Search
Drop caps & design systems
19.6.2019
Ethan Marcotte has written up his process for how to make drop caps accessible for screen readers and browsers alike. All of that is very interesting and I’m sure I’ll use a technique like this in the near future, but the part that made me hop out of my seat is where Ethan notes his experience with...
Every Layout
18.6.2019
Every Layout is a new work-in-progress website and book by Heydon Pickering and Andy Bell that explains how to make common layout patterns with CSS. They describe a lot of the issues when it comes to the design of these layouts, such as responsive problems and making sure we all write maintainable...
PR: WaykiChain CEO Gordon Gao Building a Win-Win Public Blockchain
18.6.2019
This article feature quotes returned direct from inquiry to the company CEO Gordon Gao. WaykiChain(WICC) CEO Gordon Gao’s credentials are substantial and they include (according to his LinkedIn page) having previously worked as a ‘senior business associate’ at Alibaba.com. His portfolio also lists...
How to Section Your HTML
18.6.2019
The sectioning elements in HTML5 are <nav>, <aside>, <article>, and <section>. <body> is also kind of a sectioning element since all content lying inside of it is part of the default document section.
Here is a brief explanation of each sectioning element...
If you can build a site with WordPress.com, you should build your site on WordPress.com.
18.6.2019
That’s what I like to tell people. I’ve seen too many websites die off, often damaging the company along the way because the technical debt of hosting and maintaining the website is too much in the long term. For a few examples, there is the domain name itself to handle and the tricky DNS settings...
Managing State in React using Unstated-Next
17.6.2019
In a previous post, we saw how to manage state using Unstated. As you might recall, Unstated uses React’s built-in setState to allow you create components that can consume state by subscribing to a provider — like the React’s Context API.
Well, we’re going to build off that last post by looking...
Components, yo.
14.6.2019
I see VuePress just went 1.0. Explained simply, it's a static site generator based on Vue. But of course, you work in Vue, which means you work in components.
All the modern JavaScript frameworks are component-based. Even when they disagree with each other about specific things (like how Svelte...
Drawing Realistic Clouds with SVG and CSS
13.6.2019
Greek mythology tells the story of Zeus creating the cloud nymph, Nephele. Like other Greek myths, this tale gets pretty bizarre and X-rated. Here’s a very abridged, polite version.
Nephele, we are told, was created by Zeus in the image of his own beautiful wife. A mortal meets Nephele, falls...
A11Y with Lindsey
13.6.2019
Lindsey Kopacz has a wonderful blog about accessibility. I've seen a number of her articles making the rounds lately and I was like, dang I better make sure I'm subscribed. For example:
An Introduction to ARIA States
3 Simple Tips to Improve Keyboard Accessibility
Create custom keyboard accessible...
Grid, content re-ordering and accessibility
13.6.2019
Take this:
<ol>
<li>Get hungry</li>
<li>Order pizza</li>
<li>Eat pizza</li>
</ol>
That HTML ends up in the DOM that way (and thus how it is is exposed to assistive technology), and by default, those list items are also visually...
Using Cypress to Write Tests for a React Application
12.6.2019
End-to-end tests are written to assert the flow of an application from start to finish. Instead of handling the tests yourself — you know, manually clicking all over the application — you can write a test that runs as you build the application. That’s what we call continuous integration and it’s...
Everything You Need to Know About Date in JavaScript
11.6.2019
Date is weird in JavaScript. It gets on our nerves so much that we reach for libraries (like Date-fns and Moment) the moment (ha!) we need to work with date and time.
But we don't always need to use libraries. Date can actually be quite simple if you know what to watch out for. In this article...
Building a UI Component with React and Storybook
11.6.2019
In the previous article, I gave an Introduction to Storybook and how it can be used to or
Level up your .sort game
10.6.2019
Sorting is a super handy JavaScript method that can display the values of an array in a certain order. Whether that’s real estate listings by price, burger joints by distance, or best nearby happy hours by rating, sorting arrays of information is a common need.
If you’re already doing this with...
Designing with Motifs
10.6.2019
I love the way Erik Kennedy talks about digital design. Very practical and understandable. Have a listen to a chat with him we had on ShopTalk.
One of his latest blog posts is titled "The #1 Way to Spice Up Your Designs (And Create a More Cohesive Brand)" and it's about something he pegs as more...
Using DevTools to Improve the UX Design to Development Process
7.6.2019
I’d like to tell you how I see code and design intersect and support one another. Specifically, I want to cover how designers can use code in their everyday work. I suggest this not because it’s a required skill, but because even a baseline understanding of coding can make designs better and...
Your first performance budget with Lighthouse
7.6.2019
Ire Aderinokun writes about a new way to set a performance budget (and stick to it) with Lighthouse, Google’s suite of tools that help developers see how performant and accessible their websites are:
Until recently, I also hadn't setup an official performance budget and enforced it. This isn’t...
What if we got aspect-ratio sized images by doing almost nothing?
7.6.2019
Say you have an image you're using in an <img> that is 800x600 pixels. Will it actually display as 800px wide on your site? It's very likely that it will not. We tend to put images into flexible container elements, and the image inside is set to width: 100%;. So perhaps that image ends...
How to Use the Web Share API
6.6.2019
The Web Share API is one that has seemingly gone under the radar since it was first introduced in Chrome 61 for Android. In essence, it provides a way to trigger the native share dialog of a device (or desktop, if using Safari) when sharing content — say a link or a contact card — directly from...
Snag Resources from An Event Apart Boston 2019 and Save on Washington D.C. Registration
6.6.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Hey, so we talked a little bit about An Event Apart Boston 2019 leading up to the event and now there are a ton of resources available from it. I stopped counting the number of links after 50 because there's way more than that. Seriously, there's stuff in there...