3 ms·

The way in which you shoot down something matters greatly. When I saw phoneblocks, I was instantly reminded of designers who work without regard for their medi

The way in which you shoot down something matters greatly. When I saw phoneblocks, I was instantly reminded of designers who work without regard for their medium - a great concept with zero thought given on how to make it a reality, or even awareness of the compromises the medium will inevitably impose. If you're a front-end developer, at some point you were probably given an awesome-looking PDF, then expected to make a website/app that is a 1:1 representation of it. Of course, that never ends up happening and you have explain why it could never be a reality. I'm really excited to see where this goes, but whatever it ends up being, I can guarantee you it won't look much like that phoneblocks video.

kyro 13y ago
> "whatever it ends up being, I can guarantee you it won't look much like that phoneblocks video." Yes, because concepts evolve. Your guarantee isn't some bold bet you're making, and I assume it's supposed to show how impractical the initial design was. But this is standard across all creative industries, from tech, to fashion, to auto: You start with what many times seems like a farfetched idea and you evolve it into a consumer product that retains your initial vision as much as possible.
pwhython 13y ago
> "If you're a front-end developer, at some point you were probably given an awesome-looking PDF, then expected to make a website/app that is a 1:1 representation of it. Of course, that never ends up happening and you have explain why it could never be a reality." I'm going off topic, but as a designer and a front-end developer, I get frustrated when the developed product isn't a 1:1 representation (when sending out the work to get coded). The end result should be a pixel perfect match of the artwork. Nothing is impossible translating an image to a website/app.
- robwgibbons 13y ago
  You've obviously never hit one of the many edge-cases in front-end development that are simply not possible (without an incredible amount of hacking effort). Multi-line vertical text-centering is a great example (try v-centering a paragraph of variable/unknown height). Or the way text wraps around an image differently at varying widths ("can we make it not break like that? I don't like how it flows at X width"). Or dynamically truncating a block of text and adding an ellipsis automatically, at any given size, in a responsive design. There are a LOT of examples of "blue sky" design that simply cannot be translated easily, if at all, into HTML/CSS. This is why it's so important that designers have fundamental understanding of the technologies they're working with.
- lewispollard 13y ago
  > a designer and a front-end developer Could that be because you subconsciously make your designs using knowledge of the technical limitations of the web?

kyro 13y ago

> "whatever it ends up being, I can guarantee you it won't look much like that phoneblocks video." Yes, because concepts evolve. Your guarantee isn't some bold bet you're making, and I assume it's supposed to show how impractical the initial design was. But this is standard across all creative industries, from tech, to fashion, to auto: You start with what many times seems like a farfetched idea and you evolve it into a consumer product that retains your initial vision as much as possible.

pwhython 13y ago

> "If you're a front-end developer, at some point you were probably given an awesome-looking PDF, then expected to make a website/app that is a 1:1 representation of it. Of course, that never ends up happening and you have explain why it could never be a reality." I'm going off topic, but as a designer and a front-end developer, I get frustrated when the developed product isn't a 1:1 representation (when sending out the work to get coded). The end result should be a pixel perfect match of the artwork. Nothing is impossible translating an image to a website/app.

robwgibbons 13y ago
You've obviously never hit one of the many edge-cases in front-end development that are simply not possible (without an incredible amount of hacking effort). Multi-line vertical text-centering is a great example (try v-centering a paragraph of variable/unknown height). Or the way text wraps around an image differently at varying widths ("can we make it not break like that? I don't like how it flows at X width"). Or dynamically truncating a block of text and adding an ellipsis automatically, at any given size, in a responsive design. There are a LOT of examples of "blue sky" design that simply cannot be translated easily, if at all, into HTML/CSS. This is why it's so important that designers have fundamental understanding of the technologies they're working with.
lewispollard 13y ago
> a designer and a front-end developer Could that be because you subconsciously make your designs using knowledge of the technical limitations of the web?