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Weekly Platform News: Tracking via Web Storage, First Input Delay, Navigating by Headings
4.10.2019
In this week's roundup, Safari takes on cross-site tracking, the delay between load and user interaction is greater on mobile, and a new survey says headings are a popular way for screen readers to navigate a webpage.
Let's get into the news.
Safari’s tracking prevention limits web storage
Some...
Awards That Look Beyond the Flashy
3.10.2019
Dan Mall is judging the Communication Arts Interactive 2020 awards. These types of things are usually a celebration of flashy, short-lived, one-off designs. Those things are awesome, but Dan has more in mind:
I’d love to award work that demonstrates creative use of the highest level of color...
Adaptive Photo Layout with Flexbox
3.10.2019
Let’s take a look at a super lightweight way to create a horizontal masonry effect for a set of arbitrarily-sized photos. Throw any set of photos at it, and they will line up edge-to-edge with no gaps anywhere.
The solution is not only lightweight but also quite simple. We’ll be using an unordered...
Automated (and Guided!) Accessibility Audits with axe Pro
3.10.2019
It's important to know there are tools for automated accessibility testing of websites. They are a vital part in helping make sure your website is usable for everyone, which is both a noble goal and damn good for business. Automated tests won't catch every potential accessibility issue, but they...
Mina Markham Should Make Beyoncé’s Site Accessible
3.10.2019
I remember when this went around in January, and I'm a little shocked it didn't happen.
Mina is the perfect person for the job (like, duh) and the result would be good for everyone. Let's make this happen. The least we can do is sign Amélie Lamont's petition.
Direct Link to Article —...
Demonstrating Reusable React Components in a Form
2.10.2019
Components are the building blocks of React applications. It’s almost impossible to build a React application and not make use of components. It’s widespread to the point that some third-party packages provide you with components you can use to integrate functionality into your application.
These...
Zero hands up.
2.10.2019
Asked an entire room full of webdevs yesterday if any of them knew that FF/Chrome/Opera/Brave/etc. for iOS weren't allowed to compete on engine quality.
Zero hands up.
— Alex Russell (@slightlylate) September 25, 2019
It's worth making this clear then. On iOS, the only browser engine...
The Many Ways to Link Up Shapes and Images with HTML and CSS
1.10.2019
Different website designs often call for a shape other than a square or rectangle to respond to a click event. Perhaps your site has some kind of tilted or curved banner where the click area would be awkwardly large as a straight rectangle. Or you have a large uniquely shaped logo where you only...
Enhancing The Clickable Area Size
1.10.2019
Here’s a great post by Ahmad Shadeed on making sure that clickable areas in our interfaces are, well, clickable. He writes about making sure that links, buttons and other elements meet accessibility standards for both touch and mouse, too.
I particularly like the section where Ahmad writes about...
Multi-Million Dollar HTML
30.9.2019
Two stories:
Jason Grigsby finds Chipotle's online ordering form makes use of an input-masking technique that chops up a credit card expiration year making it invalid and thus denying the order. If pattern="\d\d" maxlength="2" was used instead (native browser feature), the browser is smart enough...
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Git Hooks
30.9.2019
The merits of Git as a version control system are difficult to contest, but while Git will do a superb job in keeping track of the commits you and your teammates have made to a repository, it will not, in itself, guarantee the quality of those commits. Git will not stop you from committing code...
Preloading Pages Just Before They are Needed
27.9.2019
The typical journey for a person browsing a website: view a page, click a link, browser loads new page. That's assuming no funny business like a Single Page App, which still follows that journey, but the browser doesn't load a new page — the client fakes it for the sake of a snappier...
A Codebase and a Community
27.9.2019
I woke up one morning and realized that I had it all wrong. I discovered that code and design are unable to solve every problem on a design systems team, even if many problems can be solved by coding and designing in a dark room all day. Wait, huh? How on earth does that make any sense? Well...
What happens when you open a new install of browsers for the 1st time?
27.9.2019
Interesting research from Jonathan Sampson, where he watches the network requests a browser makes the very first time you launch it on a fresh install, and otherwise do nothing. This gives you a little insight into what kind of information that browser wants to collect and disseminate.
This...
Weekly Platform News: Layout Shifts, Stalled High-Bitrate Videos, Screenshots in Firefox
26.9.2019
In this week's roundup: fighting shifty layouts, some videos might be a bit stalled, and a new way to take screenshots in Firefox.
Let's get into the news!
Identifying the causes of layout shifts during page load
You can now use WebPageTest to capture any layout shifts that occur on your website...
Meeting GraphQL at a Cocktail Mixer
26.9.2019
GraphQL and REST are two specifications used when building APIs for websites to use. REST defines a series of unique identifiers (URLs) that applications use to request and send data. GraphQL defines a query language that allows client applications to specify precisely the data they need from...
Paperform
26.9.2019
Buy or build is a classic debate in technology. Building things yourself might feel less expensive because there is no line item on your credit card bill, but has cost in the form of time. Buying things, believe it or not, is usually less expensive when it comes to technology that isn't your core...
A Dark Mode Toggle with React and ThemeProvider
25.9.2019
I like when websites have a dark mode option. Dark mode makes web pages easier for me to read and helps my eyes feel more relaxed. Many websites, including YouTube and Twitter, have implemented it already, and we’re starting to see it trickle onto many other sites as well.
In this tutorial, we’re...
Thinking in React Hooks
25.9.2019
Amelia Wattenberger has written this wonderful and interactive piece about React Hooks and details how they can clean up code and remove all those troubling lifecycle events:
React introduced hooks one year ago, and they've been a game-changer for a lot of developers. There are tons of how-to...
Filtering Data Client-Side: Comparing CSS, jQuery, and React
24.9.2019
Say you have a list of 100 names:
<ul>
<li>Randy Hilpert</li>
<li>Peggie Jacobi</li>
<li>Ethelyn Nolan Sr.</li>
<!-- and then some -->
</ul>
...or file names, or phone numbers, or whatever. And you want to filter them...