

Show HN: A site for teaming up designers and developers on short projects - zancler
http://analoghq.com

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wc-
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.

~~~
chrisjames
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.

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cmalpeli
I don't know how I feel about just typing in the idea for my project into some
random form and hitting submit.....

~~~
zancler
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:)

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ila
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.

~~~
zancler
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.

~~~
RyanZAG
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 signed up on your site.

~~~
swat535
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.

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digitalengineer
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...

~~~
zancler
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.

<http://zanderbrade.com>

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.

Thanks for the feedback:)

~~~
digitalengineer
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.

~~~
zancler
Turns out it was easier than expected haha. <http://zanderbrade.com>

Thanks a bunch for all the nice stuff:)

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dolphenstein
Isn't there a plethora of these types of sites already? I think you'll need to
come up with some kind of extra angle if you want people to sign up.

~~~
zancler
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.

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tiredoffps
I think the animations (bounce effects) on this page are a little too much and
it actually hurts the UX. It needs to be more subtle.

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_moar
Nice page layout. The /create page is missing a text field to tell if my
project is missing a developer or a designer.

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rodolphoarruda
I hope to see something similar for project/product/program managers willing
to join dev/design teams.

~~~
zancler
Started working on expanding that in.

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moron4hire
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...](http://moron4hire.tumblr.com/post/48619863000/hiring-is-dating))

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.

~~~
imjared
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.

~~~
mbesto
_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.

~~~
imjared
Ah, my misunderstanding then!

