Google Web Designer Blog: Helping developers bring their creative vision to life

Helping developers bring their creative vision to life

Monday, March 21, 2016

dynamic creative workflow

How would you rate Google Web Designer’s ability to help hand-coders who don’t like to use similar products? Google Web Designer passes the most difficult test of any visual development environment: it respectfully gets out of your way when you prefer to assemble things by hand.

Is working with external libraries using Google Web Designer still a problem? I can easily build on Google Web Designer's component library using jQuery and the GreenSock Animation Platform (GSAP) to customize and display items however I wish. I push them onto the screen, I slide them them off. I switch videos on, then I silence them again.

Manipulating animations with less development time is the biggest challenge for developers. How did you approach this while using only Google Web Designer? Instead of building animations inside the timeline, I can use GSAP to rotate HTML elements in 3D, twirl them around to reveal secondary content, and stagger movement for visual clarity. When handling dynamic content, these techniques are invaluable.

How easy/difficult is it to use for a novice developer? Google Web Designer provides a number of components which require no advanced API knowledge whatsoever. I can display a client's video playlist straight from YouTube. I can assemble swipeable product galleries with dot navigation. I can display a map with custom pins dropped at nearby retail locations. Any one of these things by itself is something a client would love to see in their lightbox unit.