't have to do with monetizing. You might be able to monetize it by, once having the designs completed, making it a one stop shop for doing the rest of the printing too. However, this could be a logistical nightmare if you've never done printing before, so... tread lightly.
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bdclimber14 16y ago
You hardly hear of things going the other way. "I'm a developer who learned how to make sexy designs and launched something that looks good in 6 weeks." Good job.
- mikexstudios 16y ago
  I feel the reason is that there are many very good tutorials and open source code to teach people how to develop applications. However, there are not many good resources for learning design. There are many tutorials on designing simple buttons or photoshop patterns, but there is a huge gap between those tutorials and creating modern and functional website designs.
  - gammarator 16y ago
    This forthcoming book ("Design for Hackers") might be helpful: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/ http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/
    - kadavy 16y ago
      I agree. (thanks :)
- zinkem 16y ago
  I think this is in part because amateur design is far more apparent (and obnoxious) to the user than inefficient code.
joh6nn 16y ago
how much programming experience did you have before you started?
- limedaring 16y ago
  I took classes in Computer Science (in Java) back in college but detested programming and switched to Art & Design, so programming logic wasn't an entirely new concept to me. I also worked for 4.5 years at a startup doing Java, no programming, but had to read a lot of code so it kept me at least in the loop. Right when I started with Django and this project, I did Learn Python the Hard Way, which brought me completely up to speed about logic and all that. Otherwise, I don't even do Javascript (it's a major weakpoint), and much prefer "visual" duties like HTML/CSS/design.
  - joh6nn 16y ago
    even with some prior exposure, that's a steep learning curve. putting the whole thing together by yourself in just 6 weeks is still pretty impressive. major kudos. also, the site looks great. good luck with it!
  - sgallant 16y ago
    I'm a designer (psd/html/css) going through Python the Hard Way right now, and I'm loving it. What was your main resource for learning Django?
    - limedaring 16y ago
      Lots of random tutorials on the internet beyond what was mentioned in my blog post. One thing I forgot to mention is that there wasn't one resource that did everything for me — @kennethlove's tutorial got me about 30% of the way, then it was googling for everything else I needed and learning from StackOverflow/my awesome friends/etc. No Django application really did everything for me as well — every one I installed I had to override in some way to make it fit to my product. So there wasn't "one" resource — it was a lot of scrappy Googling and asking for help for every problem that got in my way.
  - 16y ago
geuis 16y ago
Tracy is one of the best designers I've ever met and incredibly driven. When we were working on WeddingType (I was her cofounder) and trying to get into YC, she jumped head-first into learning to use Django and Python. I'm very happy to see her latest project, it looks wonderful!
- limedaring 16y ago
  Great to have your stamp of approval — I'm sure you remember the WeddingInviteLove idea from my plan of attack back in the day. :)
  - geuis 16y ago
    Yup, sure do. Can't wait to see the rest of the plan come out!
dablya 16y ago
"If you’re learning a new language, don’t do tutorials verbatim — take what they’re teaching, apply it to a different product, and you will learn a lot faster." By the time you're done researching how to apply the concept to a slightly different problem, you've learned much more than the tutorial is covering. What about going the other way? I'm a developer that is intimidated by any kind of ui design... What do I do?
- limedaring 16y ago
  Just do it. I was a shitty designer when I started, and have only gotten better after much, much, much iteration and many different projects. It isn't quick, but it's the only way.
will_lam 16y ago
That's awesome - definitely helps if you've got the help of @shazow lol. Definitely inspired me to stop being such a whiney bitch and just LEARN. Thanks for sharing!
jeromec 16y ago
Fascinating to read from the opposite view! It's my belief that the better someone is at designing the worse they are at programming, and vice versa; I think your designing is fantastic, so I can imagine how hard getting technical must have been. Great job! I also notice some popular themes from HN, such as pivoting and getting MVPs out the door fast in your strategy, so nicely done again! I think you're thoughts on monetizing are right. However, I'd add a couple suggestions. You fit 9 huge designer samples on the front page. I'd shrink those a bit and add a "Featured Designers" section over the standard designers area on the front page which you can charge a premium for. Next, if the picture samples are small enough like here (http://www.weddinginvitelove.com/profiles/little-green-chair-studio/ http://www.weddinginvitelove.com/profiles/little-green-chair...) you have great ad space on the right side of the page. You can geo target visitors location by IP address and charge a premium to local florists, halls, and other wedding related services. Good luck!
- ubernostrum 16y ago
  It's my belief that the better someone is at designing the worse they are at programming, and vice versa It's been my actual experience that good designers -- i.e., the ones who actually know more than just how to use Photoshop -- tend to be quite good at picking up programming when sufficiently motivated. It's the transition in the other direction (programming -> design) that seems to be the killer.
  - deleted 16y ago
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  - true_religion 16y ago
    I've seen it go both ways. Flexible programmers (generalists) have an easy time learning the basics of design an turning out something that will pass snuff. Its not highly creative work for sure, but it will be easily usuable to the standards of Facebook.com, et all. Flexible designers on the other hand, can do simple coding too when motivated. However, you're not going to see them say coding a Baysian spam filter by hand, or making creative use of minhashing for auto-suggestion. The problem is with specialists.
rokhayakebe 16y ago
I have a product in the works very similar to your original idea with a focus on businesses. The directory is good, but it limits your potential unless you expand beyond wedding and include more events (Birthdays, Graduations, etc...). By sending visitors to other websites, you are also letting go of some of your revenue. I decided to try offering templates (the whole set: business card, LH, ENV, etc..) instead and I think LD can do a great job here for Events. You can differentiate yourself by providing great artwork users can edit on their computer (pdf, ai, psd), or they can also pay you to edit documents properly. Templates are scalable. Write once, distribute many times. You can also change the price as you please and sell them on your site, the designers' site, inkd.com, graphicriver.net and even through other design-related websites. I would like to see a site that offers templates with a focus on events. They would have me covered from wedding, to baby shower, to birthday celebration, to girls night out. Basically all things fun. I think this is one area where LimeDaring could do very well. Show me where I can get great document design done for my events, but even better actually be the place where I can actually get them.
- limedaring 16y ago
  I disagree with you that expanding beyond wedding (at least, on one branded site) is a good idea. Niche domains and sites are going to garner more trust from consumers than a giant website that does everything. Look at tinyprints.com and weddingpaperdivas.com — you can start covering more areas, but splitting the sites into different branded areas will probably do more good than doing everything with one website. Templates are a WeddingType.com area, and will be explored. :)
- btilly 16y ago
  Data point. In the world of photographing private events, about 70% of the potential revenue comes from weddings. I would expect that something similar to hold for invitations. Therefore it really makes sense to focus on weddings first.
kmfrk 16y ago
If you're single, you should totally go on a date with this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891187 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891187. Great job on the site. I prefer to delude myself into believing that you accomplished this so fast because you already had a viable MVP, but a part of me still thinks that you're superhuman.
- limedaring 16y ago
  I think that @shazow might have an issue with that. ;) By viable MVP, do you mean WeddingType? The two have completely different code, so I wasn't able to redo anything I had before. I essentially had a design framework, but major design is essentially different. Superhuman? Nice, thanks. :)
eaxitect 16y ago
wow!...amazing works, I agree the key is to launch fast...
spyne-02139 16y ago
Maybe this will be the lowest voted comment of all time. Regarding the "Women have it hard in startups" argument floating around the world lately; it clearly doesn't gel with my observations here at hackernews. This post coupled with "the pregnant post" demonstrate the disproportionate attention women founders get. The cognitive dissonance is about to bust out of my forehead. NEWS: Women have it easy in startups, all they have to do is put something together and say "I made a startup" and "I am a woman". BAM! Instantly at the top for hours. It's true. You know it. You instantly got the reference about "the pregnant post". You were going to say something but you chickened out.
philfreo 16y ago
Minor, but you should rename the big button on your apps homepage from "Submit" to "Search"
- deleted 16y ago
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  - philfreo 16y ago
    I'm not following your reasoning... I understand that you need a big button for designers to click ("Get Listed") but for the front and center form, if it's going to be there, it makes more sense for the button to Search, since that's what you're doing, instead of a very generic "Submit".
    - limedaring 16y ago
      Oh, duh. It's late here in Rome, I thought you meant the top right button. Great point, thank you!
bemmu 16y ago
I'd like to learn the design side more. How did you come up with the nice color scheme for the site, just gut feeling? I've heard recommendations of sites like http://colorschemedesigner.com/ http://colorschemedesigner.com/ but if I plug in your maroon flush color from behind "Inky Livie's Workshop", I can't get color scheme designer to recommend any of your other colors no matter which setting I choose.
- limedaring 16y ago
  The WeddingInviteLove scheme was taken from WeddingType.com (tying the two apps together that way), which I believe was taken from http://kuler.adobe.com http://kuler.adobe.com. No idea where the original color scheme is on there now, but I'm pretty sure I got it from there.
joecasper 16y ago
Beautiful site. Congrats on the launch and getting up to speed so quickly with Django and Python. All of the resources you mentioned are excellent for anyone trying to learn Django/Python.
NxguiGui 16y ago
Great. Is always good for designers to look under the hood of apps then apply function over form. But i am concerned deeply that startup mania is looking for the mantra "Do it first than think how to monetize". It must be opposite. Think about business idea or how to make value for someone than make something. On the other side. I have similar experience with my developers they were so proud of them selves and start to think that i am stupid because i am designer and don't know nothing about programming. After a year dedication what a surprise - now they don't mess around::)) Programming is not for every designer, but if one can put an effort and be persistent it pays big in t he end.
autalpha 16y ago
Congratulations on your success. The site demonstrates a lot of your characters and it's all looking good :) My (sincere) question is regarding the help you had. I noticed you credited extensively to a few folks and your boyfriend. Other than Django/Python, there's also server setup (BitCould?)--did you do that yourself as well? Did you work on this full time for 6 weeks or was this an after 9-5 hours project? I don't mean to pry; just simply want other folks out there who are also self-taught and are working on their own projects to understand the extend of your hard work with great assistance from experts in achieving this great result. In other words, could you explain the "magic" a bit so we can have a deeper understanding of your process? A lot of time, people gloss over the hard work parts and in some way that perpetuates a misunderstanding which says: "it's easy to create something good." I don't that is the case. Even in The Social Network, Zuck seems to somehow create Facemash or even Facebook in matters of hours while drinking beer. But I digress. Thank you for sharing.
- limedaring 16y ago
  Server setup was through http://DotCloud.com http://DotCloud.com, who set it up for me (I joined them before they were officially launched so there were a few bumps in the road that were paved out by DotCloud themselves for me). Server stuff would have been a much bigger issue if I didn't have them. As for hours, I worked full-time-ish. I don't have a "real" job — my real job was WeddingType until things fell apart for a bit. I started work on WIL but was also doing client projects on the side to pump up my bank account a bit. I have no idea how many hours total I worked on WIL — it was one of those things where you wake up at noon and work until 2am on and off on various projects, which was mostly WIL but a lot of client stuff as well. Any more specific questions? Please pry away if I missed anything!
