15 ms·

Pixate promises app UI production in pure CSS

41 points by pcolton 14y ago

89a 14y ago
Photoshop is awful for designing UIs
- ThomPete 14y ago
  But it's powerful and that is what matters.
- k33n 14y ago
  Great design has almost nothing to do with the tools used.
  - mistercow 14y ago
    Seems like an irrelevant point. 89a didn't say "UIs designed in Photoshop are awful", after all. But a tool can be bad for a job, even if it is technically possible to do good work with that tool. That said, I think that Photoshop does have a few core features that designers really like for web design, and then a ton of features that get in the way for that particular use case. So basing a web design tool on those features of PS that are good for web design seems like a reasonable strategy.
- raylu 14y ago
  What would you suggest as an alternative?
  - shawnc 14y ago
    I'm all about Fireworks personally. Love it's ease of altering my work on the fly.
- pcolton 14y ago
  Photoshop is what the vast majority of all web and app designers use at some point in their process.
JosephRedfern 14y ago
$200,000 doesn't seem an awful lot for 3 software engineers and a graphic designer, including premises, utilities and IT.
- alexobenauer 14y ago
  I'm pretty sure they're currently in YC. I do wonder then what the campaign is for.
  - agscala 14y ago
    It seems like Kickstarter has been used more and more lately as an announcement platform that has the very nice benefit of generating a little extra income on the side. For now it's going to work because a lot of backers don't actually realize that they have another (probably much larger) source of income to build the product with, and they feel like backing is the only way this product will get off the ground.
jefflinwood 14y ago
This seems like it's going about solving mobile UI problems backwards. I think a better approach would be to fill in the gaps between what a graphic designer is used to (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks), and the UI tools that the different platforms offer - Interface Builder and the XML Layout editor for Android. Interface Builder is definitely visual enough for designers, but most of the "cool" effects for modern iOS apps can't be done purely through Interface Builder. The Android Layout Editor in Eclipse has a lot more control over features, but I wouldn't expect graphic designers to start creating drawables in XML either. My thoughts would be to work within the Photoshop ecosystem - a plugin that exported XIBs and Layout XML would probably be the easiest way to go.
- alexobenauer 14y ago
  I agree. CSS Hat currently does this for CSS (http://csshat.com/ http://csshat.com/), but it would truly be great there was a "CSS Hat for native mobile" UI's.
  - jefflinwood 14y ago
    That tool is almost exactly the type of thing I was thinking of. Thanks for sharing!
  - pcolton 14y ago
    A 'CSS Hat for native mobile UI's" is basically what Pixate supports. That is, we can take CSS, and style native iOS (and Android) components just like you can web components. Pixate is the engine that enables all of this (whereas in a web page, the browser is doing all the rendering for you).
    - alexobenauer 14y ago
      I think I like the CSS Hat model better because it generates the code that I then have complete control over. First, that can be helpful when learning the language. Second, it's really nice because of its tweakability. If the CSS Hat dev's decided to implement a stroke as a border, but I know it would look better as a layered drop shadow, then I can make that adjustment. If there are any other quirks or bugs, I can fix them with the resultant code. With the pixate model, I can't do that, as far as I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong!!).
carson 14y ago
I was thinking about something like this the other day. Nimbus has something similar I think http://blog.jeffverkoeyen.com/nimbus-chameleon http://blog.jeffverkoeyen.com/nimbus-chameleon
pcolton 14y ago
Appcelerator (creators of Titanium) supports Pixate by becoming first corporate sponsor. http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/08/join-us-in-supporting-pixate.html http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/08/join-us-in-su...
- bgramer 14y ago
  I've been watching this with keen interest since it was first announced here sometime ago. Unfortunately, at the pace Pixate is raising funds on Kickstarter, it doesn't look like they'll achieve their goal. Does this mean they're screwed, or will they still push this product out the door through their corporate sponsor Appcelerator?
  - pcolton 14y ago
    Have you made a pledge? ;-)
shasty 14y ago
And while someone without a brain is trying to develop mobile UIs in CSS the guy with the brain will be cutting photoshop and writing code. CSS is madness.
vtry 14y ago
You can use Bootstrap today...
zbowling 14y ago
I wrote this for iOSDevCamp last year: http://cssapply.github.com/ http://cssapply.github.com/

