Update: After hearing Adam Braum speak at the Penny Conference, I am going to donate the proceeds for this class to Pencils of Promise. Let me know which class you want on twitter @tonyhschu!

I’ve run the “Learning HTML through the Lens of Typography” classes three times now, and the fourth class is coming up this Saturday.  I’ve learned a bunch of lessons from the classes, but there’s one aspect I haven’t delve into.

For my Entrepreneurial Design class final project, we are challenged to make $1,000 in a repeatable fashion. Part of the challenge was customer development. How do I develop an idea for a product, and verify that there is demand for it, as quickly and cheaply as I can?

I have shrunk away from that for a while now, staying comfortable and tweaking just the contents of my class.  I need to take a step back and start iterating and learn to experiment with different types of classes, in order to learn more about developing and validating ideas.

In light of that, I am proposing two new Skillshare classes, and pitting them against each other. I will teach the class that gets more interest on April 28th. Please let me know what you think!

The two classes are “Intro to Programming for Designers” and “Intro to Designing for Programmers.”  The idea for these two classes stems from my experience of working as a designer who codes. I’ve found the ability to bridge design and development invaluable in communicating ideas and speeding up interaction design work. I would love to help others get started on this path.

The classes will have two goals.  First, I will walk through a introductory exercise get gives students a taste of each discipline’s process.  In the programming for designer’s class, that will take the form of code puzzles written in the processing language.  In the designing for programmer’s class, that will take the form of giving a piece of text visual hierarchy. After the exercises, I will briefly describe how deeper concepts in each discipline impact work in the other. My goal here is to give a survey of the each discipline’s landscape, and give students a point of reference for further investigations.

So, please go take a look at the two classes! I would love any and all feedback, here or on twitter @tonyhschu. Thanks!