achariam

This looks fantastic, congrats on the launch! I'm particularly excited about the focus on speed and performance.

I'm working on taking the best tools from social networks, contacts app, and crms[0] to help you make the most of your relationships[1] all while protecting your privacy.

It's something a lot of folks struggle with yet it is a trait that is eminently learnable[2]!

[0]https://clay.earth [1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3498890/ [2]https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/014616721663784...

Nice, looks a little large but will check it out as well.

Sweet, thank you for sharing. Will check it out!

My mistake, for some reason I thought I included it. matt@achariam.com

Thank you for the kind words, really appreciate it :)

You're completely right, it seems a little counterintuitive but one thing I learned early on while building a different community site (Designer News) was the way to build a wholesome community was to be invite only in the beginning. That and real first and last names.

Which means it's a poor user experience. Sorry for the trouble, I wonder if any folks have better ideas here?

I built Elyxel [https://www.elyxel.com] to learn Elixir and Phoenix while building open source community software. I wrote about it in greater detail here - [http://www.achariam.com/elyxel]

It hasn't really caught on but I hedged my bets a little by trying to optimize for learning. On that front it was highly rewarding.

Live: http://www.elyxel.com

Details: http://www.achariam.com/elyxel

Happy to answer any questions.

I've spent the last year building[1] an open source side project with elixir and phoenix. It's honestly been a pleasure to work with once you get over some of the initial hurdles.

[1] http://www.achariam.com/elyxel (It's a self plug but I genuinely think it will be helpful to folks)

Let's get this out of the way from the start, you're definitely not lacking something. Like most things you can get pretty far with deliberate practice. The front end is usually a combination of usability, design and code. It sounds like you need help with the usability and design part.

The first step of awareness means you're on the right track. You've also developed a sense of taste because you've recognized something is distinctly better than the other. Ira Glass has a great way of framing this concept [https://vimeo.com/85040589]. You can close this gap of ability vs taste by continuing what you're doing. If it feels confusing and difficult, you're making progress. It will take a while to constantly probe at the "why" something is better. Next you'll learn how to apply it.

If time is a constraint there's a way you can accelerate your learning. You'll have to ask someone who is better than you for feedback and advice. This works really well. If you have the resources and don't feel the need to learn, you can always pay someone to do it.

There's a lot more I can go on about but feel free to reach out if you need some help. Here's some additional random thoughts:

- Don't get too caught up in the design and elegance of your front end design. Show it to people, they will help guide what you need to work on.

- It's okay if things look like a copy of something else. We can learn a lot through imitation.

- Pay attention to software you love and really try and understand why you love it. (Sounds like you're doing this already)

- Check out these books: Steal like and artist, the design of everyday things.

- Read through Apples's HIG docs, there's lot of great stuff there on mobile and app design.

- Empathy is a critical tool when making interfaces for others. Really try to understand the problem you're trying to solve by getting in the minds of the user. Usually the solution comes pretty naturally.

- By exposing yourself to lots of different kinds of software and apps you'll start developing a sense of what works where. Like when do I use a slider vs a numerical input.

Sure thing, feel free to send me an email. I tried looking and couldn't find yours on your profile.

Maybe, a small space heater for your desk with the airflow pointed towards your keyboard.

I have the small rooms one described here. And it is pretty manageable. http://thesweethome.com/reviews/best-space-heaters/

I've been feeling the same way for the past several months. So I decided to build a community that reflects that. Just started inviting a few friends and co-workers to a private beta. There's a little more info over at https://www.elyxel.com

I've been working on https://elyxel.com since last May and launched a private beta this week. The biggest takeaway for me so far is that even if it doesn't get much traction I actually finished a long standing side project before jumping to something else. Plus I got the benefit of learning elixir and Phoenix.

Currently in the process of considering a new machine myself and came across a similar article about the MacBook written by Rob Rhyne in 2015 (http://martiancraft.com/blog/2015/08/macbook-for-developers/).

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I've partially given up on finding a community. Instead I've decided to try and build it myself. There are some really great ideas around community that I'd like to experiment with.

It's not quite ready yet (www.elyxel.com) but if anyone is interested feel free to reach out.

Oh gotcha, yea no other pages yet. I did consider the implications of a thin font on readability but it looks great on retina displays. No problem, hope it helps.

Oh nice, not sure how large you're thinking but if it's under 6 inches you could probably get one decently cheap from Alibaba(the Chinese Amazon). I think the larger displays (10 inches+) were only manufactured for special use cases like the Kindle DX hence the limited availability. Cool idea though!

Thank you! Sorry for the difficulty navigating, what did you have a problem with?

The cube animation are six square divs animated with css. Just take a look at the source if you're curious.

Exactly, I agree wholeheartedly. There is a limited amount of granularity you can get with using colors. Incidentally, I'm also messing around with tiny displays now. - https://www.dropbox.com/s/r5993ylrqmjoegn/screentest.jpg?dl=...

I've always found these kind of websites to be too distracting so I made this. Hopefully someone else finds this useful. I'd love any feedback on bugs, improvements, etc.