41 points by pcolton 14y ago

89a 14y ago

Photoshop is awful for designing UIs

ThomPete 14y ago
But it's powerful and that is what matters.
k33n 14y ago
Great design has almost nothing to do with the tools used.
- mistercow 14y ago
  Seems like an irrelevant point. 89a didn't say "UIs designed in Photoshop are awful", after all. But a tool can be bad for a job, even if it is technically possible to do good work with that tool. That said, I think that Photoshop does have a few core features that designers really like for web design, and then a ton of features that get in the way for that particular use case. So basing a web design tool on those features of PS that are good for web design seems like a reasonable strategy.
raylu 14y ago
What would you suggest as an alternative?
- shawnc 14y ago
  I'm all about Fireworks personally. Love it's ease of altering my work on the fly.
pcolton 14y ago
Photoshop is what the vast majority of all web and app designers use at some point in their process.

JosephRedfern 14y ago

$200,000 doesn't seem an awful lot for 3 software engineers and a graphic designer, including premises, utilities and IT.

alexobenauer 14y ago
I'm pretty sure they're currently in YC. I do wonder then what the campaign is for.
- agscala 14y ago
  It seems like Kickstarter has been used more and more lately as an announcement platform that has the very nice benefit of generating a little extra income on the side. For now it's going to work because a lot of backers don't actually realize that they have another (probably much larger) source of income to build the product with, and they feel like backing is the only way this product will get off the ground.

jefflinwood 14y ago

This seems like it's going about solving mobile UI problems backwards. I think a better approach would be to fill in the gaps between what a graphic designer is used to (Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks), and the UI tools that the different platforms offer - Interface Builder and the XML Layout editor for Android. Interface Builder is definitely visual enough for designers, but most of the "cool" effects for modern iOS apps can't be done purely through Interface Builder. The Android Layout Editor in Eclipse has a lot more control over features, but I wouldn't expect graphic designers to start creating drawables in XML either. My thoughts would be to work within the Photoshop ecosystem - a plugin that exported XIBs and Layout XML would probably be the easiest way to go.

alexobenauer 14y ago
I agree. CSS Hat currently does this for CSS (http://csshat.com/ http://csshat.com/), but it would truly be great there was a "CSS Hat for native mobile" UI's.
- jefflinwood 14y ago
  That tool is almost exactly the type of thing I was thinking of. Thanks for sharing!
- pcolton 14y ago
  A 'CSS Hat for native mobile UI's" is basically what Pixate supports. That is, we can take CSS, and style native iOS (and Android) components just like you can web components. Pixate is the engine that enables all of this (whereas in a web page, the browser is doing all the rendering for you).
  - alexobenauer 14y ago
    I think I like the CSS Hat model better because it generates the code that I then have complete control over. First, that can be helpful when learning the language. Second, it's really nice because of its tweakability. If the CSS Hat dev's decided to implement a stroke as a border, but I know it would look better as a layered drop shadow, then I can make that adjustment. If there are any other quirks or bugs, I can fix them with the resultant code. With the pixate model, I can't do that, as far as I understand (please correct me if I'm wrong!!).

carson 14y ago

I was thinking about something like this the other day. Nimbus has something similar I think http://blog.jeffverkoeyen.com/nimbus-chameleon http://blog.jeffverkoeyen.com/nimbus-chameleon

pcolton 14y ago

Appcelerator (creators of Titanium) supports Pixate by becoming first corporate sponsor. http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/08/join-us-in-supporting-pixate.html http://developer.appcelerator.com/blog/2012/08/join-us-in-su...

bgramer 14y ago
I've been watching this with keen interest since it was first announced here sometime ago. Unfortunately, at the pace Pixate is raising funds on Kickstarter, it doesn't look like they'll achieve their goal. Does this mean they're screwed, or will they still push this product out the door through their corporate sponsor Appcelerator?
- pcolton 14y ago
  Have you made a pledge? ;-)

shasty 14y ago

And while someone without a brain is trying to develop mobile UIs in CSS the guy with the brain will be cutting photoshop and writing code. CSS is madness.

vtry 14y ago

You can use Bootstrap today...

zbowling 14y ago

I wrote this for iOSDevCamp last year: http://cssapply.github.com/ http://cssapply.github.com/