Signed up and looking forward to the email! Does anyone know of other sites like this out there? I've spent the past year or so pushing my own startup idea, it didn't work out but I learned a lot. Now I am just looking to take a few months off of my own ideas and pitch in on someone else's MVP, get more experience, and meet new people.
I guess I might as well shamelessly plug myself: I am a developer who writes python and nodejs on the backend, loves coffeescript, and my last project used Meteor.
I am a first-year CS student looking to build a very small personal project. I could definitely use a mentor, if you are interested. You haven't listed your email but mine is in my profile, feel free to drop me a line.
and if not try http://www.weekendhacker.net/. It launched about a year ago with the same idea and format as Analog. It grew quickly and was fairly successful for a while. It has been quiet lately, the creator mentioned going through some personal stuff, but the most recent mailing was May 4 and it looked great and sounded promising. Good luck finding a project.
Well, it's only 120 chars. The idea is for it to be just for side projects, rather than billion dollar ideas - so the risk of showing off your idea isn't huge. I do get your concern though, and I'm gonna work on beefing up the FAQ and Terms so insecurity will be minimised:)
Unfortunately I've interacted with the author of this project, Zander Brade, and he turned out to be one of the most untrustworthy designers I've ever encountered. Due to my past experience with him I have no intention of touching this site/project. Sorry, but I had to say it.
Just a little perspective: The only people who never fuck up are people who never try.
I don't know him or you and it's not an excuse, but if you hire a 17 year old you can't expect the same level of experience as working with a freelance designer.
I've done a lot of very stupid things in my career. Only 17, still learning. I'm super sorry though that you feel this way:( Maybe mail me zander.brade AT gmail.com and I can try make it up.
Everyone makes mistakes - you probably won't be able to make up too well with this guy in particular since negative reactions are very hard to shake. However, there are luckily tons more people and good work is good work, so keep it up!
I agree with Ryan here, I signed up as well, your site fills an important need that developers and designers have and I am looking forward to this.
The one point I wanted to criticize is that there was no validation on your form , i made a typo in developer and managed to get through.
Also I didn't receive any email confirmation.
Sorry, I just found out who this was, and personally what you consider to be worthy of 'one of the most untrustworthy designers I've ever encountered', I find somewhat offensive.
What happened: I missed a Skype call, and wasn't interested in working with you on a potential project. No contracts signed, 8 emails exchanged - just a sign from you that you might be interested in hiring me; and I wasn't into the project.
Hardly a crime in my eyes.
Also, this means I just shared a different story where I actually messed up.
Without knowing who this is, I can't say. I know I've only done one terrible thing as a designer, which was with a really friendly dude, I was 15 at the time and just fucked up horribly. I'm pretty sure this is the incident as I've had few other big hiccups.
A few weeks ago there was a discussion between developers and designers here becasue of an article 'Designing Open Source'. Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5550522
Basic idea was designers want to give back to the community but can't find any (good) projects. They could do 'drive-by-design' or put in more time and see the project grow. This site could help. But reputation is everything and I'd like to see a bit more up front. A bit more of the guy who made it would be nice. Kind of makes my Spidey sens go off as empty as it is right now...
Annoying coincidence, but just as I was about to launch Analog today my site went down. I'm sure it's a pretty simple fix but it was something I've put to the back rather than going at it now. So I just have a landing page atm instead.
On any other day you'd be able to see my full site, with a ton of stuff about me, my work and my writing. I'll go work on getting it back up now. So, I understand your reaction.
Thank you for your reply. As I said, like the idea. You're only 17 so I think you're doing some great things. (Especially if I think back to all the things I was doing at age 17). When you're site is up again I'll have a look and perhaps I'll sign up.
Not that I know of - certainly not a large selection that function in the same way as Analog. The idea was inspired by Builditwith.me by Drew Wilson, and I wanted it to function like Tinyproj - that's how it's come together as is.
So yeah, there probably are quite a few, but I'm confident that Analog has something unique going for it.
Developers: learn Photoshop and CSS. The designers you'll find this way will not be worth anything more as designers than operators of Photoshop and CSS.
Designers: learn programming. The programmers you'll find this way will not be worth anything more than a really inefficient way to test your designs through a compiler.
There is real value to having a skilled designer and a skilled developer, but those people are rare and you aren't going to find them reliably if you don't know anything about their fields. At best, you might randomly stumble on one. Considering that communication is far more important of a skill than most other skills, the only way to find the right people is to first get to know them as people, not as objects to plug in to a whole in your project. I talk more about this on my blog (http://moron4hire.tumblr.com/post/48619863000/hiring-is-dati...)
Both of you will be far better served by the experience. You might have an idea now that seems like it has a burning need to be developed and you don't have the time to learn on your own, but it's just not true; that's the manic tendencies inside of you talking. If you give in now, you'll be in this exact, same position in N months when the next burning-a-whole-in-your-brain project idea comes along.
By all means, continue with your project as you learn. It will probably suck, but you'll come out of the other side with more skills, ready to make the next project even better.
While I agree with the thinking here, simply learning Photoshop and CSS doesn't make you a designer and learning programming doesn't make you a programmer. I'm a front-end dev who's more than competent in Photoshop and can write really modular, daresay good CSS but if I had to decide between using a designer or making my own design, nine times out of ten, I'm going to use someone who is, by trade, a designer and has an eye for crafting a beautiful UI, choosing colors, and for laying out type.
I'm slowly but surely getting better at design things but I choose to focus my energy on development rather than prettifying pixels (I say that with absolutely no intent of malice).
I agree that broadening my skills to include design would be helpful. I'd also be really great off if I learned how to treat my own ailments and fix my own car. I can't do it all though, so when I have the need, I partner with designers. I look through portfolios, gauge talent and ability, and hope for the best.
While I agree with the thinking here, simply learning Photoshop and CSS doesn't make you a designer and learning programming doesn't make you a programmer.
I don't think he said that nor suggested it. The point is being able to empathize with your "other half" (dating term!). Empathy is important and critical for the success of both the technical and interface design of any web product.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, sir. Here's my all-time favorite quote from Ira Glass, to give perspective from the other side.
> "Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you.
> A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."
Just subbmitted: Application for tracking IOU's. I'll handle iOS design & dev, web JS (done) and REST API (done). You do web front (CSS).
Basically, my CSS and HTML sucks massive schlong. But I've gotten the front-end working prettly neatly (Batman.JS with CofeeScript) with the RESTFUL (in true meaning) API.
I want to focus on an iOS version + some additional social provider authentication while you do the front-end in terms of HTML and CSS.
It's a client-side front-end. But the templates are in HTML (HTML 5 with data attributes that is)
Sometimes it isn't about skill-set, but about Time To Launch(™)
But I have added support (on the DB side of things) to make it agnostic in the future.
Say for separate IOU's index listing for different currencies and items.
From books and games to World of Warcraft gold.
Heh, actually a funny story...
At first I allowed realtime currency conversion, but a friend pointed out how stupid it was. I didn't really think it was stupid until he laughed out loud and explained.
I do get now... but back then it seemed only natural that the user picks a single currency to list all the money that the user owes or is owed.
Thanks for showing interest. It's just a side project, not a profitable startup in any means - scratching me and my friends list for splitting and keeping track of tabs.
It does separate item splits, even splits and single one off payments/loans (essentially the same thing).
It's all client side so you get feedback directly on how much you got paid for or paid for.
I guess I might as well shamelessly plug myself: I am a developer who writes python and nodejs on the backend, loves coffeescript, and my last project used Meteor.