This is a treasure trove of software development resources—Web and otherwise—compiled by Jeff Petty.
Dispatches From The Internets
Accessibility Resources for Developers
Dropdown Menus with More Forgiving Mouse Movement Paths
Chris Coyier put together a nice overview of ways to reduce user frustration when dealing with dropdown and flyout menus because, you know, some people still use a mouse.
Keeping srcset and sizes under control
Matt Wilcox walks through his methodical process for managing srcset and sizes. It’s a good read an will be helpful for keeping you from being unnecessarily verbose (or getting to granular).
Can We Please Stop Fighting The Native vs. Web App Wars?
Matt Asay does a great job dispelling some of the myths frequently spouted in the Web vs. platform-specific debate. It’s definitely worth a read.
Note: I no longer use “native” in this context, but it remains in quoted material.
A break from the past: the birth of Microsoft’s new web rendering engine
Charles Morris wrote a lengthy post about the germination of Microsoft’s new browser rendering engine. If you ever wondered where babies browsers come from, this is full of insights.
On a side note, this is one of the most exciting aspects of the new browser (and new Microsoft) for me:
Our mission to create a Web that “just works” won’t be successful without your help.
Apple, Business, and Standards
At Tuesday night’s Code & Creativity, digital governance expert Lisa Welchman equated digital projects to an atom. Content, IA, project management, networking, graphic design, application development, performance, and other concerns are flying this way and that like electrons—a swirling mass of energy and velocity. What holds this chaos together and keeps the electrons from flying off in all directions is the magnetic pull of protons in the nucleus of the atom.
Consider How Your Forms Read
While listening to Radiolab’s “The Trust Engineers”, I’ll admit I got a little excited when they started talking about web form performance. And no, not “performance” in the time-to-download sense, but “performance” in terms of how well the forms performed in attempting to capture meaningful, actionable data.
Who Should Pay?
In more than a handful of conversations lately, it’s become quite clear that we, the web development community, are prioritizing our own convenience and our own time over that of our users. With our industry’s focus on “user-centered design”, you might find that hard to believe, but it’s true.
I Don’t Want to Teach the World to Code… I Want to Teach the World to Problem Solve
It seems that every other day a new code school opens it doors. In my mid-sized city, Chattanooga, there are no fewer than three businesses centered around teaching “coding” classes that I am aware of. And there are at least a half-dozen free or community driven programs and camps on top of that. Most are aimed at youth, but some offer adult education as well. And that, of course, is over and above what’s available in our public and private schools (which is considerable) and a plethora of online options.
Three Worthwhile Posts on Progressive Enhancement
Jason Garber has penned a series of posts on progressive enhancement. Here’s a quick rundown on what they cover and why you should read them.