I launched Designer Slack Communities a while ago, aiming to help designers to connect with likeminded people. By sharing my website with the world, I’ve connected with so many designers. The whole experience is a first time for me, so I want to share my experience about how I built it.

我不久前啟動了Designer Slack社區 ，旨在幫助設計師與志趣相投的人建立聯系。 通過與世界分享我的網站，我與很多設計師建立了聯系。 整個體驗對我來說還是第一次，所以我想分享一下我如何構建它的經驗。

什么是Designer Slack社區 (What is Designer Slack Communities)

Designer Slack Communities is a website where I collect all the active Slack communities for designers. It’s aiming for designers who are looking to join more communities and connect with designers around the world.

Designer Slack社區是一個網站，我在這里收集所有面向設計師的活動Slack社區。 它面向希望加入更多社區并與世界各地的設計師建立聯系的設計師。

我為什么決定建造它 (Why did I decide to build it)

A few weeks ago, I attended Remote Designer Week, organized by Design X. It was such a wonderful experience. During the time, I’ve slack-met a lot of designers and got introduced to a few more Slack communities. I enjoyed the sense of community, and many designers are looking to join different communities as well. I think it would be helpful if there is a list of Slack groups for designers to join. When I search for something similar on the internet, there are resources like this. But they are either not tailored to designers, or have expired links. So I decided to build a website to collect all the active Slack communities I can find.

幾周前，我參加了由Design X組織的“ 遠程設計師周” 。那真是太棒了。 在這段時間里，我遇到了很多設計師，并被介紹給更多的Slack社區。 我喜歡社區感，許多設計師也希望加入不同的社區。 我認為，如果有一個供設計師加入的Slack組列表，將很有幫助。 當我在互聯網上搜索類似內容時，就會有類似的資源。 但是它們不是為設計人員量身定制的，或是鏈接已過期。 因此，我決定建立一個網站來收集我可以找到的所有活躍的Slack社區。

收集信息和設計 (Gather information and design)

With the 20 active communities I gathered. I started to design the first version. I wanted to keep the design simple, but I also wanted to try something different this time. I’ve used too much soft shadow and pastel colour in my design work that I’m kind of tired of it. I chose to use bold borders and more vivid colours for this one. It makes the website more fun and delightful.

在20個活躍社區中，我聚會了。 我開始設計第一個版本。 我想保持設計簡單，但是這次我也想嘗試一些不同的東西。 我在設計工作中使用了太多柔和的陰影和柔和的顏色，我對此感到有些厭倦。 我選擇使用粗體邊框和更鮮艷的顏色。 它使網站更加有趣。

建造 (Building)

With the design done, I started thinking about how do I want to build it. I could look into different CMS options and static website frameworks. It would take me weeks to learn them and make the website. If I wanted to add new features in the future, it would take even more time to figure it out. Then I remembered Webflow. Webflow is great at quickly building a website. Although it has its limitations, a single-page website like this would be the perfect use. Thanks to the power of the Webflow CMS, it only took me a couple of hours to implement my design. The CSS grid makes building a responsive list easy. It’s widely supported across modern browsers. So I would encourage everyone to use the CSS grid whenever you can.

完成設計后，我開始考慮如何構建它。 我可以研究不同的CMS選項和靜態網站框架。 我將需要數周的時間來學習它們并制作網站。 如果將來我想添加新功能，則需要花費更多時間才能解決。 然后我想起了Webflow。 Webflow擅長快速構建網站。 盡管它有其局限性，但是像這樣的單頁網站將是理想的選擇。 得益于Webflow CMS的強大功能，我只花了幾個小時就實現了我的設計。 CSS網格使構建響應列表變得容易。 在現代瀏覽器中得到了廣泛的支持。 因此，我鼓勵大家盡可能使用CSS網格。

發射 (Launching)

After finishing the development, I post my website on various Slack groups and social media. I got a lot of positive response. People were adding me on LinkedIn and Twitter. They found this website is helpful as they were searching for similar resources. I also have people saying they were working on similar things and asking if I want to collaborate. It truly felt joyful as I created something that helped people. That’s the reason why I became a designer.

