We’ve been working on Complete CSS since February 2024. The aim of the game for me was to pull together all of the stuff I’ve been talking about over the last few years into a talk, workshop and course.
Me at FFConf '24
I delivered the talk, “Get the core right and the resilient code will follow” last week at the legendary FFConf. That talk was excerpted content from the principles module of the course where we learn about communication, planning, along with giving and receiving feedback. We also learn about progressive enhancement, being the browser’s mentor, not its micromanager, CSS architecture, layout, along with fluid typography and spacing in that module of the course.
Condensing the first part of the princples module into a talk was a great way for me to refine what I think is the most important part of the course — core skills, often called “soft skills” — and get some feedback from people.
I also did a condensed version of that module along with planning, sketching and of course, writing CSS in my Smashing workshop earlier in the year. Again, this was to get more feedback from the kind people who bought a ticket.
I feel like this is probably my last big course. I’ve done three now, including Complete CSS and this one feels like I’ve finally managed to bring together the stuff I write about and do in my actual day job. It’s been great to bring some of the consultancy work I did prior to founding Set Studio to the table too.
It was really important to me to work on a talk, workshop and course at the same time, not just for efficiency purposes but also, it’s meant the quality of the content is much higher because it’s been refined on feedback. It’s been a huge amount of work from the whole team at Piccalilli and Set Studio which has resulted in:
- 70,000+ words of written content
- Detailed, specific videos teaching you important core and practical skills — especially with Figma
- Hundreds of media assets
- Unique UI elements such as chat windows to demonstrate communication principles throughout the course
I mean it when I say it: you will not be the same developer after completing this course.
This is only the first iteration of our course offeringpermalink
My course is essentially a test bed. We’ve built the platform right into Piccalilli in a completely flexible manner with a view to publishing other author’s work in the future, starting next year.
The platform is flexible because every author is different. Some authors — like me — prefer to produce written content and others, focus more on video. Our platform supports that without breaking a sweat.
What I’m really excited about though is every course — theoretically — can be completely unique in terms of media but also look and feel. I’m really excited about giving authors the full power of Set Studio to craft something truly excellent that they are proud of.
Because this is the first iteration, we won’t be launching with automated Purchasing power parity (PPP) support or automated bulk company licences. Our support team will — for the first few weeks — deal with those requests manually. The system is ready for that functionality but we want to make sure we make it as easy as possible for users while also making it equitable and hard to game in the case of PPP.
What can you do to help?permalink
There’s so many kind people out there that have offered to help with promoting Complete CSS. I truly appreciate you all more than you’ll ever realise.
The best thing you can do it talk about it. I know I do a lot (sorry Bluesky friends) but kind words from people really helps, trust me. I’d also love to get on some podcasts and live streams, so if you are someone who runs either of those, hit me up! That also really helps.
We’re only small here at Piccalilli so any help from the community will always have a massive, positive impact.
Wrapping uppermalink
Thanks for reading this far! I haven’t Blogged™ for a while: sorry about that. I’ll be back on it after the course is live. I just want to take a moment to thank everyone that’s given me support during this very long production process.
I’ll see you in a couple of weeks when Complete CSS is live, so until then, sign up to get updates and take it easy 👋