  - l0c0b0x 16y ago
    You should add "...and did this by sleeping 10 hours each day!" to your main title. Good job in getting this done! Makes me want to tech my wife a thing or two about web-development.
    - 16y ago
cavilling_elite 16y ago
The site looks amazing. I sent it to my gf who is just finishing up restoring a Kelsey Excelsior letterpress for this exact purpose.
kingkilr 16y ago
Things like this make me inordinately proud to contribute to open source (in this case Django). Whenever someone launches something I hope that some small part of what I've done made their job of building something cool easier, be it a designer building her first web app, a startup launching their product, or a journalist building a Pulitzer prize winning site.
docgnome 16y ago
Wow. Thanks for posting this! Besides being interesting, it has inspired me to go pick up a personal project I've sort of abandoned! I'm really hoping to get it working enough to do a Show HN post for some feedback. Thanks! :-)
expertio 16y ago
It's just so inspiring to read this kind of stories. We are kind of doing the same thing, bootstrap from nothing. I wish there is more help out there for people like us.
patio11 16y ago
Congratulations on launching. It is always nice to see startups targeting that tiny niche market "the other half of the world." Friendly advice from your neighborhood SEO: owning two sites in one vertical gives you cross promotion opportunities, particularly if one is more linkable than the other (gallery is more linkable than commercial offering). That said, I would give a lot of thought to consolidating your offerings into one site with two facets if you can do it without confusing customers.
- limedaring 16y ago
  Something I've thought a lot about, and I'm still unsure on what to do. You mean, consolidate WeddingType and WeddingInviteLove together? It might be a good win for SEO, but I worry on two sites, while both focusing on weddings, are targeting two distinctly different groups. That was my reasoning for making WIL it's own domain, rather than putting it under WeddingType.com. Still think that they'd be better consolidated?
jsmo 16y ago
way to go!
sushumna 16y ago
Good Job !! Very nice design. All the best.
jefe78 16y ago
My company has two people learning Django right now(including myself). Do you have any recommendations for learning resources? One person is used to working with frameworks, I'm not. What was your take on the learning curve?
- jranck 16y ago
  Check out djangobook.com its online and free to everyone. It will give you a good understanding of the fundamentals as well as a few advanced topics. Other than that the best advice I could give you is to jump in feet first and don't look back.
sheena 16y ago
Congratulations from another fairly new programmer. :) One UI suggestion: I find it clunky when a site forces me to choose from price ranges that don't overlap (e.g. $5 to 10, $10 to $15, etc.). Generally people making purchasing decisions aren't thinking in terms of those kinds of ranges; they simply have a maximum budget in mind. I think it's better to allow users to specify "under $5", "under $10", etc. so that each successive group includes the previous groups. I realize there may be a case for trying to get customers to purchase the most expensive item they're willing to purchase, but more often than not having to click each range separately just annoys me and I leave the page.
- Rariel 16y ago
  I loved the site and completely agree with the "under $5" suggestion. It makes the user's life easier
  - limedaring 16y ago
    It's "duh" moments like this that I'm glad to have HN feedback. :) Going to get that working in the next few days, thanks so much!
jasonlynes 16y ago
any insight as to your YC interview? anything you'd do differently? was your lack of hacking experience part of why you were turned down? advice for those who get an interview on how to survive it?
- limedaring 16y ago
  We were told that we didn't have a magic bullet for getting customers, though I'd think that lack of complete hacking experience (we were missing a crucial back end component) probably didn't help either. If you get an interview, just let them ask as many questions as possible. 5 word answers. Don't elaborate unless they ask, keep it simple. Stay calm. :P
nithyad 16y ago
Congratulations girl!
eurohacker 16y ago
hey, you learned the Django so fast, did you know any other programming language before learning Django - like PHP, did you know CSS/html before learning Django isnt PHP easier to learn ?
- limedaring 16y ago
  - Back in the day I knew Java (when I was a CSC major briefly) but I haven't written anything in it for years. - Yes, I'd consider myself very strong in HTML/CSS - So I've heard, but I've also heard it has its major downsides!
_corbett 16y ago
nice work!
bambax 16y ago
Paris (France) is listed in the available cities, but there are no results...? (Why list it then?)
- limedaring 16y ago
  Because if a designer was signing up for a profile, they use that same list – if Paris wasn't on there, I'd have to add it manually when someone needed to sign up. It's not the best solution – this is where my programming inability shows through. Going to be revamping that soon, but right now, it's on there so people can sign up with it. :)
  - bambax 16y ago
    Oh, ok, but why did you include "Nantes"? It's unlikely Nantes was already there and it just happened that a designer found it? I don't see why there couldn't be a different list for signup and for search; or the ability to add cities during signup...
    - limedaring 16y ago
      Because someone emailed me and asked me to add them under that location. :) Yeah, probably, I just haven't thought it through yet. I'm still not a rockstar programmer — I figured out that I can make a list in the model which would be referenced by the registration, search, and also apply to the property in the profile model. Initially it seems like having the same list in two different locations and slightly different in each seems like a bad idea, but also having random locations on the search list without results is too. Though maybe I could write something in the search view that will remove listings from the form if they don't have any profiles associated with them... </n00b>
tsycho 16y ago
Minor.....but in your About page, the "Get listed..." and "Search for...." buttons would look better if they were vertically aligned. I am using Chrome on Windows.
- limedaring 16y ago
  Yeah, they were in Firefox when I built that page but I (oddly) forgot to check on other browsers. I'm actually in Rome right now and my laptop was stolen a week ago (sigh...) so fixing errors like this unfortunately have to wait until I can use @shazow's computer. Thanks, on my list. :D

