Year-end review 2023 🔗
The last three years have been…interesting, but I finally feel like my life is getting back to some sense of normal. 2023 was my first full year as a [...]
falldowngoboone
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Year-end review 2022 🔗
What. Just. Happened? And I thought 2021 was crazy. 2022 was a roller coaster of emotion for many people. We saw historical weather events, political [...]
From Notion to Eleventy part 2: Building Markdown from JSON 🔗
This is the second article in an ongoing series where I explore using Notion’s API to directly build a blog post for Eleventy. In the first post of th [...]
Quick tip: Non-standard npm module resolution 🔗
I’m putting the finishing touches on a publishing script for my blog and ran across an interesting situation. The scripts use native ES modules, but E [...]
How I solve complex problems 🔗
Developers are professional problem solvers. It’s the number one reason I became a developer. I am addicted to the feeling I get from solving problems [...]
Preserve intent with architecture decision records 🔗
The first thing I want to do when I dig into a new codebase is learn everything about it. The second thing I want to do is rewrite it. Whether you’re [...]
From Notion to Eleventy part 1: The Notion API 🔗
Notion allows me to collect, organize, and flesh out blog post ideas in a single place, but my painfully manual process of moving from Notion into Ele [...]
Brad Frost on how to use Storybook 🔗
Brad Frost recently appeared on the new Storytime podcast with Chantastic to talk about how he uses Storybook to build design systems. The show featur [...]
The one where 'this' is undefined 🔗
I have been writing JavaScript since…well, let’s just say I was still watching new episodes of Friends on my un-flat CRT television. As long as I’ve w [...]
How I blog in 2022 🔗
It’s a new year, and I’m eager to get back into the habit of blogging on my site. To start, I’m taking another look at my blogging process and what ha [...]
Year-end review 2021 🔗
2021 proved to be an eventful year for many of us. Personally, my year brought tremendous successes, failures, victories, and heartbreak. These last 3 [...]
Kicking Sass to the curb 🔗
Google web dev advocate and all-around awesome person Una Kravets mentioned in a tweet earlier this year that got my wheels turning (I can hear them s [...]
Misadventures in web components 🔗
I have been thinking about web components a lot lately, and I wanted to see how we could start using them at The Container Store. The idea was to pick [...]
Pardon the dust 🔗
In case you didn’t notice, I just pushed up the biggest adjustment to the site design since the last redesign in late 2020. I wanted to go through it [...]
The curious case of flexbox gap and Safari 🔗
Update at the end The gap property was first introduced to add inner grid spacing but was extended in the spec to work with flexbox. With one line of [...]
Baking in syntax highlighting 🔗
Another runtime dependency bites the dust. My ongoing work of designing and building this blog continues with moving syntax highlighting from the clie [...]
Native form validation with JavaScript 🔗
You don’t need to install a validation library to create rich client-side form validation experiences. HTML5’s native client-side form validation is w [...]
Hold off on optimizing JavaScript performance 🔗
As a developer, I love optimizing performance. Learning efficient algorithms makes me feel like a software engineer. But performance is not the only d [...]
What I learned blogging daily for a month 🔗
I recently challenged myself to write a blog post every day for a month. Up to that point, I had only written eight blog posts for two years. A month [...]
Share variables between JavaScript and CSS 🔗
Whether you need site breakpoints for matchMedia or access to theme colors, sharing values between your JavaScript and CSS is sometimes unavoidable. T [...]
How I write my posts 🔗
I’ve been posting a new article every day this month, and it’s been interesting. I’ll write about that soon, but today I want to share how I put these [...]
Understand the context of code you copy 🔗
If a problem is too difficult to solve on our own, sometimes the only course of action is to search, copy, and paste. It’s something all developers ha [...]
13 fantastic web development blogs 🔗
There are some amazing web development blogs out there (Smashing Magazine, CSS-Tricks and Codrops come to mind), but today I want to pay homage to the [...]
How to get your pull request merged 🔗
When I started my first job as a professional developer, one of my biggest challenges was learning how to create helpful pull requests. I had been usi [...]
Talk to your React components with custom events 🔗
I build pages with both React and non-React components, and sometimes all these components need to talk to each other. Examples include opening a Reac [...]
Tips for vanilla JavaScript DOM manipulation 🔗
If you need to go au naturale with your JavaScript DOM manipulation, here are some tips for improving performance. Use DocumentFragments to add multip [...]
