Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for the web in your browser

Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @05:05PM (#4352300)

Great, now it's even easier for people like me with no talent for design to make horrendous UIs.

Edit: For a more helpful comment, they really need some <input type=number> things in there. You now, TSpinEdits (any Delphi users out there?). Number controls.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by mnicole on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @05:16PM (#4352345)

I've gotta agree on this one. Generally all I can think when I use browser-based design tools is how much faster/easier it would be for me to go into Photoshop or better, the code itself.

I think the biggest flaw in these apps is they start people with either an amateur design or a blank template instead of exposing the grids and guides that define a website (and further define the limitations of web design) right off the bat. Even though it starts as a blank page, I love Alex Maccaw's Stylo (http://styloapp.com/) because the tools are simple and familiar, they don't overburden the page I'm focusing on and it creates smart guides that show up when I've got two elements on the same plane. It's the only one of these apps I've tried that actually extends my creativity and doesn't end up taking me longer to design something I like between clunky UI elements or trying to figure out what everything does.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by maccman on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @06:51PM (#4352817)

Haha, I'm honored (and slightly amazed) that people are using it in production.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @07:13PM (#4352896)

Hey, perhaps I'm missing something, but could you add a button to show the styles on an element, somehow? Thanks!

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @05:18PM (#4352357)

Stylo is very nice. The fact it has, well, grid lines is very helpful. It's more limited, sure, but it looks like I can actually build layouts with this thing, not just fancy gradients.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by yesimahuman on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @05:24PM (#4352379)

I've been using it regularly and I find the opposite is true. Right now it's great for generating snippets of styled elements, and I know they are working on making it easier to do much more. I'm really excited about where they are going. Good luck!

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by mirsadm on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @06:27PM (#4352712)

A lot of these services bring back some horrible memories from Geocities days.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @06:29PM (#4352724)

CSS3 and HTML5 brings back bad memories. It's easy to abuse, I've done it myself intentionally here: http://cats4gold.net/ostar/ - CSS 2D transforms, CSS background-size, CSS3 selectors, HTML5 audio and JavaScript.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by peterjmag on Tuesday August 07, 2012 @11:18PM (#4353704)

Love it. Here's another great demonstration of CSS3's potential for abuse: http://davisparker.com/OHGOD/index.html

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Wednesday August 08, 2012 @08:52AM (#4355239)

Yeah.

I can't wait until those christian revelation ministry sites (one in particular I can't remember the name of) get a hold of this stuff. They were excellent at abusing DHTML.

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by ebiester on Wednesday August 08, 2012 @03:46AM (#4354410)

laughs

As an aside, have you tried any of those binaural beats? Is that part of the joke, or something that you actually enjoy?

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Re:Easel (YC S12) launches as an easier way to design for th... by TazeTSchnitzel on Wednesday August 08, 2012 @05:50AM (#4354723)

Oh I've tried it. It's not really as good as they claim, I reckon a good part of it is placebo.

By the way, the site is actually a collaboration between me and two others. Orangestar had put up some binaural beat files on his website, so cats4gold and I jokingly made this site in his name to promote them. And then it kinda grew fr m there.

If you enter the site, you'll notice it is not actually one site, but three linked together.

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