For a recent project, we had an opportunity to create a gameboard-style landing page. We wanted the users to feel as if they were moving a game piece through a board game. When I saw the mockups that one of our designers came up with, I was blown away and immediately scratching my head as [...]
View demo Over the course of the past year, the way I approach CSS has fundamentally changed for two reasons. The first reason is that I now use SASS. I could drone on for days about how amazing it is, but I think enough blog posts have been written on that topic. (Having said that, [...]
Subtitle: use screen, and cut way back on your tabs Look at the following picture, and tell me why it sucks. Actually, since this is a blog post, how about I tell you why it sucks instead? I’ve got 4 other terminals open aside from the one I’m actually working in, each one showing the [...]
When I first got my CSS on (did I really just say that?) back in 2006, managing color values in my style sheet was pretty simple: I had my colors for text, and then my colors for elements with solid backgrounds, and that was about it. If I had my act together, maybe I’d write [...]
The latest major version of FactoryGirl came out last week, which coincided with an internal debate here on the best use of factories. Often, out of habit, when we’re writing tests, we reach for a Factory when we’re testing a new method. It’s convenient because it gives you some test data to work with, and [...]
I’m working on an MVP for a great client right now. Although the two guys behind the app are really design-y by nature, their goal with this iteration is to produce a basic desktop version, get it in front of users, and see if it’s worth pursuing further. So on the front end, I felt [...]
The best thing I came across about CSS in 2011 was Nicole Sullivan’s Webstock presentation, Our Best Practices Are Killing Us. Reading the slides, I had one of those cool experiences characterized by repetitive head nodding and smiling, where you realize that someone is perfectly articulating a thought that’s only half formed in your own [...]
In our team’s testing process (and we do have a significant process to make sure that everything gets covered), we’ve noted in the past that we have quite a bit of overlap between what’s covered by our Javascript unit tests (typically with Jasmine) and by our browser-driving acceptance tests (Cucumber and Capybara with Selenium-Webdriver). Because [...]
As a designer who uses Git and Terminal on a regular basis, it pains me to talk to other front-end web developers that aren’t even aware such wonderful things exist. I could go into the many ways that Git has helped me become a better coder and designer, not to mention how many times it’s [...]
What’s the most important thing about your company’s homepage? The gimmick, of course! Ok, maybe that’s not true. Maybe what’s really important is a pleasant design, professional message, and concise and accurate information—but a gimmick doesn’t hurt! We’re almost finished redesigning OUR web presence, and in addition to all those important pieces of a good website, we [...]