490 points by limedaring 16y ago

The following really surprised me coming from a designer: Build the web app first, then design it.It was tempting to build the entire interface first but I deliberately ignored the design until I had things 90% working. This got me to constantly work on the code before working on the "fun stuff", plus encouraged me to launch quickly since as soon as the code was finished, all I had to do was quickly "skin" it before getting it live with the assumption that I would be iterating on the design after it launches. Also, if I needed to abandon the project due to some insurmountable code problem, the time wasted wouldn’t include the time spent on design. I'm impressed that the site looks so good, with design being skinned on afterwards. Was it literally just divs, spans, and lists, and then you did the CSS in one fell swoop (well one fell-iterative swoop)?

xyzzyb 16y ago
Django strongly enforces MVC (MVT to be pedantic) programming. The templates and backend programming are kept not just at arms length, but in separate rooms.
- alnayyir 16y ago
  My day job is pretty much all Django, but I would like to point out that this overly popular trope about Django templates is unmerited and not unique/interesting. I would also like to point out that it's not a meaningful feature as templates still cannot be written in isolation by designers without a lot of previous agreed upon structure. The django apps model is similar in getting an unmerited amount of attention/praise.
  - stdbrouw 16y ago
    "I would also like to point out that it's not a meaningful feature as templates still cannot be written in isolation by designers without a lot of previous agreed upon structure." True. I don't know of any framework that's truly nailed developer-designer interaction, though. Good, short read: http://alexgaynor.net/2010/mar/29/designer-developer-relations/ http://alexgaynor.net/2010/mar/29/designer-developer-relatio...
    - alnayyir 16y ago
      > I don't know of any framework that's truly nailed developer-designer interaction, though. Never 'appen, icky hoomans are involved. That's like saying engineers and management will stop fighting over budgets and specifications.
pestaa 16y ago
Being a programmer first, this works backwards for me. If I would work on the fun stuff from day one, my sites would never get skinned. :)
- slile 16y ago
  Yeah, I think a lot of it might be to target the areas you're uncomfortable with first to make sure you can get them right, and then end with what you're comfortable with and what you're good at. I think doing the reverse might sometimes end up being a subtle form of procrastination where you might be afraid of doing the part you're not as familiar with.
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Ugh, yes. Hitting a problem with my code, I would ignore the site for days until I realized that I was just procrastinating away from the uncomfortable. It sucks when you feel completely out of your element (me, learning design, others, perhaps working on design), especially when I was stuck on a problem and had no idea how to go further.
limedaring 16y ago
Pretty much correct — I built it in plain HTML/CSS to get it working, then retired to Photoshop to build how it would essentially look (which I took a lot from the existing weddingtype.com design, so that helped with the speed), then threw in CSS at the end. None of the extraneous pages, like "About", were built either until the CSS point, so it wasn't all design. Thank you!
- justinph 16y ago
  Did you do wireframes or page description diagrams? I always need something to help me conceptualize what it is that I want to build, more than just a few bullet points or flowcharts. As a designer/developer, I find it easiest to just dive into photoshop and mock a few things up, even if they're not what I would consider final designs. It helps me think about how things will work, and what the user experience will be like.
  - limedaring 16y ago
    If I'm working on client work, then I always do wireframes first (giving a choice of three different layout/UX concepts). But for WIL, because I was working for myself and under a self imposed time constraint, I went straight from sketches --> PSDs --> CSS. I'm going to be revamping the profile pages in the near future, and that process will almost certainly include wireframing, since I have more time to do it "right".
- psykotic 16y ago
  Gorgeous design! If I'm allowed a nitpick, the two buttons on the About page are nearly but not exactly aligned vertically, probably as an oversight.
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Definitely allowed to nitpick — in Firefox they were aligned but I can see now that in Chrome they aren't. Thanks for passing along!
commanda 16y ago
I think this makes a lot of sense. You have to build the cake before you can put the icing on it. Your CSS is invisible unless it has html to decorate.
fosk 16y ago
As a backend developer, I'm more productive with a top down approach instead. In a bottom-up approach I always fall into the trap of making an amazing backend full of cool features, when then I realize that only the 30% of them is required by the frontend.
njharman 16y ago
For long time I've been arguing that code / functionality should come before visual design. Never found anyone to agree with me.
- thetylerhayes 16y ago
  Seems you just hadn't found the right people yet :)
- synotic 16y ago
  Depends whether you're innovating in the frontend or the backend. The user interface for the iPhone was completely designed before any of the frontend was coded. There's a great comment by tlrobinson somewhere about how the iPhone was designed and developed but I can't seem to find it. Also consider New Twitter. I don't understand how you'd start coding the HTML and the JavaScript without understanding the visual design for how the dynamic, two-pane interface was expected to work. But if you're building a search engine, then you can probably put off the design until later. The analog is that you really wouldn't (or shouldn't) start writing code until you had an idea (a design or an architecture) of what you were trying to write. Same way you wouldn't start to code an interaction (HTML+JavaScript+CSS) if you had no idea what that interaction looked like.
- dools 16y ago
  There's a fair bit of noise for content preceding design in web mockups, same principle.
- rudasn 16y ago
  - "Hey can you build me a house?" - "Sure, how big do you want it? How many rooms?" - "I'll tell you what. Build the house and we see how it goes".
  - ryanelkins 16y ago
    There's a difference between visual design and architectural design.
  - njharman 16y ago
zepolen 16y ago
Why would you be impressed. That was after all the entire point of CSS; Different skins on the same html.

