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A Modern Web
Designer’s Workflow
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Chris Coyier
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shoptalkshow.com
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codepen.io
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v10
css-tricks.com
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Chris,
this site looks horrible.
What did you use
design this? Minecraft?
It makes me sick.
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The Gameplan
• CSS-Tricks as a guide
• What works for me
• Bird’s eye view
• The nerdy bits
• Tools, tech, tips
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So you’re going to
build a website...
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Start designing in
Photoshop
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The dreaded blank canvas
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Trick your Brain
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Write Gibberish
Write out your grocery list
“I have a secret.”
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subtlepatterns.com
Toss down a Texture
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Just draw some Shapes
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I’m not that into
Wireframes
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Quickly get in the
Browser
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• You’re not doing work just
to do it over again.
• The web doesn’t have a
fixed canvas size
• It’s not any slower, It’s
usually faster
• CSS is super rad you guys
• Interactivity!
• And hey, text looks better
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Let’s change the phrase
“designing in the browser” to
“deciding in the browser.”
– Daniel Mall
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{{ breathe }}
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Can’t design? Hire on
Dribbble
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authenticjobs.com
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{{ breathe }}
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You need to be developing
Locally
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$ rails server
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MAMP Pro
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• Developing big redesign or new feature,
it’s almost impossible to do live
• As soon as you have two (or more)
people, it’s required
• Version control
• You can use preprocessors
• Deploy at will
• Find in project
• Can work offline (which is faster)
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No more going
FTP COMMANDO
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Speaking of Version Control, it’s
Really Easy
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GitHub for Mac
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Screencast
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beanstalkapp.com
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git-tower.com
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Local
Tower
Beanstalk
Server
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Local
Tower
GitHub
Capistrano
Server
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{{ breathe }}
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Get to know your
Code Editor
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Sublime Text 2
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https://github.com/netatoo/phoenix-theme
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• Super fast Find in Project
• Command-T
• Per-project settings files (e.g. ignoring css)
• Command-Shift-Period
• Autocomplete functions
• Easy to enforce my spaces preference
• Emmet (ex Zen Coding)
Sublime Text 2 things I like
and use all the time:
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Screencast
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{{ breathe }}
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Yeah. So.
Preprocess!
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Variables
_bits.scss
$spacing: 1em;
_typography.scss
p { margin: 0 0 $spacing 0; }
global.scss
.page-wrap { padding: $spacing; }
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Variables
• Keeps code DRY (blah blah)
• Change once change everywhere (blah blah)
• Saves me from myself
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Screencast
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I name my color variables stuff like
$blue, $orange and $lightgray
because that’s how I think.
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Mixins
_bits.scss
@mixin font-stack-body() {
font-family: “Whitney”, “Myriad”, Sans-Serif;
font-weight: 400;
}
_typography.scss
body { @include font-stack-body; }
_forms.scss
input, textarea { @include font-stack-body; }
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Mixins
• Keeps code DRY (blah blah)
• Change once change everywhere (blah blah)
• Stop screwing up CSS3
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Quick!
What vendor prefixes do you need
for gradients right now?
-moz-
-webkit-
-o-
-ms-
no prefix
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-ms-
Quick!
What vendor prefixes do you need
for gradients right now?
