I have a friend and former coworker that would often say “you do you” anytime someone did something out of the norm or handled things in a different manner than he would. I think when it comes to building on the web we could all use this simple reminder.
I’ve seen so many posts and status updates lately about how everyone is a designer, designers should know how to code (a discussion for years), or how you can’t design or build a website without doing it a certain way or using certain tools. I read a post this morning titled The Problem with Atomic CSS which was apparently a justification post by the author of Maintainable CSS because people were freaking out. Go read it, kinda crazy.
The web folk get all worked up over this sort of thing quite a bit it seems. I suppose it shows how passionate we all are about the work we do through these screens so I guess that’s a good thing. However the more work I do the more I don’t think it matters all that much.
I was chatting with a friend of mine not long ago about a pretty large project he’s about to start. Topics of discussion ranged from css grid spec, operating systems, to-do apps, sketch vs. ps, mockups vs. browser, cloud storage, etc. (We chat a lot thanks to slack.) I shared a few things about what I do, things that make sense in my mind, but in the end told him it’s all about what works for him. Heck even I change what I do from project to project as no two projects are the same.
Want to design in the browser? Go for it. Want to wireframe? Do it. Mockup on a whiteboard? That’s helpful. Build it with Legos? Even better. As long as you get from discovery to launch and that process was helpful for you, your project, your team, and your client then that’s awesome.
So when it comes to building websites, you do you.