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24 ways to impress your friends

2016

As the wider world slid into turmoil, the world of world-wide-web doubled down on design systems, performance and privacy. With belts tightened to a point that made turkey consumption rather uncomfortable, any small gain in efficiency for teams or computers was taken, and the arrival of free certificates saw HTTPS adoption take further large leaps forward.

  1. Taking Device Orientation for a Spin

    Drew McLellan

    Drew McLellan wraps up our 2016 season with a look at the HTML5 Device Orientation API and how an annoying physical interaction can become an annoying virtual one. Like the silver sixpence in your figgy pudding, there’s treasure to be found in our browsers, so dig in.

  2. CSS Writing Modes

    Jen Simmons

    Jen Simmons points us in the direction of a useful but less well known CSS feature that becomes increasingly important when designing page layouts for a global audience. Like the wise men following the Star of Bethlehem, sometimes the best direction is given to us, not chosen.

  3. Preparing to Be Badass Next Year

    Meri Williams

    Meri Williams sets her sights on self improvement in 2017 with a guide to personal development. Like a good Christmas dinner, you can set a beautiful table, but unless you get the turkey prepared and into the oven, it’s never going to be ready to serve.

  4. Stretching Time

    Christopher Murphy

    Christopher Murphy puts distractions to one side to discuss the issue of time management and procrastination. Whether you’re trying to finish up projects for Christmas, or are yet to buy your final gifts before the holidays, this could prove some well timed advice to take you into the New Year.

  5. Five Lessons From My First 18 Months as a Dev

    Amy Simmons

    Amy Simmons conducts us in five lessons but sadly no carols, sharing the experiences gained in coming to a dev role from a background in journalism. Like seeing Christmas through a child’s eyes, sometimes the best lessons are learned from newcomers, not just the old-timers.

  6. Fairytale of new Promise

    Mat Marquis

    Mat Marquis puts on some festive tunes before recounting the tale of asynchronous JavaScript. Promises offer a robust way of structuring your code to avoid event-driven disasters of visitor-vexing jankiness. Don’t be stuck in queues this Christmas. You might miss the main event.

  7. New Tricks for an Old Dog

    Tom Ashworth

    Tom Ashworth pops a few mince pies in the oven to warm through as he shares with us experiences learned when on-boarding new front-enders into his team. From frameworks to refactoring, code reviews to componentisation, it’s got everything bar the brandy butter.

  8. Animation in Design Systems

    Sarah Drasner

    Sarah Drasner drops down on the sofa, turns on the TV and puts on some Christmas classics. Yes, it’s time to talk animation, and not just any animation, but how you prescribe and document animation in your design systems. Perhaps you’ll be moved to make some changes.

  9. Designing Imaginative Style Guides

    Andy Clarke

    Andy Clarke unpacks his tinsel and untangles the Christmas illuminations to add some brilliance to the subject of style guides. Whether you choose a boxed pre-decorated tree, or lovingly choose each adornment to your Norwegian spruce, just remember to switch the lights on.

  10. What next for CSS Grid Layout?

    Rachel Andrew

    Rachel Andrew opens the door on next generation CSS to bring us tidings of Grid joy. But rest not on your laurels, we must look to what comes next for the specification. Gold may be just around the corner, but whence will the frankincense and myrrh appear?

  11. First Steps in VR

    Shane Hudson

    Shane Hudson dusts the snow from his jacket and helps us take our first tentative steps into the gloomy world of virtual reality. So mark his footsteps good my page, tread thou in them boldly. Thou shalt find the virtual world spin thy head less coldly.

  12. Watch Your Language!

    Annie-Claude Côté

    Annie-Claude Côté gathers us round the hearth to tell a tale of many languages. Like choosing the right Christmas sweater to wear while building a snowman, we must choose the language we code in wisely. Make a poor choice and risk getting left out in the cold as the darkness draws in.

  13. What the Heck Is Inclusive Design?

    Heydon Pickering

    Heydon Pickering questions whether accessibility is really the name of the game, and asks if perhaps inclusivity might be a more broadly acceptable term for the valuable design work we do. Would a cinnamon spiced latte by any other name smell as sweet? Someone has to call it.

  14. Public Speaking with a Buddy

    Lara Hogan

    Lara Hogan stands up and goes it alone to expound on the benefits of presenting on stage with a buddy. Preparing and delivering a presentation to a room full of people can be a daunting task, and sometimes two heads are better that one. Not even Rudolph could pull that sleigh alone.

  15. A Favor for Your Future Self

    Alicia Sedlock

    Alicia Sedlock embodies the Ghost of Code Reviews Yet-to-Come with a call to start testing. Do you know your unit from your integration, your acceptance from your visual regression? And will you pass the ultimate Christmas test; are you naughty or nice?

  16. Creating a Weekly Research Cadence

    Wren Lanier

    Wren Lanier sets aside time to explore the benefits of a regular schedule for user research. Santa’s elves quickly discovered the benefits of working to a fixed schedule, which is of course why we don’t get presents at Easter.