I’m a Designer Who Learned Django and Launched her First Webapp in 6 Weeks
Hi — I’m Tracy. I’m a designer and front-end developer. After being turned down by Y Combinator, I decided to launch a simple webapp to get myself on the path of development.
Say hello to the final product, WeddingInviteLove. It’s not too complex, code-wise: I deliberately chose something that would be rather simple to get myself off the ground. This web app was a departure from my earlier project, WeddingType, where I launched my cofounder search on Hacker News in August, found a cofounder, started building the product, applied to Y Combinator for Winter 2011, got an interview, was turned down, and decided to part ways from the cofounder. I’m still planning on launched WeddingType, but if was going to learn how to code, I would have to take baby steps first — thus, WeddingInviteLove.
Working on a different idea, but not pivoting.
If your idea doesn’t initially work out, try working on a related project that’ll enhance your original idea while keeping your enthusiasm for the area. Both WeddingType and WeddingInviteLove are in the same space — wedding invitations — but catering to two different types of customers. WeddingType, the invitation typography generator, is for non-designer couples looking for a save some money by creating their own invitations. WeddingInviteLove is a directory of boutique wedding invitation designers, for couples who are looking to spend more for a professional and higher quality. They both increase my prominence and reach within the wedding invitation industry, but also avoid poaching customers from eachother.
Take advantage of help.
Why did I choose Python and Django over Ruby or any other programming language? I needed to take advantage of the resources I had, mainly, @shazow, my bf who’s an expert in Python but specializes in Pylons, a different framework. I’ve heard a lot of quality discussions between Pylons and Django, but for me, Django has a lot more hand-holding than other frameworks and a lot of tutorials online. For nitty-gritty Django questions that Andrey couldn’t answer, I tweeted that I needed some help and got two awesome advisors, @kantrn, who I met in person several times to work out problems I was having, and @kennethlove, who I’d IM at all points in the night for help with specific bugs. I also used @kennethlove’s screencast blog tutorial, since I could relate it directly to my project — profiles on WeddingInviteLove are like blog posts on a blog, I just simply changed some names around. All code was written by myself while taking advantage of the numerous Django applications such as django-registration.
Build the web app first, then design it.
It was tempting to build the entire interface first but I deliberately ignored the design until I had things 90% working. This got me to constantly work on the code before working on the “fun stuff”, plus encouraged me to launch quickly since as soon as the code was finished, all I had to do was quickly “skin” it before getting it live with the assumption that I would be iterating on the design after it launches. Also, if I needed to abandon the project due to some insurmountable code problem, the time wasted wouldn’t include the time spent on design.
Launch as fast as possible.
Nothing kills a new idea better than taking too much time on it. There are thousands of things more that I could have done to improve WeddingInviteLove before I launched it, but getting it out and generating feedback was much, much more important. I don’t mean you should launch an incomplete project, but pare down your features to the very minimum and get it live as fast as possible.
One problem I faced was convincing designers to sign up before the site was live, so I created three fake profiles and emailed 10+ designers with screenshots of the homepage and future profile pages, explaining that I was building it for fun and it would be free to list them. It’s a win-win scenario for the designers and myself, but emailing out of the blue can look shady. One designer replied that my email looked like spam, but the professional design in the screenshot I linked convinced her to sign up anyways. My design meant the difference between someone ignoring my email versus taking it more seriously.
Once the website received its first 3 profiles, I got it live (on Dotcloud), but continued to email designers directly, now pointing to the live site. Overall, I emailed 67 designers directly (see screenshot), with an approximate 50% response rate and slightly less sign-up rate.
The “real” launch — landing a major blog post.
I was up to about 20 designers (not that big of a deal to any potential customer looking for a full fledged directory), when I traveled to New York and decided to chat up one of my favorite design bloggers, Tina Roth Eisenberg (Swiss Miss). The tactic of traveling and emailing someone “famous” randomly in that area and inviting them to lunch has worked well in the past (I landed a guest spot on The Big Web Show after inviting Jeffery Zeldman for lunch). After the lunch I was able to show her WeddingInviteLove and got some great feedback, all I was expecting and hoping from the visit. Awesomely, after I left, WeddingInviteLove was blogged about on Swiss Miss. Getting profiled on one of the best design blogs out there was the best beginner boost that I could ask for, launching a trend of blog posts and tweets, and landing WeddingInviteLove another 60 designers to a total of 83, a week after the Swiss Miss blog post.
Future monetization.
I get asked a lot on how I’ll monetize. I have no intention of ever taking away free profiles, charging customers to search, or acting as a middleman and taking commission. My current plan is to launch pro profiles, with support for more portfolio images and other features for every upgraded profile. Before I can launch this, however, I have to get more links and traffic to ensure a pro profile is “worth it” to designers, so I’ve been focusing on promotion for the last few weeks.
Conclusion.
- If you’re a designer, picking up development looks really tough, but stick it out for a couple of months — being enabled with the ability of creating your vision is worth it .
- If you’re learning a new language, don’t do tutorials verbatim — take what they’re teaching, apply it to a different product, and you will learn a lot faster.
- Launch as fast as possible, since feedback on the product is the most important.
- Don’t be afraid of asking “big wigs” for their advice — buying someone’s lunch is a small price to pay for knowledgable feedback.
- Ask for help as much as possible and wherever you can find it.
Follow me on Twitter at @limedaring. Any feedback, opinions, and advice happily encouraged at tracy@limedaring.com.
Hey Tracy,
I wanted to say: awesome! I’m not a designer or developer myself, but I have been playing around with PHP + MySQL + CSS during my off-hours to get started on some of my own side projects.
Gotta say, this was key: “Launch as fast as possible.”
