We talk a lot about Flexbox and CSS Grid Layout, but these layout methods are essentially values of the CSS display property, a workhorse of a property that doesn’t get a lot of attention. Rachel Andrew takes a better look in a short series. Rachel is going to take a look at the way that the values of display are defined in the Level 3 specification. This is a change to how we defined display in earlier versions of CSS. While it may seem unusual at first, we think these changes really help to explain what is going on when we change the value of display on an element.
Read more…
WebAssembly is a new language that runs in the browser alongside JavaScript. In this article, Robert Aboukhalil explores how you can speed up web applications by replacing slow JavaScript calculations with compiled WebAssembly. This is a case study on using WebAssembly to speed up a data analysis web tool. To that end, Robert will take an existing tool written in C that performs the same computations, compile it to WebAssembly, and use it to replace slow JavaScript calculations.
Read more…
Web interfaces have become quite a character, haven’t they? Self-indulgent, impolite, disrespectful and obsessed with user’s data. In this series of articles, we’re looking into privacy UX patterns to make our interfaces better without leaving conversion considerations behind. In this four-part series, Vitaly Friedman will explore some of the respectful ways to approach privacy and data collection, and how to deal with notorious GDPR cookie consent prompts, intrusive push notifications, glorious permission requests, malicious third-party tracking, and offboarding experience.
Read more…
Cloudflare Workers lets devs build and extend the capabilities of serverless sites.There is nothing mystical or mysterious about serverless: its end result is simply a website or application. And it is also becoming increasingly popular due to the increasing availability of services offered by cloud providers, simple-yet-powerful template-based static site generators and convenient ways to feed data into the process. In this article, Leonardo Losoviz will show you how Cloudflare Workers works and when it makes sense to add it to our technology stack.
Read more…
The z-index property, despite all that’s written about it, is still widely misunderstood and mishandled. Stacking issues in a complex single-page web application can become a major pain. Adhering to some principles, however, we can easily avoid these issues. In this article, Pavel Pomerantsev will recap what z-index actually is and how you can stop guessing whether it might work in any specific case and start treating it just like any other convenient tool.
Read more…
Design systems have changed the way we design and build applications. They are quickly becoming a cornerstone of an organization’s digital product strategy. In this article, Nick Babich presents a tool that offers a ready-to-use design system that can be adapted to your individual needs: meet Indigo.Design. This tool attempts to solve this problem by introducing a unified platform for visual design, UX prototyping, code generation and app development. Using this platform increases the chances that you will create a design system that takes root and becomes an essential part of the organization.
Read more…
Design is a creative field where forms and space intermingle to lend us a variety of experiences. Whatever design we come across, our brains are hardwired to transform that piece into simpler components made up of basic shapes and forms that are at play with the spaces. When the elements are arranged in an orderly manner, the intelligent use of spaces draws our eye to the most noticeable space –be it positive or negative. As much as the positive space seems to dominate the negative counterpart, both are used in equilibrium to tell a harmonious, coherent, and a seamlessly complete story. But what kind of story do spaces tell in web design?
Read more…
As designers, we usually turn to different sources of inspiration, and, well, we’ve discovered one of the best ones: wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd.
Read more…
Has Generation Z been part of your discussions with web design clients? If not, then it’s time you factored it in. This next generation wasn’t caught between worlds the way many millennials were, which means they have a whole different set of expectations when it comes to the technology they interact with on a daily basis. As Gen Z gets older and their spending power becomes more obvious, your clients are going to need you to design their websites in a way that appeals to their specific demands. With this guide, Suzanne Scacca will show you how to do that.
Read more…
There are a few ways to align elements in CSS. In this article, Rachel Andrew explains what they are with some tips to help you remember which to use and why. She will take a look at the different alignment methods. Instead of providing a comprehensive guide to each, Rachel explain a few of the sticking points people have and point to more complete references for the properties and values. You can go a long way by understanding the fundamental things about how the methods behave, and then need a place to go look up the finer details in terms of how you achieve the precise layout that you want.
Read more…