#159 - The tangled webs we weave
Hey everyone,
Welcome to issue #159, your weekly roundup of what’s happening in design, code and typography.
Thought provoking #
“If there’s an allegory for what I don’t like about modern day web development, this is it. You want to use three tools, but you have to know how to use twenty tools instead. If modules and components are like LEGO, then this is dumping out the entire bin on the floor just to find one tiny piece you need.” Dave Rupert in The tangled webs we weave.
“Building websites layer by layer allows for a cleaner separation of concerns, which makes the website more accessible. If one layer doesn’t work in a specific browser, it doesn’t matter because the layers below will make sure that users can still access our content.” Manuel Matuzovic in Writing even more CSS with Accessibility in Mind, Part 1: Progressive Enhancement.
Design and Code #
Geri Reid with Form design Best practice, research insights and examples.
alt attributes like paragraphs. Dave Rupert questions whether ‘alt’ text is just for accessibility or for for crafting good content.
A high-performance blog template for 11ty from Malte Ubl which is based on the awesome eleventy-base-blog and adds many performance, accessibility and SEO features.
How to use CSS clipping. Rachel Andrew explains how to use the CSS clip-path property to clip away parts of an image or other element, to create interesting effects.
How to use CSS masking. Rachel Andrew explains the mask-image property, which allows you to make part of the image opaque or apply some other effect to it.
Typography #
Typewknd is a brand-new, online-only type conference focusing on typography, lettering, fonts, design, and business. It kicks off next week and it’s totally free to attend.
Typejockeys release Firelli designed by Teddy Derkert a bold kindhearted serif family consisting of 14 styles including 7 weights and Italics. Delighting from thin to black, Italic swash caps, ligatures, and neat alternate characters. Big headlines will love Firelli’s incorruptible details.
Something to watch #
What’s New with CSS? Adam Argyle talks about some of the upcoming features of CSS at London CSS conference.
Content (from me) #
Here’s something quick I made yesterday; a responsive vanilla JS slider with thumbnails. There’s room for improvement but it’ll get the job done.