Designers could learn how to code, and developers could learn how to design. Sometimes it might not be an option. In this article, the author makes a suggestion to designers without coding skills on how to start crafting code. You might want to take the suggested tool with a grain of salt (or not) but the idea might be worth looking into.
Designers have widely adopted HTML and CSS for a while now. They usually feel comfortable enough to implement their own designs, at least in a static form. However, they’re often intimidated by JavaScript — and rightly so! HTML and CSS are declarative and, I’d argue, closer to design than programming.
JavaScript, on the other hand, is “real” programming. This means you not only have to learn a whole new and complex syntax but also have to “learn how to think.” The barriers to entry are high and prevent many designers from taking the plunge. uilang tries to fix that.
This article will introduce you to uilang’s philosophy and syntax. We’ll start with a simple example to get you comfortable with the basics, before moving to something more exciting. At the end of this tutorial, you’ll (hopefully!) be able to code many typical interface widgets, such as popovers, tabs, overlays and much, much more.
The Bridge Between Designers And Developers Link
I strongly believe that designers should code the interfaces they design. They shouldn’t necessarily write production-ready code, but they should design the behaviors. Designers love these things. They could spend hours tweaking an animation delay or finding the right cubic-bezier curve. They usually just lack some technical skills to do so.
uilang tries to facilitate the communication between designers and developers by giving designers an extremely simple tool to prototype their interfaces. uilang reads like plain English, uses a one-line syntax declared right in the HTML and provides very few options in order to make its learning process and adoption as fast and easy as possible. We’ll cover the syntax in detail later, but here’s a sneak peek at it:
clicking on "button" toggles class "visible" on "div"
uilang is not exclusively a prototyping tool, though. It can safely be used on production websites to create, for example, tabs, photo galleries, popovers and more. Let’s see how it works!
Getting Started Link
uilang is based on a dead simple principle: manipulating classes on your elements. By just adding and removing classes when something is clicked, we can show, hide, transform and animate elements using CSS. This simple logic gives you endless possibilities. Let’s explore one of them by creating a simple notification banner like this: