Web Design Articles

This section of Impressive Webs contains articles on various topics usually covering front-end technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Some of these posts are opinion pieces and others are more research-based discussions of standards and best practices, with occasional roundups.

Web Designer Magazine Feature

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Web Designer Magazine FeatureIf you keep up on print magazine reading in the industry, you probably know that .net magazine and Web Designer Magazine are basically the only two print magazines specifically targeted at web designers (at least, the only two that I know of).

So recently, Web Designer contacted me to do a feature piece covering CSS3 techniques. The focus of the piece is CSS effects that, prior to CSS3, required the use of images or scripts. The feature (called “Master CSS Effects) was planned to have 30 CSS techniques, and I was responsible for covering 20 of them. I don’t know what the final count includes, as I haven’t yet seen the issue, but the magazines’s staff were responsible for any remaining tips. They also wrote the intro and conclusion.

HTML9 Boilerstrap: The Story and the Unexpected Explosion

HTML9 BoilerstrapFor a while now I’ve been wanting to set aside some time to do some sort of web development parody. I’ve done this sort of thing before and it’s fun to see people’s reactions.

I knew it had to be something centered around the ‘framework’ movement, mainly poking fun at the well-known HTML5 Boilerplate project. So on Tuesday night this week, I took the idea of HTML9 Responsive Boilerstrap JS from concept to creation. I finished it that night, including registering the domain, setting up the site, and gritclonemerging its own bogus repo.

CSS: The Good Parts

CSS: The Good PartsIn March I wrote about some of my least favourite parts of CSS. Admittedly, that was a pretty negative post, and I’ve even slightly changed my opinion of a few of those things, thanks to the comments.

But I like CSS a lot. So as a follow-up, I thought it would only be fair to list some of the things in CSS that I think work very well and thus are valuable to know and use often.

Ancient Cringe-worthy Posts on Your Favourite Web Design Blogs

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Ancient Cringe-worthy Posts on Your Favourite Web Design BlogsI think everyone should be willing to look back at their older work and laugh and realize how far they’ve come. Even the best designers, developers, and bloggers have past work that they cringe at today. Heck, I cringe at stuff I wrote six months ago!

So with the help of Archive.org and WordPress’s easy-to-navigate paging system, I thought it would be fun to cause a whole bunch of people tons of embarrassment by rounding up some of the earliest articles I could find on various popular web design blogs. Enjoy.

What Do You Want to Learn Next in This Crazy Industry?

What Do You Want to Learn Next in This Crazy Industry?It’s sometimes intimidating and often ridiculous how quickly this industry moves forward. Just when you think you’ve reached “front-end developer” status, you realize there’s so much you still don’t know, or else only know superficially.

Others have expressed their views about our industry and how frustrating it feels, and still others feel that too much is asked of front-end developers.

Should the Standard Property Be Omitted for Some CSS3 Features?

Should the Standard Property Be Omitted for Some CSS3 Features?As many of us have learned, vendor prefixes are a pain in the butt to maintain, and it’s great that CSS preprocessors and client-side scripts are available to help in this regard.

Although I’ve recommended that the standard property be listed after the vendor-specific lines, for “future-proofing” the code, I’m starting to think that might be bad advice in some circumstances.

Some JavaScript Resources for Web App Developers

A Few JavaScript Resources for Web App DevelopersI’ve been bookmarking quite a few guides, docs, and other resources, some of which I thought I’d share here. (Oh and when I say “bookmarking”, I mean saving to a text file. I’m so high tech, dude.)

In particular, if you’re developing large-scale JavaScript-driven applications, some of these might be useful for you. Beginners be warned: Most of these are uber-intense, so not for the faint of heart. Nonetheless, I think beginners can still learn a few things despite the high-level of most of this information.

Weird CSS Color Names

Weird CSS Color NamesWe all know that CSS colors can be declared using hex, RGB, RGBA, HSL, and HSLA. But colors in those forms are not very memorable (unless they’re greys or something).

While I’m sure we all know that common colors like red, green, blue, etc. can be declared by name, CSS has quite a few not-so-conventional color names. Here are a bunch, with their colors represented as backrounds on each paragraph.

Roundup of HTML-Based Slide Deck Toolkits

Roundup of HTML-Based Slide Deck Toolkits & LibrariesI recently looked into some options for building a slideshow presentation for display in the browser. While there are options like Slideshare and Speaker Deck that let you upload your slides in PowerPoint or PDF format to convert them to online slides, there are also a ton of options for libraries, toolkits, and APIs that let you create your own non-Flash, full screen, responsive presentations.

Usually these presentations are HTML5-based, use JavaScript and/or jQuery, and often require a modern browser. But some of them are simpler and offer deeper browser support. Here’s a list of all of the ones I’ve been able to find, with a brief description of each.

Release Histories for all Major Browsers

Release Histories for all Major BrowsersI thought it would be interesting to list the release history for major versions of each of the big browsers.

Two factors that I believe will play a role in eventually abolishing browser version numbers are the rapid release schedule, and auto-updating — both of which, if I’m not mistaken, are Google Chrome inventions.

Each version history table timeline has a single colored row that represents the browser release that took the longest.