Archive: September 12th, 2016

How Google And Others Are Plotting The Revenge Of The Web App | Fast Company | Business + Innovation

It’s always, um …”interesting” when a mainstream publication covers a topic from the web’s bikeshed. In this case, it’s progressive web apps, and—apart from the sensationalist headline—it’s actually not that bad at all.

Style Guides, Pattern Libraries, Design Systems and other amenities. // Speaker Deck

This slide deck is a whistle-stop tour of all things styleguide and pattern-library related. Nice to see Charlotte’s excellent exercise get a shout-out.

Oh, shit, git!

Bookmark this page! Who knew that so much knowledge could be condensed into one document? In this case, it’s life-saving git commands, explained in a user-centred way.

So here are some bad situations I’ve gotten myself into, and how I eventually got myself out of them in plain english.

CSS Mega Dropdown | CodyHouse

I’m no fan of mega menus, and if a site were being designed from scratch, I’d do everything I could to avoid them, but on some existing projects they’re an unavoidable necessity (the design equivalent of technical debt). In those situations, this looks like a really nice, responsive approach.

Shipping vs. Learning » Mike Industries

Some typically smart thinking from Mike—what if success were measured in learning rather than shipping?

Organizations that learn the quickest seem the most likely to succeed over the long haul.

This really resonates with me, and it aligns so closely with our values at Clearleft that I think this is something we should be pursuing. Fortunately Mike’s post comes with plenty of examples and ideas.

Webfonts on the Prairie · An A List Apart Article

A good ol’ polemic in favour of using web fonts. It’s a good read although I strongly disagree with this line of reasoning:

The average internet speed in the United States today is three times as fast as it was in 2011.

But that americentric view is redeemed later on:

The World Wide Web may be a creation of the West, but now, at long last, it needs to get ready for the rest.

I may not agree with all the points in this article, but I think we can all agree that if we’re going to use web fonts, we must use them responsibly …otherwise users are going to treat them as damage and route around them.