Things I Like
-
This is a great resource that is divided up into the roles that different people play on a team. I love that. And I love that this is a government link, that our government is sharing these types of resources so that we can all make the web better.
-
When we write HTML we give content structure. We define things like paragraphs, lists, tables and headings. Writing semantic code means choosing the most appropriate element to define the required structure. This helps interoperability.
I'm currently writing about accessibility and I really love this short and well written article on HTML and how using it properly is so important.
-
Another much maligned food these days is butter. In the world of chefs, however, butter is in everything. Even non-French restaurants—the Northern Italian; the new American, the ones where the chef brags about how he’s “getting away from butter and cream”—throw butter around like crazy. In almost every restaurant worth patronizing, sauces are enriched with mellowing, emulsifying butter. Pastas are tightened with it. Meat and fish are seared with a mixture of butter and oil. Shallots and chicken are caramelized with butter. It’s the first and last thing in almost every pan: the final hit is called “monter au beurre.” In a good restaurant, what this all adds up to is that you could be putting away almost a stick of butter with every meal.
I never read or watched any of Bourdain's work, but I'm catching up now and he's funny and a damn good writer.
-
Some of the ideas and techniques explored here may not be applicable to your particular card designs; others will. I'm not here to tell you how exactly you should design a 'card' because I don't know your requirements. But I hope I've given you some ideas about how to solve problems you might encounter, and how to enhance the interface in ways that are sensitive to a broad range of users.
What I like most about the way Pickering writes about inclusive design is all the options he gives you and he doesn't assume what will be right for you, he's merely showing you a bunch of different ways to do something and do it accessibly.
-
I’ve been thinking about this because many of the Grid resources I’ve seen have focused on the third step. Not all of them, mind you—far from it. But much of what I’ve seen recently focuses on the third step, aimed at folks who’ve mastered the fundamentals, and looking to do considerably more. And just to be clear, that’s marvelous! It’s downright exciting to think about what these technologies could do for us, and how they’ll change the way that we work. But when we’re producing these tutorials, or writing those talks, maybe it’s worth including a few pointers for those who aren’t quite as far along in the process.
I love that Ethan wrote this piece. I'm in agreement with both the steps (I'm still very much on #2) and on the fact that so many who understand grid well are sharing a lot of step 3. I'll also admit, I see a lot of demos of amazing grid designs, which is step 3, but I don't see as much of that in the wild in actual production sites. But I certainly may be missing something as I can't keep up with everything all the time.
-
After a while, Margy just rolled her eyes and gave up, because it's always like this with Mister Rogers, because the thing that people don't understand about him is that he's greedy for this—greedy for the grace that people offer him. What is grace? He doesn't even know. He can't define it. This is a man who loves the simplifying force of definitions, and yet all he knows of grace is how he gets it; all he knows is that he gets it from God, through man. And so in Penn Station, where he was surrounded by men and women and children, he had this power, like a comic-book superhero who absorbs the energy of others until he bursts out of his shirt.
There's a lot of talk right now about Fred Rogers because of the new documentary that was just released. I've been reading many things I missed and this profile is absolutely amazing. I also recommend this article on his way of talking to children. And it's hard right now, with all the horror going on, to be without voices like his.
-
I've seen this unity happen in organizations willing to prioritize design systems. These projects give our teams a standard from which to design and build—they give us a common language to speak. They allow us to solve the small problems while creating building blocks to solve the big ones. They let us deliver faster and serve our users more effectively. But more importantly, they marry a designer's passion for the experience and visuals with a developer’s passion for the process and performance. Design systems are unifiers, giving a voice to every expertise required to do this work. They build trust among those roles—instead of pitting us against one another.
As much as many focus on how systems can increase efficiency, I also think Ben's hit on a really excellent point, the systems bring teams together. And it spans the various disciplines as everyone needs to be involved to make the system successful.
-
This guide is for you if you are fairly new to CSS and wondering what the best way to approach layout is, but also if you are an experienced developer from elsewhere in the stack who wants to make sure your understanding of layout today is up to date. I have not tried to fully document each layout method here, as that would have created a book and not an article. Instead, I am giving an overview of what is available to you, with plenty of links to find out more.
I love these types of overviews and I refer to them a lot in my work. And the section on grid is especially good for the size of this article. I've been thinking a lot about how to do new and different layouts with grid and reading through this helped me to see how it's possible. I also love that Rachel warns about accessibility problems with moving content around on the screen too much.
-
My advice after learning from so many helpful people this weekend is this: if you’re thinking of writing something that explains a weird thing you struggled with on the Internet, do it! Don’t worry about the views and likes and Internet hugs. If you’ve struggled with figuring out this thing then be sure to jot it down, even if it’s unedited and it uses too many commas and you don’t like the tone of it.
Robin is dead on here, write what you're learning and doing, put it out there for other people to learn from, you never know when your perspective and way of writing could help someone else learn something new.
-
Unfortunately, the reality of capitalism and turned that dream into a big giant popularity contest, shaped by crude tools – likes, hearts, retweets, and re-shares. We have created systems that boost noise and weaken signals. Every time I tune into news and all I see is noise rising to the top. Whether it is YouTube or Instagram — all you see are memes that are candy-colored candy, mean to keep us hooked.
Not surprising, but it's so true that the feed is trying hard to control us and what we see and think. One of the reasons I still love and use RSS a lot is because it's not controlled by any algorithms, I made a choice to follow a column, website, etc and it shows up when they publish new content in reverse chronological order.
-
Either way, to become good writers we have to think about structure, composition, kindness, sentences, clauses, arguments dressed with punctuation. But instead of trusting the data from surveillance state web advertising companies we must ignore them all and return first and foremost to trusting our keyboards.
Several years ago I removed analytics from this site and I did it so that my attitude would change. I now push things out and I let it go. I may hear from people on Twitter or some other way, but I'm almost always surprised when I do and I have no idea how many people even stop by and look at various pages.
-
Second, I am so tired of hearing “hobbyist” and “amateur” thrown around as pejorative terms. It’s such a lame, macho move. God forbid we ever do anything for pleasure or love.
This whole thing is amazing and Kleon hits the nail on the head. In the past few years I've taken up a couple of regular hobbies. I love them, they're relaxing, they're worth my time, and I'm learning new things as I do them. And I subscribe to following my passion, but completely realize that it may not always be what pays my bills. My hobbies feed that and, to be honest, I have no idea where they'll take me in the end.
-
Taking criticism is often described metaphorically as standing in front of a firing squad. Being a helpless target. But it's not. It's an empowering practice. It requires just as much work as giving criticism.
A wonderful essay on how to take criticism, so many wonderful insights, worth your time.
-
It seems like a grim story. Except that the story isn’t over. During the past two years, as I have discovered the people and forces behind the 50-year U.S. tailspin, I have also discovered that in every arena the meritocrats commandeered there are now equally talented, equally driven achievers who have grown so disgusted by what they see that they are pushing back.
A bit of a difficult read, but it ends with hope and I found the history interesting and helpful in understanding where we are in the US today.
-
I think we’re well past the point where our industry gets a pass for launching products without thinking about their second-order effects. But additionally: if we assume that this technology’s a given, what kind of policies and protections do we need to help the folks affected by it?
I agree with Ethan here, I have so many questions after seeing Duplex and many of them should be answered before it's out in the world and the negative consequences have started to be felt by people. Tech is full of smart people, I wish more of them would use their brains to think proactively rather than always being reactive.