tudorizer 16y ago

It's a pretty good thing you did there: improving your weakness in coding and leaving your strong points for later (design). Thumbs up for you. And your a girl, which makes your story even more awesome!

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mediacrisis 16y ago
I understand it's refreshing and promising to see women in programming roles, but (and I say this realizing it may or may not be the intent of such statements) it's a bit condescending when someone comments along the lines of "and she's a woman too!" like its a surprise.
- tudorizer 16y ago
  Oh man, down-voted for that!? I wonder what makes you put a negative twist to my congrats. You should check the demographics of genders with such stories.
  - jedsmith 16y ago
    It's like saying "congratulations on your promotion to CEO, Fred, and even more so because you're black. Cool that we've started to move on from the whole racism thing in America, huh?" Regardless of what you meant, you're pointing out the difference rather than just treating everyone equally. Just congratulate the OP on teaching herself Django and developing an app within weeks, not because she isn't your gender.
    - tudorizer 16y ago
      Nope. I'm not changing that. This job is so dominated by guys, it's getting boring sometimes. Diversity gets an upvote from me, even if it's followed by downvotes from futile justice.

sfphotoarts 16y ago

"Nothing kills a new idea better than taking too much time on it." I feel like this might be true of very simplistic ideas, I don't think it holds in any generally applicable form. Some ideas take time to fully germinate and flourish. Imagine if the original pyramid builder had put down the first level and 'launched'. I think what is clear and of general applicability is that its important to launch at the right time. Some ideas are timely and need to be synchronized with what else is going on in the internet space. Some ideas are just ahead of their time and premature launch is a waste. Some ideas come too late. Like bringing out a faster fax machine now vs 10 years ago. The idea that startups should be a frenzy of quickly thrown together systems only holds because they are built using tools that are solid and robust. That said, your site looks fabulous, it has all the charm and modern design of tumblr and the right colors, the right voice and just a great looking site.

markszcz 16y ago
Yes, +1 to the site looking great. I would also say that quote goes hand in hand with this one: "If you’re learning a new language, don’t do tutorials verbatim" So true, there will never be a tutorial for exactly what your working on because if there is, why are you reinventing the wheel? Also if your busy with tutorials, you might spend to much time on them and never accomplish your main objective. By then your will to finish starts to diminish.
nbashaw 16y ago
She's talking about personal motivation, not market timing.

limedaring 16y ago

I would love feedback about the product and any interesting ideas about growing/monetizing. Thanks HN! :)

markszcz 16y ago
What do you think about this? Testimonials for each designer. A design someone posts might be beautiful but what if they lack in the delivery department. Some sort of customer reviews would be nice to have and let people know how dependable they are. -update Going back and playing around with the site a little more its obvious that your the gateway for each of these designers. By incorporating a rating system for each designer you could be the "Angie's list" of wedding desigers
- thetylerhayes 16y ago
  I like the customer reviews idea -- Airbnb- or Yelp-style come to mind, though by no means are they the only models which should be considered for influence -- and it's important to keep in mind opening these flood gates should never be taken lightly.
- limedaring 16y ago
  Interesting. Also creates a "chicken and the egg" problem — if someone wanted to rate their designer who didn't have a profile, what would happen? How would I convince people to rate their designers unless I tracked them finding the designer though the site in the first place, getting into a bigger middleman position that I originally wanted to be in? Good questions to ask myself, thanks for the comment. :)
JonLim 16y ago
I left a comment, but it didn't have to do with monetizing. You might be able to monetize it by, once having the designs completed, making it a one stop shop for doing the rest of the printing too. However, this could be a logistical nightmare if you've never done printing before, so... tread lightly.
- 16y ago

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bdclimber14 16y ago

You hardly hear of things going the other way. "I'm a developer who learned how to make sexy designs and launched something that looks good in 6 weeks." Good job.

mikexstudios 16y ago
I feel the reason is that there are many very good tutorials and open source code to teach people how to develop applications. However, there are not many good resources for learning design. There are many tutorials on designing simple buttons or photoshop patterns, but there is a huge gap between those tutorials and creating modern and functional website designs.
- gammarator 16y ago
  This forthcoming book ("Design for Hackers") might be helpful: http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/ http://www.kadavy.net/blog/posts/d4h-the-book/
  - kadavy 16y ago
    I agree. (thanks :)
zinkem 16y ago
I think this is in part because amateur design is far more apparent (and obnoxious) to the user than inefficient code.

