9 ms·

An easy to follow design course for programmers

171 points by thecosas 14y ago

542458 14y ago
Looks like their servers aren't quite up to the task - I'm only getting half-formed content.
- gketuma 14y ago
  I can't even get the first lesson. This is a lesson to all developers. Don't underestimate the power of HN.
  - wells-riley 14y ago
    On it, fellas. We weren't expecting so many beta signups... didn't think we needed more dynos until launch ;) Check back in a few minutes, we're already working on it.
    - mynameisvlad 14y ago
      Still super flaky. Alternating between Application Error and half-loaded pages. :(
    - PommeDeTerre 14y ago
      How much traffic are you actually getting? HN doesn't drive all that much traffic to a site, even for sites at the top of the first page. It's virtually nothing compared to what Slashdot could drive to a site in its heyday, or what reddit's front page can drive today. I don't mean to offend you, but something is seriously wrong with your web app, your database(s) or your other infrastructure if it can't withstand a relatively minor amount of traffic. It's hard to tell for sure given all of the application errors, but it seems like your web app's functionality is pretty basic.
      - meric 14y ago
        How many requests per second do you think a website needs to be capable of serving to handle the traffic from HN? (Performance newbie here)
        PommeDeTerre 14y ago
        Well, it depends on the site in question, of course. But we can make some estimates, if you want. In the past, I've talked to some colleagues who've had content hit the front page here, and they reported numbers ranging from around 1,000 unique visitors to about 30,000 visitors over a one-day period. So it can vary quite a bit, apparently. Let's assume that things are more intense than that, and go with 50,000 or so unique visitors in a single hour, distributed rather evenly over that time period, making 2 page views each. Let's also assume that our web server serves up 20 style sheets, JavaScript files, images, and other assets each page view. We'll also assume that this is an interactive web app, so there'll be some database activity, too. No CDN is being used. So we're talking around 2 million requests over that hour. Since we're assuming they're evenly distributed, for the most part, we'll assume we're dealing with about 550 to 600 requests per second. That may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. Many of the requests will be for static content (JS scripts, style sheets, images, and so on), so they should be trivial to serve up. Apache or nginx running on a modern, bottom-tier VPS should have no trouble keeping up with this. Likewise, assuming queries that aren't overly intensive, MySQL or PostgreSQL running on the same server should easily handle a few hundred queries per second. Only a fraction of the requests will actually involve any significant work from the web app itself. It should not be considered unreasonable for the web app to handle a few hundred requests per second. We won't even consider using a reverse proxy like Varnish, for instance, to reduce some of the load on the web server, web app and database. Keep in mind that this is a relatively intense scenario, too, at least compared to the activity than can be generated by an appearance on the HN front page, as has been described to me in the past. In reality, we're likely looking at much, much less traffic than in our estimate above, even during the period of peak activity. Hopefully that helps explain why I think something is very wrong here if a relatively basic web app can't keep up with a relatively moderate amount of traffic.
oboizt 14y ago
I can't get the page to load, but judging by the title, this is something I desperately need as a programmer with zero aesthetic talent.
ctruman 14y ago
Site loads fine for me. Cool first lesson, love the idea.
wasd 14y ago
"Application Offline for Maintenance" at 3:40 PM PST. Edit 1: And at 3:41 PM its up. Spoke too soon. Edit 2: And its back to a screeching halt at 3:42 PM. Edit 3: Ups and downs. Works for 1-2 minutes and then breaks. 4:15 pm. I still haven't managed to read a whole lesson. Its a slow day so I'll check again in half an hour.
- alexkiwi 14y ago
  Back online now.
kurtfunai 14y ago
Site took a long time to load, but when it did, I gladly signed up. Got my first email already. Really looking forward to this, thanks. * Edit, It appears that the video "Objectified" (Or at least the preview) is not available to rent from YouTube in Canada. "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." :( I don't have time to try renting it right now, but I'll test it this weekend. Perhaps only the trailer is unavailable. Can anyone test/confirm?
- mathewsanders 14y ago
  How about Vimeo? http://vimeo.com/12793996 http://vimeo.com/12793996
  - kurtfunai 14y ago
    This works, thank you!
kaichanvong 14y ago
Super slow to load the page and just got an application error. Looks nice, hopefully I'll get on and learn a thing or two :)
AskHugo 14y ago
I can't seem to be able to change my password. Is that not implemented yet or am I not looking in the right place? Great idea by the way. Looking forwards to the lessons.
- wells-riley 14y ago
  Not implemented yet. You'll have that functionality once we launch.
felipesabino 14y ago
For the 1st lesson I don't have Netflix and the youtube playlist is not available in my country (Brazil) :(
wells-riley 14y ago
If you're outside the US, try here for Objectified: http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/stream/ http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/stream/
fasouto 14y ago
I tried to watch the first video but I cannot use netflix in my country. No problem, let's watch the youtube playlist"The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Ok, I will rent it on youtube: "This movie is not available in your country." And then they ask why the people use the pirate bay...
- rmccue 14y ago
  Likewise as an Australian. If you're going to make things like this, please consider non-US users.
- ashray 14y ago
