Can we try a Crowdsourcing web design project on CSS-Tricks?

[ozee]

That actually might be the best idea, give us plenty of time to plan everything before hand as well. I would be in favor of doing this, allow us to get our heads in order and come up with a legitimate plan and better execution.

[noahgelman]

Im all for waiting till after the hollidays. Also, Im good with donating the site. If we can get in contact with them, and they like the site, I would also like to build it for them.

[ozee]

I agree with Noah, maybe we can make this a part 2 as well. Let’s just focus on a design for now though lol. 1 step at a time.

[Chris Coyier]

I’ll try to get in contact with Sam.

[Chris Coyier]

UPDATE: I just got an email from Sam’s parents saying they are all for this idea and gave me their number. She said they have been wanting to update their site for a while now. I really think we should jump on board after the holidays asap on this.

EDIT: Sam’s parents would rather us re-design their charity website Kindness For Kids. His mother said she made the website through a web builder so she would appreciate an update and wanted to thank all of us if we decide to go through with it.

[Chris Coyier]

That’s pretty awesome they are on board with it and sound like they’ll definitely use the final product. I can provide free hosting if that’s needed, and help convert the final design into a website. Probably thinking too far ahead but we might wanna consider something like PageLime to makes updates easy for them.

[Chris Coyier]

I talked to her on the phone around 7pm (EST) and she said she’s definitely all for it. She was talking to me about what Sam is doing and what not. She wanted a page for Sam and she mentioned “Sam’s World”. Therefore Sam could post pictures since he’s getting a camera. A blog might be cool for that. I asked a few questions about hosting but didn’t really get a final answer or maybe she wasn’t clear or knew what I meant. Chris, if you could provide free hosting including helping us code it, that would be extremely generous and appreciative. Also I definitely think we need some sort of CMS since they have no idea how to code. Anyway, below is the email from me and her.

Email To Sam’s Parents:
Good Afternoon,

We are trying to get in contact with the legal guardians of Sam. In the wake of the holiday season, we would like to donate a modern website to Sam courtesy of CSS-Tricks.com, a ChrisCoyier.net community. 10 website designers have come together to work on this project. If you could please get back to us, we would appreciate it. I would just like to mention we are not soliciting anything, we just wanted to do something for charity for the holidays and we noticed Sam’s achievements with his book and his fight to find a cure for IGM Nephropathy.

Thank You,
Christopher William

Reply From Sam’s Parents
Angie Allred to chris
show details 6:03 PM (6 hours ago)
Hi Christopher,

Thank you for your kind offer, we have needed some help for quite sometime.
I am Sam’s mother, Angie, you can contact me at
(PHONE NUMBER EDITED FOR PRIVACY)
I look forward to talking with you.

Thank you,
Angela Allred
President
Kindness for Kids Inc.

[ozee]

This is fantastic, I think we should jump the gun asap too and get this guy going on monday, try to make this as painless of a process as possible for them.

[Chris Coyier]

@ChrisCoyier, I’m going to email you pertaining to this project.

[rickylamerz]

@CWDESIGN I just read up on all of this, this is tottaly awesome! I could also help code it. I do think it has to be coded by one person. That’s probably the easiest. If Chris wants to do it, i’m fine with that.

PageLime as a CMS could work, it’s very simple. But if he want’s something to blog I would suggest WordPress. It’s not difficult to use at all. And it’s nice for when he wants to get more control. This is just my opinion, but we do have to take it into consideration.

Awesome that Chris is getting involved. We shouldn’t wait to long I suppose. Keep us all posted through this post. I’m looking forward to make someone happy ;)

– Rick

[Chris Coyier]

@rickylamerz I think it would be best if we all coded it, and Chris can go through it to add/delete things or take a turn in coding it.

Angie (Sam’s Mom) said she really doesn’t let Sam on the computer to read his youtube comments and I’m sure everyone is aware why (Negativity). She said he was getting a camera because he goes on all these trips and wants to take pictures, and maybe he could have a “Sam’s World” Page where he could upload photos. So I suggested a blog of some sort where he could give a description of where he is and what he’s doing. I tried pressing for a twitter account but i’m not sure she is aware of what twitter really does. I think she’s very cautious on the negative comments he is receiving through youtube and does not want him to see it of course. Chris’ suggestion of offering free hosting is beyond what I had in mind, and is extremely generous, so thanks @ChrisCoyier for that offer, I think we should take you up on it. I checked PageLime and Chris is right there, we should use that instead of wordpress because of its simplicity. Throw out some ideas!

Also: I emailed Chris asking if we could have a private discussion forum or password protected page to discuss everything without being indexed on search engines.

[ozee]

That would be really good too. The design process should only be handled by us and if it is on a public forum like this, somebody could easily destruct what we have done. I am really proud of this community and everybody coming together like this. I looked at PageLime as well and it is extremely easy, I think that will be just fine to use.

@CWDESIGN, does the organization already have a logo that they would like to use for anything or would she like something done in that area?

[Chris Coyier]

They have a logo, click here

[Chris Coyier]

Lets make a few logo designs before I ask. If we’re leaning towards one person coding, I vote Chris.

[rickylamerz]

All great ideas! I have another suggestion, can we share a Dropbox folder with all the files. So we all have acces to things like previous .PSD version for when we’re designing. And we all get instant updates on when things are being made. It will also be very nice for when we start coding.

We could list our email adresses and share the Dropbox folder that way. What do you think?

[Author]

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