#184 - Progress and reflection
Hey everyone,
Welcome to Issue #184.
March was full of ups and downs, for me. Although it started with Covid, I somehow still managed to get quite a bit done. Various client projects, a new coat of paint for Local London, I also released my first Hugo theme.
Funny, because I sat down to write this issue thinking: “I haven’t done much this month…what the hell am I going to write about.” Goes to show how important it is to reflect on things.
Towards the end of the month we travelled to Germany for a family event, then stuck around for a week to catch up with old friends. I wasn’t very productive in that time, so I wrote about slowing down, and being ok with it.
I just read about Tom’s struggles with consistency and how progress waxes and wanes. I totally relate. It’s always good to hear that you’re not the only one.
Anyway. Here are some links that caught my eye this month. And, one I wrote myself about moving my email away from Google.
Thought provoking #
“So much of our work is spent chasing trends and shiny objects instead of building simple, durable, useful tools that stick around for a while.” Chris Ferdinandi in Building things to last.
“It’s not enough to learn what specific properties do. We need to learn how the layout algorithms work, and how they use the properties we provide to them.” Josh W. Comeau’s understanding of CSS is exceptional. Understanding Layout Algorithms is a must read for anyone who works with CSS.
Design and Code #
Website Themes and Color Schemes. Ryan Mulligan shares his journey building a website theme switching slider.
Michelle Barker runs though some of the New CSS Features In 2022, how they relate to intrinsic web design, and the challenges that lie in store for the future of the language.
I enjoyed reading Maya’s Behind Gumroad’s New Design System. Gumroad’s approach to CSS, and decision to avoid classes where possible is super interesting. From what I can see, it’s also very effective.
Performance and sustainability #
“If you inline CSS and generate HTML efficiently, their overhead is negligible compared to the network round-trip.” Taylor Hunt in Making the world’s fastest website, and other mistakes.
Optimising Largest Contentful Paint. Lots of useful tips in this one, from Harry Roberts.
Are my third parties green? A tool built by Fershad Irani, which check the third party resources used by a website for sustainable energy source.
Privacy and security #
Secure, privacy focused email documents my recent switch from using Google for email to Tutanota.
Typography #
Hermes rebrands as Evri with 194,481 different logos. Using variable font intelligence, Monotype and Superunion have pulled off fascinatingly experimental type work for a major brand revamp.
Variable fonts in real life: how to use and love them. Interesting to learn about the disadvantages – pricing, software support, and file size.
Something to watch #
Is HTML A Programming Language? Heydon’s back with a new video to set the record straight.
Thank you for reading #
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Seeing you in the next one.
Harry