Blog (page 19)

On Responsive Layout and Grids

I often get asked which responsive grid system I use. This is a very frustrating question because it implies a requirement where I have none. With the myriad solutions presented I can’t blame people for thinking they have a choice to make. This article is my response to that question. Anatomy of a grid system Responsive grid systems […]

The Flat Build

The flat build is the process of coding a static website in HTML & CSS without worrying about complete functionality or CMS integration. UI prototypes, responsive design layouts, or even the initial stages of final front-end development. It’s becoming increasingly apparent that merging the design and dev process in an iterative workflow is key to a […]

Automation

I used to believe hand-crafting every line of code was a necessity. I u-turned on that opinion and adopted CSS preprocessors with much gusto last year. It wasn’t so much the syntactical learning curve that initially put me off — they’re familiar if you’ve done any kind of programming — it was the perceived “added complexity” they […]

A Responsive Day Out

Me on stage with Jeremy Keith, Tom Maslen, and Sarah Parmenter. Photos by Laura Kalbag and Marc Thiele. On Friday 1st March, I spoke at Responsive Day Out in Brighton. Videos at Besquare, Audio of all talks is available and you can click along to my slides too. What a wonderful day! When Jeremy asked me to speak last year, March seemed eons away. I’ve never spoken […]

Bring Back the Sitemap?

I’m doing a small segment on navigation at Responsive Day Out (1st March). It’s an area of responsive design I enjoy experimenting with. You’re probably familiar with responsive patterns that transform a traditional menu into something mobile-friendly. Combinations thereof cover most scenarios. If nothing suffices it might be more apt to focus on information architecture before attacking code again. Table of contents For small viewports […]

CAPTCHAs: Just Say No

A couple of years ago I wrote In Search Of The Perfect CAPTCHA for Smashing Magazine. It was always a wild goose chase (but I knew that). I still get asked regularly how to deal with spam. It isn’t easy. I keep seeing new solutions pop up touted as an alterative to CAPTCHAs. Here’s the deal: replacing character […]

Performance, Varnish Cache, WordPress

When it comes to website performance there’s a lot we can do. As designers it means finding a style that suits the Web as a medium; taking advantage of CSS, avoiding heavy raster graphics, etc etc. As front-end developers, well, Harry Roberts’ has a great round-up of techniques. There’s only so much we can do client-side. It’s always […]