Fire Studios

For this sit-down of "FS Interviews", we're glad to have with us one of the most well-known front-end developers, Chris Coyier. We'll discuss primary languages, projects, community management, books, debugging, and notoriety.

You're quite known around the web as a CSS and, more recently, a jQuery enthusiast and expert. What were your reasons for becoming a web developer and focusing on these languages?

I think it boils down the fact that I'm just kind of a computer nerd. I have been since I was a kid. I like seeing computers do cool stuff. Tools like HTML, CSS, and jQuery are pretty killer tools for making cool stuff happen. Even better, the final product of using those tools is a website you can share with the world.

Why these specific languages? Ten million Elvis fans can't be wrong, right? As far as HTML and CSS, there really aren't many alternatives. With jQuery, I just happen to like it and love all the resources out there for it.

CSS-Tricks is one of the largest web development blogs around, but you're also a full time Web Designer at Chatman Designs. How do you manage your full work schedule and still maintain such a large site and community?

CSS-Tricks only takes as much time as I can give it, there is no pressure. I love that aspect very much. I don't promise any particular posting schedule or anything like that. So when I have a good idea for something to write about, I write about it. When I have time to jump into the forums and help out, I do it. Work comes first, which is a great catalyst for ideas, then typically CSS-Tricks, then whatever other projects I have going. Never enough hours in the day, but I do pretty well juggling it all.

You have quite a number of projects and services under you belt from WordPress with Digging Into WordPress to up time monitoring with Are My Sites Up. Which of these was your favorite project that you undertook and which was your most challenging?

Oh I can't pick a favorite, I enjoyed working on them all. The thread that ties them all together is that they all help people in some way. Digging Into WordPress (the book) was challenging in that it was just a lot of writing and a lot of time. I'm used to publishing what I write shortly after I write it, so it was hard just keeping all that writing under wraps for so long! Are My Sites Up is a continuing challenge because web apps are much like living, breathing things. They require constant care and attention both in how they are working and how people are using them.

You just completed and printed your first book, Digging Into WordPress. What was the process like and what inspired you to begin the endeavor initially?

Jeff Starr, the co-author, actually contact me about writing a book. We didn't have a topic at first but we fairly quickly decided on WordPress since we both used it alot, liked it, had a lot to say about it that we weren't saying anywhere else, and saw a gap in the market for.

We actually wrote it in Google Docs, by splitting up the chapters, and then going over each others work. Once it was fairly close to written, we put it in InDesign and started laying out pages, then dropping in screenshots and popout notes. We passed the InDesign document back and forth a number of times via Dropbox. Ultimately we had it printed at Park Printing, where my Mom is a sales rep.

Every developer eventually comes across a problem/bug/issue in their coding adventures that completely throws them for a loop and sometimes even crushes their morale for the task completely and it gets dropped. Have you encountered a situation like such and if so, how did you finally manage to overcome it?

Oh yeah absolutely. Almost every day. I basically call that "learning." Your spirit is crushed, you get angry, then feel sorry for yourself. Then you walk away. Then maybe the next day your unconscious has worked on it long enough and there is a glimmer of hope, and you go from there. Or maybe your brain decides it's way over your head, and alternative ideas start coming in. The alternative idea might be a really good way to explain to the client why that can't be done or would be to expensive to reasonably do.

Final question: What do you think it is about you that draws people in to you and your family of works? Could it be your ravishing good looks or devilish smile?

Well it's neither of those two things, that's for sure! I consider myself very lucky that I have the audience that I do. It's hard to say exactly why and how that happened. It was a long road, and I just chugged along and chugged along and I'm going to continue chugging along. The heart of it all is writing. I write about real issues I have and how I solved them. I write articles trying to explain things as simply as I can. I write about my honest opinions on things. My articles are me talking, with my own voice. I think that is worth something and has contributed to whatever success I have. Articles like "30 brain-sucking tilt-shift photographs (not manipulated!!)" might get more thumbs up on StumbleUpon, but more people come back over and over again to a site with voice.

I know I said finial question earlier, but do you have any parting words for the readers?

Just good luck to you and everybody reading this in everything that you do in life!