Design chat

[alexbayleaf]

Just chatting with aquaprofunda on IM and wanted to drop a copy of our discussion here for future reference. It covers a handful of things (monetisation, development/planning process, and graphic design/UI) at least in a very brief way so if you're interested in any of those take a look.



skud: so, growstuff!
aquaprofunda: yay!
aquaprofunda: i take it you've been having lots of ideas
aquaprofunda: have you figured out a platform to do planning on yet?
aquaprofunda: eg basecamp or something?
skud: nope
aquaprofunda: also, monetising - have ideas for that?
skud: i am tempted to go with bugzilla and homegrown
skud: yes, re: monetising. had some chats on irc yesterday.
aquaprofunda: because of their appropriate names?
skud: by homegrown i meant, a homegrown process, not a thing called homegrown
skud: bugzilla because it's pretty flexible to get it to do what you want (set up different categories etc) in ways that some others aren't
skud: money: i think mostly memberships, with a commitment not to have general-purpose ads, but an option for community-based low-key ads
skud: like rav's
skud: but to do that you need to write your own ad system
skud: so i wouldn't do it at first
aquaprofunda: nod*
aquaprofunda: so, process: set up a cut-off date for brainstorming, write up a spec / feature list, break them into bite-sized prioritised bits and work on them agilely starting with wireframes & more detailed specs?
skud: sort of
skud: i would actually like to set a sort of cycle thingy
skud: like 3 week cycles
skud: and at the start of each one we brainstorm, make "stories" or find them from leftovers from previous, then work on them til end of cycle
aquaprofunda: sounds good
skud: something like having a cycle start on a wednesday, brainstorm til the weekend, 2 weeks coding, then a few days tidy-up then push to the test environment the following tuesday
aquaprofunda: i am familiar with this agileness :)
skud: i don't want to brainstorm too much up front.
aquaprofunda: good thinking
aquaprofunda: so, using bugzilla to brainstorm, plan, document, etc?
skud: i would say mailing list and IRC for discussions, then stories get turned into bugzilla bugs, yeah
skud: scope them as "small/medium/large"
aquaprofunda: sounds good
skud: at the end of the planning days, people can grab stories they want to work on, ideally based on how much they've managed to do in previous cycles
skud: anyone who comes in mid-cycle can grab "small" tasks til the next one comes round
aquaprofunda: yup. how do you want to manage the maintaining of a cohesive UI with multiple developers?
skud: put you in charge of it?
skud: also, standards/guides
skud: like coding standards but for design
aquaprofunda: eg. the 'available' tasks come complete with wireframes or html templates already? or we have some front-end coding standards that i get to check for?
skud: starting with metaphor and high level concepts of how the site should operate… principles, that sort of thing
aquaprofunda: yep. and portable styles
skud: yup
skud: developing standards would itself be a task
aquaprofunda: yeah.
skud: if a wireframe gets developed during the planning sessions that is ok, but if not then it will just make the task itself bigger. if it is too big then it should split in two: wireframe it, then do it.
aquaprofunda: welp, it's what i already do for a bunch of applications with a bunch of developers at work
aquaprofunda: yes
skud: i was thinking about site design
skud: i mean in the shiny ooh way
aquaprofunda: chin hands*
skud: airbnb's front page
skud: *gorgeous* pictures front and centre
aquaprofunda: oooh yes
skud: then, you know ifttt's UI? huge text and sort of work-down-the-page? that but milder
skud: for the process of eg. planting a new crop
aquaprofunda: nod*
skud: that's about all i've got
aquaprofunda: i'm liking it
skud: excellent!
skud: right now i would love a static splash page to put up on our domain
aquaprofunda: once we come up with some initial features i can get a better idea of how the layout needs to be structured
skud: i was thinking a CC-licensed pic of a really gorgeous garden
skud: with the name "growstuff"
skud: a paragraph explaining what we are
aquaprofunda: or i could take a photo of our chard or lemons or something g*
skud: a form field to subscribe to the mailing list
skud: and some links to dreamwidth/twitter/etc
aquaprofunda: ok. want to start a gdoc with the content for that and i'll put an html page together?
skud: can i do it on the DW comm?
aquaprofunda: sure
skud: i'll discourage bikeshedding
aquaprofunda: good plan
aquaprofunda: i just like the collabness of gdocs
aquaprofunda: blog posts aren't quite the same
skud: once we get github up we can use that
aquaprofunda: right
skud: it has the web editing now too
aquaprofunda: oh fab
skud: yeah
skud: well i mean it's just text based but it understands markdown
aquaprofunda: i am excited about actually getting to use html5/css3
skud: ok i'm going to santiago de compostela today and i need to dash around and get my shit together
skud: oooh YES
aquaprofunda: :)
skud: i will very quickly post this for you
skud: i might just post the IM log.
aquaprofunda: sweet. i'll look tonight



So, I've asked aquaprofunda to put together a static HTML page as described, just so we can put something on our domain once it's up and running. If anyone has (or can find) a gorgeous, high-res image of a food garden to use, feel free to link it in comments. I'll work up a 1-paragraph (preferably 1 sentence) description and post it here for her to use, too.

I told aquaprofunda that I'd discourage bikeshedding. For those who don't know "bikeshedding" in this sort of project is when everyone argues about what colour to paint the bikeshed before it's even built yet, holding up the building process. So since we're just slapping up a placeholder page for now, and want to do it fairly fast, I'd rather not get bogged down in the details. OTOH if you have strong feelings about graphic design, UI, user experience, etc, and want to get involved in that side of the project once we really get up and running, now would be a good time to raise your hand.

Comments

Blurb

[alexbayleaf]

How's this?

"Growstuff is a community of food gardeners working together to build an open source platform to track, share, and discuss edible gardens and sustainable lifestyles. You can join us right now and be part of growing our website, from seed to harvest. We welcome you regardless of your experience, and invite you to be part of our development process."

And then a mailing list subscription form, links to this DW comm, twitter, github, etc.

Re: Blurb

[coriana]

Yum!

(That is to say, I like your descriptive paragraph. It covers everything with appropriate metaphors!)

~ c.

Re: Blurb

[ilyena_sylph]

I like it!

*raises hand*

[algeh]

I'm definitely someone who tends to have strong opinions on UI stuff, although from more of an accessibility standpoint than a graphic design one. I'd like to stay in the loop as that part of the project picks up steam.