2016

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Francis Storr delves deep into our HTML and considers if the choice and application of semantics in front-end code contributes in a meaningful way to the information architecture of our sites. Perhaps the true meaning of Christmas lies in the markup.

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.

Dean Hume pops on his gown and slippers and opens up his Christmas stocking to discover the high performance gifts of Server Push and Service Workers. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.

Lisa Maria Martin harnesses the huskies of information to the sled of knowledge and takes us on a ride through the snowy peaks and valleys of information design. Plan your route carefully and make your intentions clear, for in the wintery wastelands there are no go-arounds.

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.

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?

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.

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.

Richard Rutter shepherds a tea towel onto our collective heads and describes a technique for responsively scaling display text to maintain a consistent feel in both landscape and portrait screen orientations. That should put things back into proportion.

Leslie Zacharkow presents the purrfect solution for anyone who’s ever dreamt of creating their own Chrome browser extension. So kick back, and while your chestnuts roast on an open fire, roast your friends and colleagues in an open tab.

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.

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.

Harry Roberts addresses the hastily-coded elephant in the room and helps us to identify what is technical debt, and what is just bad code. Hark the herald Harry sings, time for some refactoring.

Gillian Sibthorpe rearranges the doors on our advent calendar by looking at how to manage those tougher projects. Like a game of limbo at the office holiday party, it pays to remain flexible in the face of adversity.

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?

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.

Seb Lee-Delisle lights up our 2016 advent series with an illuminating guide to making your own Stranger Things style fairy lights to pick up messages from the upside-down (also known as the Internet).