x2
-moz-
-webkit-
-o-
no prefix
future proof
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compass-style.org
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@import “compass/css3”;
.module {
@include background(
linear-gradient(white, #ccc)
);
}
Spec Syntax
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.module {
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%,
color-stop(0%, #ffffff), color-stop(100%, #cccccc));
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
}
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@import “compass/css3”;
$experimental-support-for-svg: true;
.module {
@include background(
linear-gradient(white, #ccc)
);
}
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.module {
background: url('data:image/svg
+xml;base64,PD94bWwgdmVyc2lvbj0iMS4wIiBlbmNvZGluZz0idXRmLTgiPz
4gPHN2ZyB2ZXJzaW9uPSIxLjEiIHhtbG5zPSJodHRwOi8vd3d3LnczLm9yZy8y
MDAwL3N2ZyI+PGRlZnM
+PGxpbmVhckdyYWRpZW50IGlkPSJncmFkIiBncmFkaWVudFVuaXRzPSJ1c2VyU
3BhY2VPblVzZSIgeDE9IjUwJSIgeTE9IjAlIiB4Mj0iNTAlIiB5Mj0iMTAwJSI
+PHN0b3Agb2Zmc2V0PSIwJSIgc3RvcC1jb2xvcj0iI2ZmZmZmZiIvPjxzdG9wI
G9mZnNldD0iMTAwJSIgc3RvcC1jb2xvcj0iI2NjY2NjYyIvPjwvbGluZWFyR3J
hZGllbnQ
+PC9kZWZzPjxyZWN0IHg9IjAiIHk9IjAiIHdpZHRoPSIxMDAlIiBoZWlnaHQ9I
jEwMCUiIGZpbGw9InVybCgjZ3JhZCkiIC8+PC9zdmc+IA==');
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%,
color-stop(0%, #ffffff), color-stop(100%, #cccccc));
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
background: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc);
}
BOOM
IE 9 Support
for free
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Linda? Hey.
No. Yeah.
I’ll be working
from home the
rest of this week
trying to get our
IE 9 support
done. Yeah.
Talk to you later.
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Nesting
.module { }
.module h4 { }
.module a { }
.module {
h4 { }
a { }
}
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Nesting
• No directly tangible benefits
• Just feels right
It’s the thing I miss the most when writing regular CSS
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Media Queries
.page-wrap {
width: 75%;
@media (max-width: 700px) {
width: 100%;
}
}
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Media Queries
.page-wrap {
width: 75%;
@include breakpoint(baby-bear) {
width: 100%;
}
}
css-tricks.com/media-queries-sass-3-2-and-codekit/
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P RE P ROCESSING
Makes CSS
fun again!
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Screencast
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incident57.com/codekit/
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Style Injection
is for winners
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Screencast
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{{ breathe }}
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Real Developers
Care about
performance
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Concatenating & Compressing
Styles & Scripts
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28
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1
23
Global
Section or page specific
Page specific
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@import "bits";
@import "normalize";
@import "icons";
@import "ads";
@import "toolbox";
@import "typography";
@import "prism";
@import "buttons";
@import "forms";
@import "grid";
// some stuff, maybe
@import "footer";
global.css
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lodge.scss lodge.css
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2
global.css lodge.css
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// @codekit-prepend "jquery.fitvids.js"
// @codekit-append "prism.js"
(function($) {
// global js
)(jQuery);
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Losslessly
Compressing Images
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1.7MB of
IMAGES
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Alternatives
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livereload.com
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sofresh.redpik.net
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pnggauntlet.com
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HTTP Compression
GZip
mod_deflate
whatever
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“The Internet”
file file
SERVER BROWSER
“The Internet”
imperceptibly fast
squishing
file file
imperceptibly fast
un-squishing
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gzipwtf.com
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Your host might do it
automatically.
If not, search their
docs first.
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Cache!
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Server Side
(install a plugin!)
Client Side
(set expires headers!)
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The fastest HTTP
request is the one
not made.
http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2012/03/22/cache-them-if-you-can/
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It’s up to you to
break cache.
style.v1.css
style.v2.css
style.css?v=3243
style.css?v=3244
...
http://derek.io/blog/2009/auto-versioning-javascript-and-css-files/
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{{ breathe }}
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Testing, Testing,
Testing
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Past Safari
michelf.ca/projects/multi-safari
Current Safari
support.apple.com/downloads#safari
Future Safari
nightly.webkit.org
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Past Chrome
doesn’t really matter
Current Chrome
google.com/chrome
Future Chrome
tools.google.com/dlpage/chromesxs
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Past Firefox
davemartorana.com/multifirefox
ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases
Current Firefox
mozilla.org/firefox
Future Firefox
nightly.mozilla.org
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Past Opera
www.opera.com/browser/download/?custom=yes
Current Opera
www.opera.com/
Future Opera
www.opera.com/browser/next/
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What about IE testing?
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browserstack.com
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• Started designing in Photoshop
but moved to browser quickly
• Working locally is a good thing
• Version control is a good thing
• Preprocessing is a good thing
• Performance as workflow
• Testing
Recap
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THANK YOU
@chriscoyier
chriscoyier.net