The Best Of The Internets

On Dependency

Nearly three years on, this piece from Rob still resonates deeply with me.

I have no illusions about being some kind of lone wolf. All the stuff I’m making “by hand”—the way it approaches form, function, and materials—has been informed by philosophies and techniques developed by an amorphous community that spans generations. This work proliferates through byzantine open source projects, yes, but it also proliferates through books, blog posts, and videos with titles like “Custom Styling Form Inputs With Modern CSS Features.” When I’m making things, that’s how I prefer to depend on others and have them depend on me: by sharing strong, simple ideas as a collective, and recombining them in novel ways with rigorous specificity as individuals.



ChatGPT is great – you’re just using it wrong

Setting aside it’s current issues with facts, the idea of using ChatGPT as an improv partner is interesting. Could work well for brainstorming and getting your own creative juices flowing.



Use the dialog element (reasonably)

The dialog element is ready for prime time:

IMO, the dialog element has reached the tipping point of being the better option for web developers who need to implement dialogs in their web pages. The number of accessibility requirements a developer needs to be aware of, and the level of effort to implement custom ARIA dialogs is now largely taken care of by browsers.

Use it, don’t abuse it.


Screen Readers support for text level HTML semantics

Steve Faulkner updated his assessment of support for text-level semantics in screen readers and accessibility APIs. He discusses what’s changed in the last 15 years (since his last assessment) and what it means in terms of conformance with respect to accessibility guidelines.




Inclusion is Innovation

Having worked in the D&I space within Microsoft for a few years now, it’s great to see the things we’ve been discussing internally making it out into the world.

It all goes hand-in-hand:

  1. Screen in for diverse perspectives during the interview process.
  2. Foster inclusive teams that value and promote people for not only their productive capacity, but also their unique experiences & perspectives.
  3. Empower everyone to influence product/service design.
  4. Release products that serve everyone because those products were created by people who share lived experiences with everyone.