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Hello. My name is Derek Perez. I write software, particularly for the internets.

Managing Change

Being able to rely on open source technology is a huge advantage for startups. Teams are small, time is constrained, and there is a wealth of available libraries and packages out there to be used and tweaked for the needs of your company.

With so many people working on open source, commiting features, bug fixes, and forks, it becomes essential that we as users/contributors of this ecosystem are aware of things as they change, so that we understand how they effect our codebases and products. I thought I would share some of my tips for managing my consumption of open source, and I hope some of you share your tips in the comments below!

TL;DR: Github has totally revolutionized the way I write and consume software. There are plenty of ways it can help you, be creative!

1. Setup a Github organization for your company

Most projects that we rely on heavily, we end up forking to our organization account. We do this to make sure that our dependencies are stable and reliable. Nobody can delete these projects on us or somehow compromise our environment/requirements by just removing their projects from the internet. Having our own forks also makes it obviously very easy for us to apply changes and customizations to the libraries we use, and merge them into any upstream changes that become available from the author.

2. Setup an RSS reader for project commits

On every Github/commits page, there is a link to the commits as an RSS feed, I recommend grabbing an RSS reader (I use Vienna, its free), and capturing all of these feeds into a single stream that you can consume and track. I find this technique keeps the various components of our system on the top of my mind, and I can get a real sense for the impact and features of the version updates that I take in. You’ll feel much more connected to the developers, as well.

3. Read as much of the code as you can

Sure, you don’t have to read all of the code that makes up MySQL, but whenever possible, you should get to intimately know your libraries and components. Afterall, they may make up a substantial portion of your product, and if they have bugs or act incorrectly, its important you understand it. There is especially no excuse if the library you are relying on is written in a language you are fluent in. Read code. It makes you a better developer.

4. Find and read (and contribute to!) the bug tracker

Nearly all open source projects have issue trackers (especially on Github), make sure to familiarize yourself with the state of issues and feature requests. This is critical for you to have a sense of whether or not this library will have an issue accomplishing a given task you intend to use it for. Issues will happen, you’ll find bugs, its open source, you do have the power to fix issues and submit to the project, and its the right thing to do. If you are not capable, at a minimum, file the bug and attach a reproducible test case, this goes a long way in the author(s) actually wanting to help you.

What tips do you have for managing change in an open source eco system?

My 10 Tips About Designing for the Web.

There is a thread on Forrst right now, asking people to share their top 10 design tips. So, I thought I’d write it out as a blog post and share with whoever can read this. I wrote this list fast, and probably could think of another 10, but lets start with this:

1. Get good at color.

Its important, and hard (at least for me it was). Start reading books, something by Pantone, and while you are there, start understanding the Pantone palette, if you have Photoshop, its built in (look for color libraries in the picker). Also colourlovers.com is a great website to browse and get inspired by.

2. Start thinking about texture.

http://bjango.com/articles/noise/ Filters > Add noise, monochromatic, 1.8%, get a felt feel or play around with it and find a plastic feel. Texture and depth are powerful design tools in a two dimensional world. Shadows behind text, 1px horizontal offset, 1px vertical offset, 0px blur, embosses text, makes it slightly more readable depending on the colors and backgrounds. try light colored text shadows against dark text and medium color backgrounds, they will start to pop more.

3. Configure your tools properly.

http://bjango.com/articles/roundrect/ Want great rounded rectangles? You need to configure your Photoshop to give them to you. Not everyone realizes this, I didn’t.

4. Use a stylesheet framework/system.

(Sass/Compass) For some, Sass might seem confusing or weird to use, but it you are a dev/design hybrid, it starts to make immediate sense. Compass is a framework on top of Sass that has amazing goodies baked in, ie: “mixins” for your stylesheets to get you rounded corners, in every browser possible, using CSS. They have entire CSS3 support via mixins, read to setup for every browser, with 1 line of code. Killer.

5. Design with the grid.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2010/02/a_new_global_visual_language_f.html) That is an amazing article on how the BBC uses the grid to design their entire visual language. My personal belief is that good design is constrained design. Grids provide a design constraint/thought methodology/process to any design task, and that can help you start moving in a direction more quickly, than say, a blank canvas. Also, many grid systems are available for CSS, and Compass/Sass has native support for all the popular grid systems out there (960.gs, Blueprint, 1kbgrid, etc ..)

6. Make your personal design elements repeatable.

Another plug for Sass, but it really changes my workflow. If you create an aesthetic over time (which you will), Sass lets you encapsulate it into “mixins” or functions that you can simply invoke in your stylesheets, this gives you a ton of flexibility and head start when working with designs, and keeps your design thinking at a higher strategic level, rather than “ugh text-shadow, blah blah”

7. Read about design AND usability, as much as you can.

Books I recommend:

8. Follow great designers on twitter, and see what they are reading/thinking/doing/making.

@putorti, @rhjr, @lukew, @swissmiss just to name a few. (also, not a great designer, but you can follow me :) @perezd)

9. Watch the documentary “Objectified”.

http://www.objectifiedfilm.com/ This is a great documentary about design, industrial design, and product design. I find, for myself, that thinking holistically about design is a great way to cross pollinate concepts/models into the web.

10. Go through a large body of work, and never stop.

The best way to get better is by doing. Don’t wait to do all of these things, just start designing, suck at it for a while, push through that gap between you being bad at design and you being happy with your design aesthetic. Its hard, you’ll feel discouraged, but its the only way to make progress.

I am done rambling, go make stuff.