11 podcasts for the frontend developer 🔗
I’m a huge fan of continuing education, and one of the ways I binge on information is through podcasts. Here’s a list of 11 podcasts that I find not o [...]
What is your code communicating? 🔗
Developers don’t write code for computers. I mean, we do, but not primarily. If we did, it would make no difference whether we wrote in Java, bytecode [...]
How to avoid premature abstractions in React 🔗
As a junior developer, my number one problem was creating premature abstractions. Nowhere was this more evident than my React components. It started w [...]
12 newsletters for frontend developers 🔗
Frontend development is a field that changes daily, and to stay up-to-date, I need a steady source of new information. One way I do this is through ne [...]
Description lists are awesome 🔗
The description list (<dl>) is a magical element that can be used to mark up anything from dictionary entries to recipes. So, what’s so special about [...]
10 interesting books for developers 🔗
Reading is a great way to learn, but it’s also a fantastic way to open yourself up to new ideas and experiences. As a developer, I believe reading is [...]
The details element 🔗
The details element is one of my favorite HTML elements. Yes, I have favorite HTML elements. Yes, I know that’s weird. The Disclosure pattern So, what [...]
The address element 🔗
Did you know there’s an address element? Well, brace yourself, because there is! But its use has been a source of confusion until recently. In the pas [...]
Fixing all the things 🔗
If you didn’t already know, your CSS can influence screen readers. One of the most surprising things to me was learning that VoiceOver removes list se [...]
How I test for accessibility 🔗
I wanted to share what my typical accessibility testing sessions look like. This is a quick over, but I hope you find it helpful (and if you haven’t d [...]
Notes to my younger self: Regarding accessibility 🔗
Hello, my younger self. How are things? I understand you’re learning about the amazing world of web accessibility, something I wholeheartedly endorse. [...]
Accessibility quick wins 🔗
I sometimes give talks on Web accessibility, and one of the top questions I get is: What can I do right now to make my website more accessible? When I [...]
Accessible Content 🔗
When I was first learning about accessibility on the Web, I stumbled across WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), a fantastic resource for all things ac [...]
Lean into the fear 🔗
Chantastic recently spoke at ReactJS Dallas about dealing with Imposter Syndrome. One of my favorite moments was when he talked about being asked to t [...]
Your experience counts 🔗
On my journey from designer to becoming a developer, I often wondered if I needed a Computer Science degree. This is also one of the most common quest [...]
Debugging JavaScript with binary search 🔗
I recently had to debug a problem that existed somewhere in the middle of around 460 lines of JavaScript spaghetti. Debugging was useless because the [...]
Building habits through relationships 🔗
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a fantastic read. At its heart, the message of the book is that setting goals is ineffective in the long run. Real, la [...]
Web development resources 🔗
As a follow up to yesterday’s post, I wanted to share a quick list of online resources that I used to get started in my development career. Codecademy [...]
On changing careers 🔗
I had just made the decision to leave my 15-year career as a designer to become a developer, and I had no idea where to start. The only programming I [...]
Blogruary: 28 days of posting 🔗
I suck at blogging. Presently. I presently suck at blogging. I read somewhere that you should qualify negative statements with “presently.” So, yeah, [...]
Year-end review 2020 🔗
2020 is out and I wanted to do a short review of what I did this year, as well as look forward to 2021. This year was difficult to be sure, but in spi [...]
Composing data in Eleventy 🔗
A lot of what I do at The Container Store involves page templates, and one of the biggest challenges with template work (and components, for that matt [...]
How I'm redesigning my blog 🔗
Personal projects are a great way to grow your skillset, learn new technologies and explore new ideas. I began my personal blog with that in mind, but [...]
Accessibility is hard, but we can do better 🔗
Recently I made the trek to New York City to attend SmashingConf. A recurring theme this year was accessibility, and for good reason. The Domino’s Piz [...]
The Feedback Loop 🔗
Getting feedback fast is one of the most important things in development. What do I mean about feedback? Let’s imagine playing a video game. You have [...]
React Presentational and Container Components Using Context and Hooks 🔗
Updated: I’ve updated the code to export a named function, not an anonymous arrow function. When I first started using React, I learned about Presenta [...]
Free Online Web Design and Development Books 🔗
One of my favorite pastimes is reading. When I started out as a developer, I would read anything I could get my hands on. And, since I was cheap, I tr [...]
Where to start your development career 🔗
Becoming a career developer can be challenging at times. With a ton of material out of the internet, it can be difficult to know where to start. And e [...]