完成開發后，我將我的網站發布在各種Slack團體和社交媒體上。 我得到了很多積極的回應。 人們在LinkedIn和Twitter上添加了我。 他們發現該網站對搜索類似資源很有幫助。 我也有人說他們正在做類似的事情，并問我是否要合作。 當我創造出可以幫助人們的東西時，真的感到很高興。 這就是我成為設計師的原因。

I’m also surprised by the connections I made. As an introvert and a non-native English speaker, I always find it hard to connect with people. Building a side project and sharing your work is an excellent way for people like me to establish networks.

我對建立的聯系也感到驚訝。 作為一個內向的人和不講英語的人，我總是很難與人建立聯系。 建立副項目并共享您的工作是像我這樣的人建立網絡的絕佳方法。

持續改善 (Keep improving)

Within a few days after the launch, I got over 50 new communities submitted. The list became rather long. A way to sort or search for communities would certainly help people to find what they want. Webflow doesn’t have this feature built-in, but I found a great tutorial on the Webflow Forum. It uses MixItUp 3 to do dynamic searches for CMS items. With few customizations I made, the feature is working great. Another alternative is Jetboost. It’s a paid service, but the setup process is straightforward. No js code required.

發布后的幾天內，我提交了50多個新社區。 名單變得相當長。 排序或搜索社區的方法肯定會幫助人們找到他們想要的東西。 Webflow沒有內置此功能，但是我在Webflow論壇上找到了不錯的教程。 它使用MixItUp 3對CMS項目進行動態搜索。 我進行的自定義設置很少，因此功能運行良好。 另一種選擇是Jetboost。 這是一項付費服務??，但是設置過程很簡單。 不需要js代碼。

I also added RSS to the website. I’m a huge fan of RSS. It’s a great way to let visitors receive updates without manually check the website every once in a while. Webflow makes adding RSS straightforward. You can use all the fields in your CMS to create the content in RSS and preview without opening a new tab.

我還在網站上添加了RSS。 我是RSS的忠實粉絲。 這是讓訪問者接收更新的好方法，而無需偶爾手動檢查網站。 Webflow使添加RSS變得簡單。 您可以使用CMS中的所有字段在RSS中創建內容并進行預覽，而無需打開新標簽。

Someone suggested I should add social share buttons to lead more referral traffics. Thanks to the help of the Webflow community, it’s quite easy to do it. Wierperwebworks shared a project that makes this process simple as copy and paste.

有人建議我應該添加社交分享按鈕來引導更多的引薦流量。 感謝Webflow社區的幫助，這很容易做到。 Wierperwebworks共享了一個項目，使復制和粘貼過程變得簡單。

The last thing I did is to switch to Simple Analytics from Google Analytics. It’s a privacy-focused web analytics tool. It has all the essential metrics that are more than enough for me. Even though it’s not a free tool, it does feel relieved because I know it respects the privacy of my visitors.

我做的最后一件事是從Google Analytics(分析)切換到Simple Analytics(簡單分析)。 這是一個注重隱私的Web分析工具。 它具有所有對我來說綽綽有余的基本指標。 即使它不是免費工具，但它確實讓人放心，因為我知道它尊重訪問者的隱私。

克隆項目 (Clone the project)

I’ve made this project available on the Webflow community. Everyone can view it, clone it, use it for your own project. I hope it can help other people, just like how I got help from the Webflow community.

我已經在Webflow社區上提供了該項目。 每個人都可以查看，克隆它，并將其用于自己的項目。 我希望它可以幫助其他人，就像我從Webflow社區獲得幫助一樣。

結論 (Conclusion)

Building a side project is a fun process. You can get creative with it because it’s your project. I’m so humbled that I got connected with many people through this project. It may not give me any profit, but I do feel a sense of fulfillment by sharing my work and connecting with other designers. I hope this post can inspire you to make something small yourself. It doesn’t have to be the greatest idea ever. With tools like Webflow, it won’t take too much time to build it either. If you have any questions, please feel free to tag me on Twitter.

構建輔助項目是一個有趣的過程。 您可以發揮創意，因為這是您的項目。 我很謙虛，以至于我通過這個項目與很多人建立了聯系。 它可能不會給我帶來任何收益，但是通過分享我的作品并與其他設計師建立聯系，我的確感到滿足感。 我希望這篇文章可以激勵您自己做點小事。 它不一定是有史以來最偉大的想法。 使用Webflow之類的工具，也不需要花費太多時間來構建它。 如有任何疑問，請隨時在Twitter上為我添加標簽。