Once you have MVP down, run like hell to build it and iterate over and over again based on feedback. Glad you made sure to emphasize that, it’s key!
Keep up the awesome work. Cheers!
Jon Lim says:
[…] Comments Hacker News […]
I’m a designer who learned Django and launched her first webapp in 6 weeks « Wobbits says:
A very inspiring story. Wish you the best of luck Tracy.
Victor Noagbodji says:
Glad you talked about building first and designing second. As a Designer it’s ingrained to have your visual layout nailed down before building anything. Especially in the print world. In the web world it feels weird doing it the other way around, but I think the design turns out better this way. Great post!
Cale says:
Fantastic! I love hearing about stuff like this — I find it really inspiring.
Jeremy Keith says:
It’s just so inspiring to read your story!
We are doing the same kind of thing, bootstrap from nothing.
Good Luck to you!
expert says:
fyi you’ve got a little bit of weirdness going on with your link word-spacing
but good luck with your new site!
Dave says:
I’m helping a friend learn Django now. This is pretty inspirational in that sense, plus some good advice regardless!
Ryan says:
very nice article.. +1 on cutting down features to a bare minimum and launching before hand… loved your approach to the site and your vision for it which many ppl lack… All the best And God bless
Dinuka says:
Looks outstanding. Congrats!
Chris says:
I am a dev and couldn’t design my way out of the paper bag. The site is nice, clean, simple and beautiful.
I am curious about your approach to Swiss Miss. Was blogging about your site a quid pro quo for taking her out to lunch? Was it understood in the beginning? Or were you just hoping that she’d be impressed enough with your site to talk about it on her blog (though lunch I am sure helped).
Frank Rizzo says:
Hi Tracy! Your story is very inspirefull :) Wish you good luck with your site!
Alexander Beletsky says:
Congratulation on creating your own django site. I think more designers should try at creating dynamic sites like it. Anyway, I’m checking out your website now. Keep up the good work.
up0 says:
Thanks for the analysis. The part about generating your first leads and portfolios was particularly enlightening. This stage seems to be a common roadblock.
Matthew Perace says:
Thanks for an interesting first-person account. I am a designer (originally print, now mostly web) who has (sometimes) been dragged kicking and screaming to learn php, jquery, etc. This is an inspiration. It is not often that someone ably combines programming and good design, so hats off to you.
I also appreciated your sharing some of your marketing “tricks”…and the fact that you have the moxie to contact the “big” names.
Chris Raymond says:
Best wishes Tracy! You’re a great person and the friendliness and passion you exude will carry you far along with your talent.
Jera Batten says:
[…] Check it out: I’m a designer who learned Django and launched her first webapp in 6 weeks […]
How Tracy Learnt Programming & Built Her First Web App In 6 Weeks | UpsizeMyPay.com says:
Nice article. It was the last push of inspiration I needed to jump right in to the language I want to learn. I’m going Ruby though. Good luck with this project! I like your idea of monetizing the site, too.
Jeremy Carlson says:
Yay! A great story. Glad you didn’t choose PHP :-)
That “design first” vs “backend first” thing is pretty hard. When you design first, it’s easier to change stuff, throw it away. When you code the backend first, you don’t have to write fake content and replace it with template tags. I think it depends on the app.
P.S. are you on Forrst?
Grigory V. says:
Great story! You inspired me to try (once again) to develop a web app (I’m not a designer or programmer).
but I’ve already been having trouble with some basic Django stuff. :/
GCM says:
[…] Sono una Designer e ho lanciato la mia prima applicazione in 6 settimane Tracy è una designer che non sa quasi nulla di programmazione. Ha una idea su un sito innovativo e tenta senza successo di ottenere un finanziamento che le consenta di assumere un programmatore esperto. Cosa fare? Tracy si rimbocca le maniche e in sei settimane riesce a lanciare una variante (semplificata) della sua idea originale. In Python/Diango, ovviamente. […]
Programmazione, SEO, Startups - Il Meglio della Settimana #1 says:
Go Tracy! I’ve been following your journey every now and then and have been really impressed! The site looks awesome, btw.
Elizabeth says:
Thanks all. :)
Tracy Osborn says:
Woohoo! You rock! I went through originally wanting to focus exclusively on illustration/design, then unexpectedly turning into a Django developer to get things done :)
Audrey says:
[…] 웹디자이너 및 기획자도 조금만 노력하면 쉽게 개발할 수 있다. 디자이너가 6주 만에 웹 어플리케이션을 만들게 된 사례도 있는 데, 디자이너가 청첩장을 판매를 위한 웹 어플리케이션이 […]
Dance with Django « jinhyuk.com says:
WOW!!! Awesome! I just started with Python and I wish I can be able to have an my first app soon!! Still need lots to learn but getting there…:)
Please follow me at @juliendanny
Julie says:
[…] It took six weeks to build my MVP, invite five designers to list themselves, and I launched WeddingInviteLove in January 2011. Today, WeddingInviteLove lists 235 vendors worldwide, went through a major redesign, and launched paid features (I’m on the way to ramen-profitability as we speak). […]
Women 2.0 » From Web Designer to Django Webapp Developer, Tracy Osborn Launches WeddingInviteLove says:
Your blog is inspiring and motivating..All the Best..!! Cheers!!
Sam says:
[…] Very awesome story from an awesome lady about her experiences in launching her first web application… Related posts:Link: Seriously Creative Job Application […]
Link: Ship It Quickly | Matt Velic says:
[…] I’m a designer who learned Django and launched her first webapp in 6 weeks By Tracy […]
StartupDigest | The best information about the tech startup world says:
Very nice of you to share your experience. This has been featured on our “Must Read” section of our very first issue at Theme Weekly
Theme Weekly says: