Style Guides Are The New Photoshop (Smashing Conference 2012)

Transcript

1. STYLE GUIDES ARE THE NEW PHOTOSHOP STEPHEN HAY @ SMASHINGCONF

   2012

2. DESIGNING IN THE BROWSER Demonstrating our designs to clients as

   XHTML/CSS pages rather than as static Photoshop or Fireworks has streamlined our workflow and helped us to set and manage a client’s expectations better than ever before. Andy Clarke, “Time to stop showing clients static design visuals” (2008)

3. WALLS COME TUMBLING DOWN (2009) Coming up with new and

   better workflows Designing in the browser Learning to live with constraints Designing systems, rather than sites

4. PHOTOSHOP IS IMPRACTICAL FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN MOCKUPS

5. PROBLEMS WITH “PHOTOSHOP” COMPS Design changes are time-consuming Too much

   manual work The image editor is a dependency Responsive design implies multiple and flexible layouts

6. REALITY (Screenshots by Adobe Shadow)

7. WEB TECH IS VERY PRACTICAL FOR RESPONSIVE DESIGN MOCKUPS

8. WEB-BASED COMPS: THE GOOD Doesn’t need to take much longer

   than Photoshop Automate trivial tasks Realistic presentation / real-life rendering State changes are easily visualized Free and open: everyone has a browser & editor No negative surprises for the client Possible prep for development They can be responsive

9. WE NEED TWO THINGS TO REPLACE PHOTOSHOP FOR COMPS

10. 1. Static Web-based Comps 2. Style Guides

11. STYLE GUIDES

12. STYLE GUIDES: THE GOOD No measuring State and breakpoint changes

    can be included Useful for future designers, devs & others Design consistency and maintainability

13. STYLE GUIDES IN THE WILD Apple Identity Guidelines

14. STYLE GUIDES IN THE WILD BBC GEL

15. ANNA DEBENHAM’S COLLECTION STYLE GUIDES, PATTERN LIBRARIES & TOOLS TO

    CREATE THEM http://gim.ie/fZyK

16. MY WEB STYLE GUIDE WISHLIST

17. Free-form writable

18. Taking screenshots should be automated

19. Update code snippets automatically when mockup code changes

20. Update screenshots automatically when something changes

21. Elements/modules should not have to be physically split into separate

    files

22. Syntax highlighting for code

23. AM I TOO DEMANDING? Free-form writable Automated screenshot-taking Update code

    snippets automatically Update screenshots automatically No separate files for code snippets Syntax highlighting

24. I COULD NOT FIND A SINGLE TOOL TO DO THIS

25. Free-form writing DEXY + PANDOC (OR MARKDOWN) FILTER http://www.dexy.it/

26. Taking screenshots PHANTOM.JS + CASPER.JS http://phantomjs.org/ http://casperjs.org/

27. Code & screenshot updating JINJA TEMPLATES + DEXY’S IDIOPIDAE FILTER

28. Syntax highlighting DEXY’S PYGMENTS FILTER

29. THE COMMAND LINE http://www.flickr.com/photos/evdaimon/337754011/

30. None
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33. hi.

34. Web-based mockup Style guide Style guide content in Markdown HTML

    CSS SCREEN CODE screenshots taken, code snippets extracted How this works

35. STEPS

36. 1 Create a web-based mockup Use HTML, CSS & when

    necessary, JavaScript Your goal is to represent the design in the browser Your goal is not to create production code Your CSS should be modular (it will end up in your style guide!)

37. SMACSS MAKE CSS MORE MODULAR WITH… A LUMBERJACK.

38. 2 Install Dexy & any dependencies If you’re a designer

    and can’t do it alone, ask a developer’s help. Before you ask for help, try going to the sites and following the instructions as best you can.

39. 2 Install PhantomJS & CasperJS If you’re a designer and

    can’t do it alone, ask a developer’s help. Before you ask for help, try going to the sites and following the instructions as best you can.

40. 3 Write your guide and use Jinja templates Use simple

    Markdown links to screenshots. Note the filenames you use.

41. 4 Script your screenshots with CasperJS Keep things easy by

    adding a new casper.then() for each screenshot. Code brevity is not the goal.

42. 5 Mark the CSS you want to export An export

    ends when another starts, or with @end.

43. 6 Run Dexy Wow, that command line stuff is hard.

44. DONE

45. Changes in design? Run dexy again. Well, okay. In some

    cases you might want to do dexy cleanup followed by dexy setup and then dexy.

46. This is not without a learning curve. But what is?

47. Choose what works for you. Hopefully something here will inspire

    you to find your own way. Experiment!

48. These are new times. The problems we have with responsive

    workflow should encourage us to examine and evaluate our processes and tools.

49. OPEN DEVICE LABS http://klick-ass.com/awesomeness/avoid-the-tamagotchis-a-list-of-open-device-labs/

50. Have fun. Make great stuff. KEEP LEARNING. Thanks! @stephenhay Special

    thanks to Ana Nelson