Design Details 1: How Nerdy of an Answer Do You Want? (feat. Sam Soffes)
The first episode of Design Details has arrived! For our opening show, we sat down with designer and developer Sam Soffes to talk about his latest project (Whiskey), building in public, brag-driven development and his interest in working as a designer. This is our first episode and we're learning a lot! We'd love your feedback or suggestions - give a shout on Twitter, @designdetailsfm or send us a private email!
Sam Soffes on the Web:
- Website / Portfolio
- Github
- Nothing Magical
- Whiskey Markdown Editor
- Sam's Blog
- Sam's Video Podcast
- More About Sam
- Hire Sam
Show Notes:
1:35 - We chat with Sam about his latest labor of love, Whiskey.
- Tim Van Damme of Dropbox designed a theme
- Sam is building Whiskey in public via feedback on Twitter and with public release notes
6:30 - We talk about some of Sam's older projects.
- Cheddar (which we compared to Whiteboard)
- Shares
7:50 - Discussion about the difficulty selling apps, including Cheddar and Roon
11:15 - How do you balance freelancing with clients and building your own side projects?
12:10 - We dive a bit deeper into the challenges of building Whiskey - what's your product philosophy?
18:45 - Sam shares a brilliant product development hack.
22:33 - What does it take to design a text/markdown editor?
26:05 - Sam has built several photo apps; we dive into the process.
- Tiiny
- Kevin Rose
- Marc Hemeon
- Marc Hemeon's blog post on Building Tiiny
- A screenshot of Tiiny's onboarding instructions
- Sam on Github
- Over
- Aaron Marshall
37:40 - We chat about Sam's motorcycle trip through South Africa
43:52 - Dan Cassaro for Deus
44:01 - Sam tells us about designing an onboarding experience in Litely
- Litely
- Litely was named one of Apple's Best Apps of 2014
50:50 - Sam talks about his move from development to design. Can taste be learned?
57:27 - We briefly chat about prototyping and the tools Sam uses.