  Exactly, why is this content available to US users for free (via Youtube) but I have to pay because I'm outside of the US ? I guess it's to do with youtube ad revenues for US impressions but as a customer it makes me feel a bit shafted considering that you will, in no way, make $3.99 from a single US user watching this on youtube. However, I appreciate that you're doing this course for 'free' and I do think it's a great idea. Just wish I didn't have to pay for the very first video that I want to watch. Why not provide a TPB magnet link ?
  - wells-riley 14y ago
    It really sucks. In fact, I wholly believe that many people will turn away from Hack Design because there's essentially a paywall right out of the gate. I don't regret my choice to start with this film, though. Objectified had a profound impact on me as a designer. I first watched it in a slump of disenchantment that my "web design" skills would never amount to anything valuable or earth-shattering. This film gave me perspective. It showed me that, in extreme cases, design can make the world a better place. There are moments in this film that give me the shakes. It resonates so deeply with what I believe, and what I want to achieve during my career. I can't think of any better way to help put hackers into the mindset that I believe is most conducive to learning the basics of design. I hope you figure out a way around paying an exorbitant amount of money to watch the film, and hopefully see you next week for Lesson 1.
juiceandjuice 14y ago
Objectified is okay. The Eames documentary is much more interesting in terms of the design process, as is the Milton Glaser one.
Cyranix 14y ago
I hate to be "that guy" but I'm genuinely having a hard time reading this page. * thin white text on light grey buttons * thin light grey text on almost matching light grey background (anti-spam message below email input) * small thin light grey text on white background * on highlight, dark grey text on... burnt orange?! I'm in the target market for this program -- a developer whose design skills are pretty weak -- but the landing page is a big turn-off. Even I can recognize when fonts are needlessly small and low-contrast. EDIT: Pull up your favorite color contrast analyzer and run this site through it. Using AccessColor, the results are ~4% failure and ~75% warning for WCAG 1.0 standards.
- eranation 14y ago
  There is a site dedicated to the topic actually: http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/ I think there is a difference between "looks good aesthetically" and "readable" and sometimes making it more readable doesn't overlap with pure artistic choices, so sometimes it's the best designers that fall into this trap. Edit: see previous discussion on this here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807047 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807047
  - Cyranix 14y ago
    I might cut them a bit more slack if the image to the CTA wasn't for "Typography Crash Course"! Thanks for the reminder on Constrast Rebellion.
- jimgdawg 14y ago
  Agreed. I kept mousing over the low contrast areas expecting it to dynamically change to a darker font.... no dice.
- vineel 14y ago
  What operating system are you using? It looks great on OS X 10.8.2.
- hdra 14y ago
  I am not sure which part you are referring to, but here i see mostly black text on white background. but that is the landing page, the email itself is indeed hard to read (all the problems you mentioned).. I waited several seconds after opening the email because I thought the CSS haven't finished rendering.
TinyBig 14y ago
Lovely idea! You may want to mention in Week 0 that Objectified is also available on Amazon Prime.
infinityetc 14y ago
I am a designer, but I am really looking forward to this. New resources, insights, and challenges can only help.
rvkennedy 14y ago
I'd feel happier going along with this is the commercial relationship between hackdesign.org and the makers of the Objectified documentary was upfront and clear before sign-up for a putatively free course. There's nothing wrong with making money this way (if they are, I can't tell). But tell us, before asking for email addresses: what it actually costs, and whether (in your country) you can even get the required content.
rcavezza 14y ago
My girlfriend is interested in design, but she's not a hacker. Could anyone recommend any courses for her? I haven't been able to find any.
luney 14y ago
I am the target market for this. Unless I have to pay.
stavrianos 14y ago
The unsubscribe link is missing an href.
TommyDANGerous 14y ago
I wish they didn't make you do stuff, but I guess its a course. I want to just see tips and tricks.
binarydreams 14y ago
Any special reason why "Objectified: A documentary for design" is on Netflix (as it's not available in my country) and NOT Youtube ? Also, getting heroku application error several times.
holgersindbaek 14y ago
Site is down. Scale the servers!
nnq 14y ago
Tip: make your lesson 1 a "free demo" or something if you want to get more people interested! (the only reason I didn't say "fuck this" and moved on after amazon said it won't stream the video to me because I'm not in the US was because I happened to remember the Helvetica documentary and thought maybe it's worth the pain...)
greggman 14y ago
I was all excited and then ... Seriously? Objectified is your first lesson? http://www.amazon.com/Objectified/product-reviews/B002SOUVKU/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0 http://www.amazon.com/Objectified/product-reviews/B002SOUVKU...
happywolf 14y ago
In case anybody is not aware, TreeHouse has a lot of design courses available for free. http://teamtreehouse.com/library http://teamtreehouse.com/library I am in Singapore and as like other people here, has hit a pay-wall. The issue is at the landing page, it says: "Receive a design course in your inbox each week" which gives me an impression these courses are free. I understand good things usually aren't free, but not saying it up front until I gave my email address is something that I don't like. Therefore, I am not going back
mdznr 14y ago
You should also be giving those avatars height attributes. When some of them load in slower (Also, I see you're loading them @2x, essentially), it shifts the formatting of the page a bit.
sergiotapia 14y ago
I'm not sure if this is free or not. Someone in the comments below mentioned this was a bait and switch scam where they make it look free, then push some payments on you. Any confirmation on the 'free' status of this course?
davidjnelson 14y ago
Internal server error

171 points by thecosas 14y ago

542458 14y ago

Looks like their servers aren't quite up to the task - I'm only getting half-formed content.

gketuma 14y ago
I can't even get the first lesson. This is a lesson to all developers. Don't underestimate the power of HN.
- wells-riley 14y ago
  On it, fellas. We weren't expecting so many beta signups... didn't think we needed more dynos until launch ;) Check back in a few minutes, we're already working on it.
  - mynameisvlad 14y ago
    Still super flaky. Alternating between Application Error and half-loaded pages. :(
  - PommeDeTerre 14y ago
    How much traffic are you actually getting? HN doesn't drive all that much traffic to a site, even for sites at the top of the first page. It's virtually nothing compared to what Slashdot could drive to a site in its heyday, or what reddit's front page can drive today. I don't mean to offend you, but something is seriously wrong with your web app, your database(s) or your other infrastructure if it can't withstand a relatively minor amount of traffic. It's hard to tell for sure given all of the application errors, but it seems like your web app's functionality is pretty basic.
    - meric 14y ago
      How many requests per second do you think a website needs to be capable of serving to handle the traffic from HN? (Performance newbie here)
      - PommeDeTerre 14y ago
        Well, it depends on the site in question, of course. But we can make some estimates, if you want. In the past, I've talked to some colleagues who've had content hit the front page here, and they reported numbers ranging from around 1,000 unique visitors to about 30,000 visitors over a one-day period. So it can vary quite a bit, apparently. Let's assume that things are more intense than that, and go with 50,000 or so unique visitors in a single hour, distributed rather evenly over that time period, making 2 page views each. Let's also assume that our web server serves up 20 style sheets, JavaScript files, images, and other assets each page view. We'll also assume that this is an interactive web app, so there'll be some database activity, too. No CDN is being used. So we're talking around 2 million requests over that hour. Since we're assuming they're evenly distributed, for the most part, we'll assume we're dealing with about 550 to 600 requests per second. That may seem like a lot, but it really isn't. Many of the requests will be for static content (JS scripts, style sheets, images, and so on), so they should be trivial to serve up. Apache or nginx running on a modern, bottom-tier VPS should have no trouble keeping up with this. Likewise, assuming queries that aren't overly intensive, MySQL or PostgreSQL running on the same server should easily handle a few hundred queries per second. Only a fraction of the requests will actually involve any significant work from the web app itself. It should not be considered unreasonable for the web app to handle a few hundred requests per second. We won't even consider using a reverse proxy like Varnish, for instance, to reduce some of the load on the web server, web app and database. Keep in mind that this is a relatively intense scenario, too, at least compared to the activity than can be generated by an appearance on the HN front page, as has been described to me in the past. In reality, we're likely looking at much, much less traffic than in our estimate above, even during the period of peak activity. Hopefully that helps explain why I think something is very wrong here if a relatively basic web app can't keep up with a relatively moderate amount of traffic.

