My co-founder @8apixel and I co-designed it (we make competing designs then choose/merge the best ideas.) We both shared in coding the front-end.
Coding front-end and animations is just searching google for examples + practice. I didn't find a shortcut, sadly! I fiddle with CSS animations until they match what I imagine them to be. Ceasar (http://matthewlein.com/ceaser/) is really good for getting kinetics right.
It's also a huge help when designers better than you give you feedback and suggestions; because they can picture a different finished product to you. During Red Pen's development I would share Red Pen with other designers who would give me feedback about Red Pen on Red Pen (whoa).
Back-end learning was harder because I came in (a year ago) with little Ruby or Rails knowledge. Why the Lucky Stiff's ebook on Ruby was inspirational (and it had cartoons cats!!). Rails for Zombies was a nice primer to Rails. The rest was Google. Knowing devs was a bonus because I could hire them to cover my arse (security audits and performance optimisation.)
Coding front-end and animations is just searching google for examples + practice. I didn't find a shortcut, sadly! I fiddle with CSS animations until they match what I imagine them to be. Ceasar (http://matthewlein.com/ceaser/) is really good for getting kinetics right.
It's also a huge help when designers better than you give you feedback and suggestions; because they can picture a different finished product to you. During Red Pen's development I would share Red Pen with other designers who would give me feedback about Red Pen on Red Pen (whoa).
Back-end learning was harder because I came in (a year ago) with little Ruby or Rails knowledge. Why the Lucky Stiff's ebook on Ruby was inspirational (and it had cartoons cats!!). Rails for Zombies was a nice primer to Rails. The rest was Google. Knowing devs was a bonus because I could hire them to cover my arse (security audits and performance optimisation.)