Nopesport - A case study

November 09, 2008

I recently redeveloped the orienteering news website nopesport This was done with the artistic touch of nonimage as it was back in 2003 when nopesport was an “overnight” success having been cooked up when both nonimage an I were out of work after university.

I have been working professionally as a web programmer of 4-5 years now, and not enough of this expertise had been used in the previous php based incarnation.

Workflow

A big part of developing a web application remotely is workflow. There are various tools that help oil the wheels in a distributed team.

  • Project Management

You need to be able to discuss and document the situation with project management software. We used basecamp for this.

  • Source Control

After graduating from svn school, like most rails heads I have moved to the distributed version control system git. Android is now using git as well along with a few other high profile projects. Its the best thing that I have learnt in 2008 re technology.

  • Simple “One-click” Deployment

Capistrano and source control allow super slick deployments. After you have set it up, bring on the automation.

  • Designer integration with source control

Having a designer that can code CSS, is a major asset. Having a designer that can code CSS and be integrated into the development workflow is a super special major asset.

  • Bug documentation and fixing process

Having a standard way for bug reporting, and a slick fast process of fixing them is top class.

Design

I dont speak for nonimage here.. maybe he will do a guest post on the subject!! hint hint

We are sick to the stomach with shiny web 2.0 designs. They are out of date in my book and it is sad the number of designers who are still just graduating from the web 1.0 style of designing only to find themselves still behind after they update their skills.

We decided that typography was important (like a lot of designers and developers 2007-2008) and we wanted a dirty grunge design.

We had some conversations with the other guys who run the site day to day and do a sterling job. They added their input along the way. Generally though, we were essentially our own client which is a great situation to be in.