oboizt 14y ago

I can't get the page to load, but judging by the title, this is something I desperately need as a programmer with zero aesthetic talent.

ctruman 14y ago

Site loads fine for me. Cool first lesson, love the idea.

wasd 14y ago

"Application Offline for Maintenance" at 3:40 PM PST. Edit 1: And at 3:41 PM its up. Spoke too soon. Edit 2: And its back to a screeching halt at 3:42 PM. Edit 3: Ups and downs. Works for 1-2 minutes and then breaks. 4:15 pm. I still haven't managed to read a whole lesson. Its a slow day so I'll check again in half an hour.

alexkiwi 14y ago
Back online now.

kurtfunai 14y ago

Site took a long time to load, but when it did, I gladly signed up. Got my first email already. Really looking forward to this, thanks. * Edit, It appears that the video "Objectified" (Or at least the preview) is not available to rent from YouTube in Canada. "The uploader has not made this video available in your country." :( I don't have time to try renting it right now, but I'll test it this weekend. Perhaps only the trailer is unavailable. Can anyone test/confirm?

mathewsanders 14y ago
How about Vimeo? http://vimeo.com/12793996 http://vimeo.com/12793996
- kurtfunai 14y ago
  This works, thank you!

kaichanvong 14y ago

Super slow to load the page and just got an application error. Looks nice, hopefully I'll get on and learn a thing or two :)

AskHugo 14y ago

I can't seem to be able to change my password. Is that not implemented yet or am I not looking in the right place? Great idea by the way. Looking forwards to the lessons.

wells-riley 14y ago
Not implemented yet. You'll have that functionality once we launch.

felipesabino 14y ago

For the 1st lesson I don't have Netflix and the youtube playlist is not available in my country (Brazil) :(

wells-riley 14y ago

If you're outside the US, try here for Objectified: http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/stream/ http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/stream/

fasouto 14y ago

I tried to watch the first video but I cannot use netflix in my country. No problem, let's watch the youtube playlist"The uploader has not made this video available in your country." Ok, I will rent it on youtube: "This movie is not available in your country." And then they ask why the people use the pirate bay...

rmccue 14y ago
Likewise as an Australian. If you're going to make things like this, please consider non-US users.
ashray 14y ago
Exactly, why is this content available to US users for free (via Youtube) but I have to pay because I'm outside of the US ? I guess it's to do with youtube ad revenues for US impressions but as a customer it makes me feel a bit shafted considering that you will, in no way, make $3.99 from a single US user watching this on youtube. However, I appreciate that you're doing this course for 'free' and I do think it's a great idea. Just wish I didn't have to pay for the very first video that I want to watch. Why not provide a TPB magnet link ?
- wells-riley 14y ago
  It really sucks. In fact, I wholly believe that many people will turn away from Hack Design because there's essentially a paywall right out of the gate. I don't regret my choice to start with this film, though. Objectified had a profound impact on me as a designer. I first watched it in a slump of disenchantment that my "web design" skills would never amount to anything valuable or earth-shattering. This film gave me perspective. It showed me that, in extreme cases, design can make the world a better place. There are moments in this film that give me the shakes. It resonates so deeply with what I believe, and what I want to achieve during my career. I can't think of any better way to help put hackers into the mindset that I believe is most conducive to learning the basics of design. I hope you figure out a way around paying an exorbitant amount of money to watch the film, and hopefully see you next week for Lesson 1.

juiceandjuice 14y ago

Objectified is okay. The Eames documentary is much more interesting in terms of the design process, as is the Milton Glaser one.

