This is a fantastic overview of the modular architecture Lonely Planet is using to run their website and their style guide, keeping both perfectly in sync. The system that drives all of this, Rizzo, is available on Github.
Dispatches From The Internets
A Maintainable Style Guide
We Need More Empathy
For a while now I’ve been beating the “empathy” drum (notes), trying to get folks in our industry to understand the importance of creating connections with the people for whom we build software, websites, etc. After all, we design and build tools to solve the needs of actual people, not some generic “user”.
I Am Not Broken: The Language of Disability
I love this!
The world we live in isn’t defined by two versions of reality. There isn’t the “normal” reality for all the normal people, and the slightly skewed reality for all of the rest of us who yearn for normalcy. Our fiction should reflect that. King George VI wasn’t any less of a powerful speaker or ruler for all of his stuttering. Odetta Holmes wasn’t slowed down by her wheelchair.
I’m not broken and neither are you.
Autoplay, Don’t Do It
A while back GogOm reported on how Facebook’s decision to autoplay videos led to a 60% increase in mobile data usage. It was a business decision with the intent of increasing engagement, but it was a bad decision from a user experience. It’s a tax on users and they weren’t to happy about it. You may be wondering Why is this a bad thing for users? They want to see videos, so we’re just giving them what they want. Well, let me share a little story.
Visualizing CSS3 Transformations
It’s pretty amazing what you can do with CSS3 transforms these days, but I often struggle with explaining the importance of function order when I am training people on how to use them. Transformation functions are a visual thing, so they require a visual tool to fully understand them and the implications of your function order decisions.
Indecisiveness and URLs
If you know me, you know I am a pretty indecisive guy. It is not uncommon for Kelly and I to spend 15 minutes or more just trying to figure out where we want to grab a meal.
Update Your SSH Keys on Github
Honestly, it’s probably good to get into the habit of updating your SSH keys regularly anyway, but in case you needed a reminder:
Back in February, we improved the security audit trail for SSH keys. Soon, organizations will be able to block access for SSH keys that were created prior to those improvements. If your application relies on deploy keys or user keys for repository access, we recommend replacing any keys created before February 24, 2014.
Adaptive Images in ExpressionEngine with CE Image
One of the biggest headaches of responsive design has been dealing with images. Thankfully our work on the Responsive Images Issues Community Group has resulted in a rock-solid set of elements and attributes to address all of your adaptive image needs. My company, Easy Designs, recently redesigned Nichols College’s website and that project just happened to coincide adaptive images landing in Blink (the rendering engine that powers Chrome and Opera). Naturally, we jumped at the opportunity to use them.
Enabling Webmentions in Jekyll
What Do We Own?
My good friend Jeremy is incredibly excited about the Indie Web movement and I am right there with him. I love the idea of owning your content and then syndicating it out to social networks, photo sites, and the like. It makes complete sense… Web-based services have a habit of disappearing, so we shouldn’t rely on them. The only Web that is permanent is the one we control.