Mark sets the scene for Fractal, the fantastic tool he’s built for generating pattern libraries.
This 1.0 release is just a start; it hopefully provides a solid foundation on which we (and anyone else who wants to contribute) can build and expand on in the future.
Exciting!
This is the tool that we use at Clearleft to generate pattern libraries. It’s pretty damn cool. Mark built it. It’s pretty damn cool.
Charlotte outlines the process she used in creating her talk at Dot York. It was a real joy to see it come together.
Mark has dumped his brains!
Seriously, there is a lot of thought that has gone into this, and it’s just the beginning: Mark recounts the experience that Clearleft has had with delivering pattern libraries, laying the groundwork for releasing the library-generating tool that he has been building.
Watch this space.
Jon outlines his technique for keeping “the 30,000 foot” view when patterns are coalescing during a project.
See also: Andy P.’s experience of working with Jon this way.
Myself and Batesy spent last week in Ipswich doing an intense design sprint with Suffolk Libraries. Leon has written up process from his perspective as the client—I’ll try to get a case study up on the Clearleft website soon.
This is really great write-up; it captures the sense of organised chaos:
I can’t recommend this kind of research sprint enough. We got a report, detailed technical validation of an idea, mock ups and a plan for how to proceed, while getting staff and stakeholders involved in the project — all in the space of 5 days.
I got a little verklempt reading this.
Charlotte talks through some of the techniques she used when she was building the site for this year’s UX London, with a particular emphasis on improving perceived performance.
Yeah, you’re jealous.
An interview with Andy, reminiscing about the early days of Clearleft.
We celebrated ten years of Clearleft’s existence this weekend. A splendid time was had by all!
I kind of want to link to every one of John’s post chronicling his 90 days at Clearleft, but this one is particular good, I think: how narrative ideas from the world of storytelling can help unlock some design problems.
I enjoyed chatting with Marcus and Paul on the Boagworld podcast …mostly because I managed to avoid the topic at hand by discussing sci-fi for half an hour before we settled to the boring stuff about work, business, and all that guff.
This was a fun way to spend the day—getting my hands dirty with ink and type.
Know any talented recent graduates? Let ‘em know about this 3-month internship at Clearleft.
Two-thirds of the way through our 100 days project, Batesy takes stock of his journey so far.
(I should probably mention that I love each and every one of the pieces of hand lettering that he’s done …talented bastard.)
Charlotte’s opening remarks at the most recent Codebar were, by all accounts, inspiring.
I was asked to give a short talk about my journey into coding and what advice I would give to people starting out.
Our new intern—L’il James—demonstrates good .gif skills in his write-up of the project he worked on at Hack Farm.
It’s like Downton Abbey and Silicon Valley had a baby.
Here’s a fun little interview I did recently, mostly about work stuff. It’s available for your huffduffing pleasure.
One thing that really bothers me is the way I repeatedly said “guys” to refer to my colleagues at Clearleft. I must stop doing that.
I was interviewed for a feature in issue 257 of net magazine.
In this interview, I pause. And continue.
Almost six minutes of me squinting in the sun and sharing my reckons while seagulls squawk in the background.
Mike writes about what it was like being a client for a change. After working with him on the Code for America project, I can personally vouch for him as a dream client:
Clearleft’s pattern deliverables are the special-special that made the final work so strong. Jon Aizlewood’s introduction to the concept convinced me to contact Clearleft. Jeremy Keith’s interest in design systems kicked off the process, and Anna Debenham’s fucking rock star delivery brought it all home.
Hey, look! The Clearleft interns are in Wired. That’s nice.
Ant—the latest super-smart addition to the Clearleft team—describes this year’s Hackfarm, which happened a couple of weeks ago.
It was Ant’s first week. Or, as he described it when we were wrapping up all the hacking, “Best first week at a job ever!”
I’m going to miss having Paul around at Clearleft …and it sounds like he’s going to miss us too.
In many respects, Clearleft can be regarded as a family. Andy and Rich are the parents while perhaps Jeremy is the fun uncle sending postcards from his adventures around the world.
By the way, we’re hiring (two roles, because that’s what it’ll take to fill Paul’s unicorn shoes).
Some lovely pictures from the Clearleft office-warming party last weekend.
Jon gives some insight into how and why we use pattern portfolios as deliverables at Clearleft.
I’m going to miss having Harry around at Clearleft. Sounds like he might miss Clearleft too:
What I’ve loved about Clearleft is that it’s just so different to any other agency I’ve worked at. There’s no company process – everyone’s encouraged to experiment and try different techniques to suit the client’s needs. There’s hardly any internal meetings. I’ve never once had a conversation about my billing efficiency. The focus is on quality, and profitability is almost seen as a by-product. You’re encouraged to share your learnings externally rather than keep them in-house. Everyone’s trusted and given a lot of independence.
The latest Clearleft product will be like having an intensive set of discovery, collaboration, and exploration workshops in a box. Perfect for startups and other small businesses short on time or budget.
It starts in Spring but you can register your interest now.
James’s notes from the most recent Hack Farm show that, even without a finished product, there were a lot of benefits.
I’m really pleased to be working with Bobbie on Matter.
Andy gives his thoughts on this year’s dConstruct. He does a good job of explaining what to expect, and—more importantly—what not to expect.
Josh and Michelle have been hard at work making this responsive theme for Shopify. It’s quite lovely.
Thanks to the fact that 10% of Silverback’s profits go to the Dian Fossey Foundation, Rifa got to meet Sigourney Weaver. Nice!
On the two-year anniversary of his arrival at Clearleft, Paul takes a look at where the craft of web design is today and where it’s heading tomorrow.
A nice overview of the increasing importance of UX on the web, written by Bobbie with soundbites from Andy.
A great presentation by Andy on the use of progressive enhancement at Clearleft.
An excellent overview of the evolution of the St. Paul's School website from David Smith, noting an increasing emphasis on mobile usage.
A few notes on the recent re-align of the Radio 4 website by Clearleft.
My pedagogic colleagues from N'orn Irelan' asked me twelve questions. I answered.
Natalie has put up the slides and video from her excellent Girl Geek Dinner talk on CSS in The Eagle last week.
Andy answers some questions about Clearleft's way of working.
Clearleft worked on this project; information architecture, visual design, and front-end (that was my part: markup, CSS and JavaScript). I'm very, very happy to see that it's finally launched and even happier to see the level of appreciation for g…
There will be an evening games in the foyer of the Clearleft office building on Thursday, August 21st.
Garrett's in-depth look at Silverback, the Mac app that we've been cooking up at Clearleft.
An interview with Relly who, in case you didn't know, is a kick-ass copy writer.
Having left web accessibility behind him, Joe camps out at the Clearleft office where he immediately turns into a wanker designer.
While I was at XTech in Paris, Ian Forrester took me aside for an interview about microformats. Here's the video of our little chat.