joh6nn 16y ago

how much programming experience did you have before you started?

limedaring 16y ago
I took classes in Computer Science (in Java) back in college but detested programming and switched to Art & Design, so programming logic wasn't an entirely new concept to me. I also worked for 4.5 years at a startup doing Java, no programming, but had to read a lot of code so it kept me at least in the loop. Right when I started with Django and this project, I did Learn Python the Hard Way, which brought me completely up to speed about logic and all that. Otherwise, I don't even do Javascript (it's a major weakpoint), and much prefer "visual" duties like HTML/CSS/design.
- joh6nn 16y ago
  even with some prior exposure, that's a steep learning curve. putting the whole thing together by yourself in just 6 weeks is still pretty impressive. major kudos. also, the site looks great. good luck with it!
- sgallant 16y ago
  I'm a designer (psd/html/css) going through Python the Hard Way right now, and I'm loving it. What was your main resource for learning Django?
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Lots of random tutorials on the internet beyond what was mentioned in my blog post. One thing I forgot to mention is that there wasn't one resource that did everything for me — @kennethlove's tutorial got me about 30% of the way, then it was googling for everything else I needed and learning from StackOverflow/my awesome friends/etc. No Django application really did everything for me as well — every one I installed I had to override in some way to make it fit to my product. So there wasn't "one" resource — it was a lot of scrappy Googling and asking for help for every problem that got in my way.
- 16y ago

geuis 16y ago

Tracy is one of the best designers I've ever met and incredibly driven. When we were working on WeddingType (I was her cofounder) and trying to get into YC, she jumped head-first into learning to use Django and Python. I'm very happy to see her latest project, it looks wonderful!

limedaring 16y ago
Great to have your stamp of approval — I'm sure you remember the WeddingInviteLove idea from my plan of attack back in the day. :)
- geuis 16y ago
  Yup, sure do. Can't wait to see the rest of the plan come out!

dablya 16y ago

"If you’re learning a new language, don’t do tutorials verbatim — take what they’re teaching, apply it to a different product, and you will learn a lot faster." By the time you're done researching how to apply the concept to a slightly different problem, you've learned much more than the tutorial is covering. What about going the other way? I'm a developer that is intimidated by any kind of ui design... What do I do?

limedaring 16y ago
Just do it. I was a shitty designer when I started, and have only gotten better after much, much, much iteration and many different projects. It isn't quick, but it's the only way.

will_lam 16y ago

That's awesome - definitely helps if you've got the help of @shazow lol. Definitely inspired me to stop being such a whiney bitch and just LEARN. Thanks for sharing!

jeromec 16y ago

Fascinating to read from the opposite view! It's my belief that the better someone is at designing the worse they are at programming, and vice versa; I think your designing is fantastic, so I can imagine how hard getting technical must have been. Great job! I also notice some popular themes from HN, such as pivoting and getting MVPs out the door fast in your strategy, so nicely done again! I think you're thoughts on monetizing are right. However, I'd add a couple suggestions. You fit 9 huge designer samples on the front page. I'd shrink those a bit and add a "Featured Designers" section over the standard designers area on the front page which you can charge a premium for. Next, if the picture samples are small enough like here (http://www.weddinginvitelove.com/profiles/little-green-chair-studio/ http://www.weddinginvitelove.com/profiles/little-green-chair...) you have great ad space on the right side of the page. You can geo target visitors location by IP address and charge a premium to local florists, halls, and other wedding related services. Good luck!

ubernostrum 16y ago
It's my belief that the better someone is at designing the worse they are at programming, and vice versa It's been my actual experience that good designers -- i.e., the ones who actually know more than just how to use Photoshop -- tend to be quite good at picking up programming when sufficiently motivated. It's the transition in the other direction (programming -> design) that seems to be the killer.
- deleted 16y ago
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- true_religion 16y ago
  I've seen it go both ways. Flexible programmers (generalists) have an easy time learning the basics of design an turning out something that will pass snuff. Its not highly creative work for sure, but it will be easily usuable to the standards of Facebook.com, et all. Flexible designers on the other hand, can do simple coding too when motivated. However, you're not going to see them say coding a Baysian spam filter by hand, or making creative use of minhashing for auto-suggestion. The problem is with specialists.

rokhayakebe 16y ago

I have a product in the works very similar to your original idea with a focus on businesses. The directory is good, but it limits your potential unless you expand beyond wedding and include more events (Birthdays, Graduations, etc...). By sending visitors to other websites, you are also letting go of some of your revenue. I decided to try offering templates (the whole set: business card, LH, ENV, etc..) instead and I think LD can do a great job here for Events. You can differentiate yourself by providing great artwork users can edit on their computer (pdf, ai, psd), or they can also pay you to edit documents properly. Templates are scalable. Write once, distribute many times. You can also change the price as you please and sell them on your site, the designers' site, inkd.com, graphicriver.net and even through other design-related websites. I would like to see a site that offers templates with a focus on events. They would have me covered from wedding, to baby shower, to birthday celebration, to girls night out. Basically all things fun. I think this is one area where LimeDaring could do very well. Show me where I can get great document design done for my events, but even better actually be the place where I can actually get them.

