Jordan Hudgens: If you followed along in our user experience course that is where we helped you develop a system for all of the steps needed for building a clean and efficient user interface. And that is a very important component of building an application build whether it be mobile, desktop, or any type of software system.

Now, in this course, we're going to take that knowledge and we're going to extend it into the parts of the system where the users are actually going to be able to see it. So this is everything from colors, white space, all kinds of different components. And one of the reasons why I was very excited about this course is because this is a topic I personally want to learn.

Part of the reason we're building the course and why Jesse is coming down is this is not a personal strength for me, which is the reason why Jesse is here we want somebody that is specialized has been doing this for years and has had quite a bit of success in implementing these type of techniques.

Jesse Cooke: Yeah. What we really want to talk about is to give you guys the best fundamentals to give you guys that low hanging fruit that's going to really push your ability to design something yourself and not only just design it but also understand the principles that any creative is being delivered to you with so that you can understand how to implement those designs in a pixel-perfect fashion. So really understanding the thought process that goes behind the typography choices that goes behind the colors the style guide the balance on the page the better grasp you guys have on understanding those design principles will not only make you more capable of designing these things yourself but they're also going to make you a lot better of a developer because you're going to be able to implement designs that are given to you a lot more confidently.

JH: Absolutely. And just before we were filming we're talking about one of the developers that work for Slate who also is very good at design. And you're talking about how with that set of skill that combination it has made every project he's work on just turn out very well.

JC: Yeah, he showed a huge interest in really stepping more into the design realm. You know we hired him on as a developer and he really showed that he wanted to take a proactive approach to learn the creative direction part. And he's just been flourishing and it's been awesome. Not only has he been having a great time like really being able to expand his skill set but the other developers have talked to me. And on the projects that they've worked with him, it's been so smooth because he's been able to design and understand what that looks like on the development side. And since he's the one that's also implementing a lot of the front end communicating with the back end everything is just going so smoothly because they don't have to build a bridge to anyone because he's already there.

JH: Absolutely that's something that for my own side one thing that I personally am trying to improve on myself is in this exact skill because the workflow that I've had for the majority of my own career has been working with somebody like yourself and I would always have to wait until I got the mockups the designs everything like that. And it always made it so I was constantly waiting for these things. For these screens and these designs to be done. And if I could personally be better on this side of the design and that part of it then that could help make me a better developer because 1) I would know what's going on and the thought processes behind picking out certain styles and how you design different components. But also I'd be able to do that and go right into development and make the entire process much more efficient.

JC: Yeah, absolutely it's definitely something where you shouldn't be terrified of design and think oh I don't have any design in my jeans so I'm not ever going to be able to be a designer. There's a lot of very basic fundamentals that if you understand those and really practice those and take an active approach to learn how to better implement typography in color and white space it's going to put you so much farther forward in your ability to design it. Learning those fundamentals gives you the foundation on which you can really start to actively get better as opposed to just kind of spinning around in circles and designing the same type of stuff and so what we're going to do is we're going to really lay that foundation of what you should be thinking about why it's important. There are some things that maybe you think don't carry as much weight in actually why it looks the way it does and you just say "Man, I don't know why this doesn't look great but it just doesn't look great". So we want to kind of give you some insight as to maybe why it doesn't look and what you could do to make it look better.

JH: Absolutely. This is, a course, I'm very excited about it. I hope that you get as much from it as I do. And we will see you in the next set of guides.