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Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

dabuttonfactory.com

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Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#71

Post by cottsak »

mattchew wrote: post #47

Let me compare you to http://www.mycoolbutton.com/ which is what I used a few weeks ago when I needed a pretty image button. What I like better there: * Their button has a really sharp glossy look. Yours are nice, but not as nice (that I noticed, at least). * They have more fonts than you do. What I like better about yours: * Lots more control over most of the details. Notably, the custom color gradients. * The showc…

i'd like it a little more simple too. perhaps maybe title sections that expand (like "Border?").

also, maybe more visual aids for the options - like images to show the result for a particular selection. this might speed up the use of the system.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#73

Post by alabut »

palsecam wrote: post #2

(Web) design is hard. For us programmers, it's a pain in the ass, and when it comes to create UI elements for a (web) app, we are stuck with two choices: 1. create something very basic, or 2. spend countless hours searching the web for Photoshop tutorials on how to create a bubble or depth effect, then spend even-more-countless hours fighting with Photoshop to implement it, and finally, maybe adapt the image with som…

Nice! I am a web designer and even though I'll stick to using Fireworks (I'd rather create the entire layout than use a collection of dedicated tools) I can still appreciate that this attempts to solve a pain-in-the-ass issue for programmers.

One small bit of advice - I'd pick a default welcome button that wasn't quite as jarring as the orange one. Something with a bit more of a muted color scheme that goes with the rest of the blue layout you have going on, like:

http://tr.im/examplebluebutton

Otherwise, very well done.

Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#77

Post by palsecam »

Hello everyone out there following the button factory!

First of all, thanks everyone for the big amount of -so- useful comments! It's really interesting and motivating!

Some have noticed, the server has been down, overloaded. I put some rules to guarantee its disponibility, but it may still be problems (it's a very small server and I just made dirty hacks to prevent it to die miserably, I hope).

I pushed a little update which corrects some of the bugs suggested:

* the 'swap' button is now usable with the history

* the vertical and horizontal padding are in the right order :-P

* "hammering" the increment/decrement buttons is now possible

* the shadow orientation now allows only east or west

* the site was totally broken in IE 6/7, now it should be usable (but terribly ugly!)

* the title "Da Button Factory" is now a link

* links have been added to download the button or bookmark the page

For the color pickers: I'm currently working on it. But it's a big job, and I want to make it well, so it will take a little time.

For browsers issues: thanks for the reports, It's very important, and I'll investigate, but not immediately (I've no easy access to the Internet in the week, even less access to Windows).

I'll certainly open a blog soon, so that interested people could follow the updates via RSS.

Once again, a big thanks to everyone for the help!

Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#78

Post by palsecam »

jamesjyu wrote: post #49
palsecam wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I didn't try with IE7 :-/ I could just put my hands on an old IE6 version to test the render. I'll definitely install a virtual machine or smthg :-) Thanks for the report.

Test it IE6 and IE7 on the same machine: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/11/30/ie6-and-ie7-runn... Yes, it's a pain b/c you have to run a VM, but it's the most reliable way of testing IE. Other "shortcuts" won't perfectly emulate IE7 in an IE6 environ, or vice versa.

Thanks for the link!

Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#79

Post by palsecam »

alabut wrote: post #73
palsecam wrote: post #2

(Web) design is hard. For us programmers, it's a pain in the ass, and when it comes to create UI elements for a (web) app, we are stuck with two choices: 1. create something very basic, or 2. spend countless hours searching the web for Photoshop tutorials on how to create a bubble or depth effect, then spend even-more-countless hours fighting with Photoshop to implement it, and finally, maybe adapt the image with som…

Nice! I am a web designer and even though I'll stick to using Fireworks (I'd rather create the entire layout than use a collection of dedicated tools) I can still appreciate that this attempts to solve a pain-in-the-ass issue for programmers. One small bit of advice - I'd pick a default welcome button that wasn't quite as jarring as the orange one. Something with a bit more of a muted color scheme that goes with the…

thanks for the example idea, you're right the current one is a bit ugly in the global theme!

Nice to know a web designer appreciates it!

Re: Ask HN: Please review my webapp: Da Button Factory - create shiny buttons

#80

Post by palsecam »

kwamenum86 wrote: post #30
palsecam wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The images are queried by Ajax to the server, where a Fast-CGI Perl script generates, caches, and sends the images. Javascript is used, obviously for the Ajax job, for some small visual effects, and to generate the CSS code.

You should port this project to canvas. It may be tricky to get it working in all browsers but the response time would be much faster and the server load would be reduced. I'd be willing to help with the implementation- sounds like a really cool project.

Yes, this would be a nice adding to the output formats.

I don't think I'll implement that in the near future, but I keep it in the back of my head for later, and I'll contact you when the time has come :-)

Thanks for the idea.

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