limedaring 16y ago
I disagree with you that expanding beyond wedding (at least, on one branded site) is a good idea. Niche domains and sites are going to garner more trust from consumers than a giant website that does everything. Look at tinyprints.com and weddingpaperdivas.com — you can start covering more areas, but splitting the sites into different branded areas will probably do more good than doing everything with one website. Templates are a WeddingType.com area, and will be explored. :)
btilly 16y ago
Data point. In the world of photographing private events, about 70% of the potential revenue comes from weddings. I would expect that something similar to hold for invitations. Therefore it really makes sense to focus on weddings first.

kmfrk 16y ago

If you're single, you should totally go on a date with this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891187 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1891187. Great job on the site. I prefer to delude myself into believing that you accomplished this so fast because you already had a viable MVP, but a part of me still thinks that you're superhuman.

limedaring 16y ago
I think that @shazow might have an issue with that. ;) By viable MVP, do you mean WeddingType? The two have completely different code, so I wasn't able to redo anything I had before. I essentially had a design framework, but major design is essentially different. Superhuman? Nice, thanks. :)

eaxitect 16y ago

wow!...amazing works, I agree the key is to launch fast...

spyne-02139 16y ago

Maybe this will be the lowest voted comment of all time. Regarding the "Women have it hard in startups" argument floating around the world lately; it clearly doesn't gel with my observations here at hackernews. This post coupled with "the pregnant post" demonstrate the disproportionate attention women founders get. The cognitive dissonance is about to bust out of my forehead. NEWS: Women have it easy in startups, all they have to do is put something together and say "I made a startup" and "I am a woman". BAM! Instantly at the top for hours. It's true. You know it. You instantly got the reference about "the pregnant post". You were going to say something but you chickened out.

philfreo 16y ago

Minor, but you should rename the big button on your apps homepage from "Submit" to "Search"

deleted 16y ago
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- philfreo 16y ago
  I'm not following your reasoning... I understand that you need a big button for designers to click ("Get Listed") but for the front and center form, if it's going to be there, it makes more sense for the button to Search, since that's what you're doing, instead of a very generic "Submit".
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Oh, duh. It's late here in Rome, I thought you meant the top right button. Great point, thank you!

bemmu 16y ago

I'd like to learn the design side more. How did you come up with the nice color scheme for the site, just gut feeling? I've heard recommendations of sites like http://colorschemedesigner.com/ http://colorschemedesigner.com/ but if I plug in your maroon flush color from behind "Inky Livie's Workshop", I can't get color scheme designer to recommend any of your other colors no matter which setting I choose.

limedaring 16y ago
The WeddingInviteLove scheme was taken from WeddingType.com (tying the two apps together that way), which I believe was taken from http://kuler.adobe.com http://kuler.adobe.com. No idea where the original color scheme is on there now, but I'm pretty sure I got it from there.

joecasper 16y ago

Beautiful site. Congrats on the launch and getting up to speed so quickly with Django and Python. All of the resources you mentioned are excellent for anyone trying to learn Django/Python.

NxguiGui 16y ago

Great. Is always good for designers to look under the hood of apps then apply function over form. But i am concerned deeply that startup mania is looking for the mantra "Do it first than think how to monetize". It must be opposite. Think about business idea or how to make value for someone than make something. On the other side. I have similar experience with my developers they were so proud of them selves and start to think that i am stupid because i am designer and don't know nothing about programming. After a year dedication what a surprise - now they don't mess around::)) Programming is not for every designer, but if one can put an effort and be persistent it pays big in t he end.

autalpha 16y ago

Congratulations on your success. The site demonstrates a lot of your characters and it's all looking good :) My (sincere) question is regarding the help you had. I noticed you credited extensively to a few folks and your boyfriend. Other than Django/Python, there's also server setup (BitCould?)--did you do that yourself as well? Did you work on this full time for 6 weeks or was this an after 9-5 hours project? I don't mean to pry; just simply want other folks out there who are also self-taught and are working on their own projects to understand the extend of your hard work with great assistance from experts in achieving this great result. In other words, could you explain the "magic" a bit so we can have a deeper understanding of your process? A lot of time, people gloss over the hard work parts and in some way that perpetuates a misunderstanding which says: "it's easy to create something good." I don't that is the case. Even in The Social Network, Zuck seems to somehow create Facemash or even Facebook in matters of hours while drinking beer. But I digress. Thank you for sharing.

limedaring 16y ago
Server setup was through http://DotCloud.com http://DotCloud.com, who set it up for me (I joined them before they were officially launched so there were a few bumps in the road that were paved out by DotCloud themselves for me). Server stuff would have been a much bigger issue if I didn't have them. As for hours, I worked full-time-ish. I don't have a "real" job — my real job was WeddingType until things fell apart for a bit. I started work on WIL but was also doing client projects on the side to pump up my bank account a bit. I have no idea how many hours total I worked on WIL — it was one of those things where you wake up at noon and work until 2am on and off on various projects, which was mostly WIL but a lot of client stuff as well. Any more specific questions? Please pry away if I missed anything!
- l0c0b0x 16y ago
  You should add "...and did this by sleeping 10 hours each day!" to your main title. Good job in getting this done! Makes me want to tech my wife a thing or two about web-development.
  - 16y ago

cavilling_elite 16y ago

The site looks amazing. I sent it to my gf who is just finishing up restoring a Kelsey Excelsior letterpress for this exact purpose.

