Prescott chats with Niki Brown & Liz Andrade, the design duo behind The Pagebreak Podcast. Niki & Liz are both solo designers, working independently. Together we discuss tools of the job, the state of web design and text editors, and how they got started in podcasting.
Somehow, the topic of cats failed to come up, but we’re all cat owners.
Show Notes & Links
Guests Niki Brown (@nikibrown) & Liz Andrade (@lizandrade)The PageBreak Podcast, featuring both Niki & LizWoMance, a web comic by Liz AndradeNiki works in Boston as a front end developerNiki is a marathon finisher and CrossFit participantLiz plays video games and writes comic booksSolopreneur, a one-person business (solo+entrepreneur)Contractor, Freelancer, Solo-practitioners — all confusing termsBootstrap, a frameworkThe old argument about making pretty things vs. adding valueAnother old argument about generalists vs. specialistsEver quit a project and refund the money? Niki & Prescott both have“Can the buttons be more buttony?”A “Danger Will Robinson” reference and shoutout to old-school button-laded interface designNiki uses Basecamp, even when working alone; Liz uses it with other freelancers, not clientsDropbox, for assetsGit & Github, version control for codeLabelled and organized emailNaming conventions for client filesCreating a system with the benchmark: “My grandmother should be able to find it, in six months.” (a human-readable system based on a priority such as client, date, etc.)Steady routines? Liz continually experiments to see what works; Niki changes it up based on moodThe Rubber Duck, a physical tool for explaining things, and to throw at peopleWidth-agnostic responsive grids“Blank” WordPress themeiStock, a place to buy (or steal) design pieces. Not really. Jeez, relax.WYSIWYG web design tools, getting better all the timeProof-of-concept, then hand off to proper developersDreamweaver and Front Page, not a great reputation for producing good code.Breadcrumbs, a web design term
TextEditors, and how they can refresh a browserMinimal Viable ProductHow to name web features. Always include the adjective “slidey.”“You can tell how good or bad of a day a developer is having by how many tabs of StackOverflow are open.”Niki & Liz met on the FreelanceSwitch forums (R.I.P.)Reddit is a forum, I guess.Remote, by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier HanssonBoagWorld, a podcast about web design“Don’t install Node”, it’s a great way to waste a day, apparentlyTools
BasecampDropboxGitHubBootstrap grids“Blank” WordPress themeAdobe Muse, part of Adobe Creative CloudMacawCoda or Espresso (not Cappuccino), text editors/coding softwareFirebug or Inspector, ways to view a page’s sourceSublime Text and TextMate, two more examplesLive Reload, does what it says on the tinAudio Hijack Pro, to record Skype or FaceTime
Audacity, for editing podcastsTechniques
Save versions of your code, push to the serverSee if your co-workers are wearing headphones. If so, talk to them later.Set up templates for common documents — include guides, sizes.Use a prototyping tool, then coordinate with a developer/programmerTurn off Twitter to be productiveDon’t reply to email right away. They really aren’t “urgent.”Habits
Don’t answer the phone unless you have a scheduled meetingDon’t work on weekendsCreate your own Resources libraryBuy books and write off the costs as business expenses
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