Cyranix 14y ago

I hate to be "that guy" but I'm genuinely having a hard time reading this page. * thin white text on light grey buttons * thin light grey text on almost matching light grey background (anti-spam message below email input) * small thin light grey text on white background * on highlight, dark grey text on... burnt orange?! I'm in the target market for this program -- a developer whose design skills are pretty weak -- but the landing page is a big turn-off. Even I can recognize when fonts are needlessly small and low-contrast. EDIT: Pull up your favorite color contrast analyzer and run this site through it. Using AccessColor, the results are ~4% failure and ~75% warning for WCAG 1.0 standards.

eranation 14y ago
There is a site dedicated to the topic actually: http://contrastrebellion.com/ http://contrastrebellion.com/ I think there is a difference between "looks good aesthetically" and "readable" and sometimes making it more readable doesn't overlap with pure artistic choices, so sometimes it's the best designers that fall into this trap. Edit: see previous discussion on this here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807047 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2807047
- Cyranix 14y ago
  I might cut them a bit more slack if the image to the CTA wasn't for "Typography Crash Course"! Thanks for the reminder on Constrast Rebellion.
jimgdawg 14y ago
Agreed. I kept mousing over the low contrast areas expecting it to dynamically change to a darker font.... no dice.
vineel 14y ago
What operating system are you using? It looks great on OS X 10.8.2.
hdra 14y ago
I am not sure which part you are referring to, but here i see mostly black text on white background. but that is the landing page, the email itself is indeed hard to read (all the problems you mentioned).. I waited several seconds after opening the email because I thought the CSS haven't finished rendering.

TinyBig 14y ago

Lovely idea! You may want to mention in Week 0 that Objectified is also available on Amazon Prime.

infinityetc 14y ago

I am a designer, but I am really looking forward to this. New resources, insights, and challenges can only help.

rvkennedy 14y ago

I'd feel happier going along with this is the commercial relationship between hackdesign.org and the makers of the Objectified documentary was upfront and clear before sign-up for a putatively free course. There's nothing wrong with making money this way (if they are, I can't tell). But tell us, before asking for email addresses: what it actually costs, and whether (in your country) you can even get the required content.

rcavezza 14y ago

My girlfriend is interested in design, but she's not a hacker. Could anyone recommend any courses for her? I haven't been able to find any.

luney 14y ago

I am the target market for this. Unless I have to pay.

stavrianos 14y ago

The unsubscribe link is missing an href.

TommyDANGerous 14y ago

I wish they didn't make you do stuff, but I guess its a course. I want to just see tips and tricks.

binarydreams 14y ago

Any special reason why "Objectified: A documentary for design" is on Netflix (as it's not available in my country) and NOT Youtube ? Also, getting heroku application error several times.

holgersindbaek 14y ago

Site is down. Scale the servers!

nnq 14y ago

Tip: make your lesson 1 a "free demo" or something if you want to get more people interested! (the only reason I didn't say "fuck this" and moved on after amazon said it won't stream the video to me because I'm not in the US was because I happened to remember the Helvetica documentary and thought maybe it's worth the pain...)

greggman 14y ago

I was all excited and then ... Seriously? Objectified is your first lesson? http://www.amazon.com/Objectified/product-reviews/B002SOUVKU/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_2?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addTwoStar&showViewpoints=0 http://www.amazon.com/Objectified/product-reviews/B002SOUVKU...

happywolf 14y ago

In case anybody is not aware, TreeHouse has a lot of design courses available for free. http://teamtreehouse.com/library http://teamtreehouse.com/library I am in Singapore and as like other people here, has hit a pay-wall. The issue is at the landing page, it says: "Receive a design course in your inbox each week" which gives me an impression these courses are free. I understand good things usually aren't free, but not saying it up front until I gave my email address is something that I don't like. Therefore, I am not going back

mdznr 14y ago

You should also be giving those avatars height attributes. When some of them load in slower (Also, I see you're loading them @2x, essentially), it shifts the formatting of the page a bit.

sergiotapia 14y ago

I'm not sure if this is free or not. Someone in the comments below mentioned this was a bait and switch scam where they make it look free, then push some payments on you. Any confirmation on the 'free' status of this course?

davidjnelson 14y ago

Internal server error