kingkilr 16y ago

Things like this make me inordinately proud to contribute to open source (in this case Django). Whenever someone launches something I hope that some small part of what I've done made their job of building something cool easier, be it a designer building her first web app, a startup launching their product, or a journalist building a Pulitzer prize winning site.

docgnome 16y ago

Wow. Thanks for posting this! Besides being interesting, it has inspired me to go pick up a personal project I've sort of abandoned! I'm really hoping to get it working enough to do a Show HN post for some feedback. Thanks! :-)

expertio 16y ago

It's just so inspiring to read this kind of stories. We are kind of doing the same thing, bootstrap from nothing. I wish there is more help out there for people like us.

patio11 16y ago

Congratulations on launching. It is always nice to see startups targeting that tiny niche market "the other half of the world." Friendly advice from your neighborhood SEO: owning two sites in one vertical gives you cross promotion opportunities, particularly if one is more linkable than the other (gallery is more linkable than commercial offering). That said, I would give a lot of thought to consolidating your offerings into one site with two facets if you can do it without confusing customers.

limedaring 16y ago
Something I've thought a lot about, and I'm still unsure on what to do. You mean, consolidate WeddingType and WeddingInviteLove together? It might be a good win for SEO, but I worry on two sites, while both focusing on weddings, are targeting two distinctly different groups. That was my reasoning for making WIL it's own domain, rather than putting it under WeddingType.com. Still think that they'd be better consolidated?

jsmo 16y ago

way to go!

sushumna 16y ago

Good Job !! Very nice design. All the best.

jefe78 16y ago

My company has two people learning Django right now(including myself). Do you have any recommendations for learning resources? One person is used to working with frameworks, I'm not. What was your take on the learning curve?

jranck 16y ago
Check out djangobook.com its online and free to everyone. It will give you a good understanding of the fundamentals as well as a few advanced topics. Other than that the best advice I could give you is to jump in feet first and don't look back.

sheena 16y ago

Congratulations from another fairly new programmer. :) One UI suggestion: I find it clunky when a site forces me to choose from price ranges that don't overlap (e.g. $5 to 10, $10 to $15, etc.). Generally people making purchasing decisions aren't thinking in terms of those kinds of ranges; they simply have a maximum budget in mind. I think it's better to allow users to specify "under $5", "under $10", etc. so that each successive group includes the previous groups. I realize there may be a case for trying to get customers to purchase the most expensive item they're willing to purchase, but more often than not having to click each range separately just annoys me and I leave the page.

Rariel 16y ago
I loved the site and completely agree with the "under $5" suggestion. It makes the user's life easier
- limedaring 16y ago
  It's "duh" moments like this that I'm glad to have HN feedback. :) Going to get that working in the next few days, thanks so much!

jasonlynes 16y ago

any insight as to your YC interview? anything you'd do differently? was your lack of hacking experience part of why you were turned down? advice for those who get an interview on how to survive it?

limedaring 16y ago
We were told that we didn't have a magic bullet for getting customers, though I'd think that lack of complete hacking experience (we were missing a crucial back end component) probably didn't help either. If you get an interview, just let them ask as many questions as possible. 5 word answers. Don't elaborate unless they ask, keep it simple. Stay calm. :P

nithyad 16y ago

Congratulations girl!

eurohacker 16y ago

hey, you learned the Django so fast, did you know any other programming language before learning Django - like PHP, did you know CSS/html before learning Django isnt PHP easier to learn ?

limedaring 16y ago
- Back in the day I knew Java (when I was a CSC major briefly) but I haven't written anything in it for years. - Yes, I'd consider myself very strong in HTML/CSS - So I've heard, but I've also heard it has its major downsides!

_corbett 16y ago

nice work!

bambax 16y ago

Paris (France) is listed in the available cities, but there are no results...? (Why list it then?)

limedaring 16y ago
Because if a designer was signing up for a profile, they use that same list – if Paris wasn't on there, I'd have to add it manually when someone needed to sign up. It's not the best solution – this is where my programming inability shows through. Going to be revamping that soon, but right now, it's on there so people can sign up with it. :)
- bambax 16y ago
  Oh, ok, but why did you include "Nantes"? It's unlikely Nantes was already there and it just happened that a designer found it? I don't see why there couldn't be a different list for signup and for search; or the ability to add cities during signup...
  - limedaring 16y ago
    Because someone emailed me and asked me to add them under that location. :) Yeah, probably, I just haven't thought it through yet. I'm still not a rockstar programmer — I figured out that I can make a list in the model which would be referenced by the registration, search, and also apply to the property in the profile model. Initially it seems like having the same list in two different locations and slightly different in each seems like a bad idea, but also having random locations on the search list without results is too. Though maybe I could write something in the search view that will remove listings from the form if they don't have any profiles associated with them... </n00b>

tsycho 16y ago

Minor.....but in your About page, the "Get listed..." and "Search for...." buttons would look better if they were vertically aligned. I am using Chrome on Windows.

limedaring 16y ago
Yeah, they were in Firefox when I built that page but I (oddly) forgot to check on other browsers. I'm actually in Rome right now and my laptop was stolen a week ago (sigh...) so fixing errors like this unfortunately have to wait until I can use @shazow's computer. Thanks, on my list. :D