Editor's Pick
KAPLAY, The JavaScript easy game library
KAPLAY is a JavaScript game library that makes it easy to create games. Is the successor of KABOOM.JS.
Accessibility
Dark mode & accessibility myth
Dark mode isn't always better for accessibility, you need to let users chose. And if you build a dark theme, make it accessible.
CSS
Old Dogs, new CSS Tricks
A lot of new CSS features have shipped in the last years, but actual usage is still low. While there are many different reasons for the slow adoption, I think one of the biggest barriers are our own brains.
Modern CSS Layouts: You Might Not Need A Framework For That
It’s easy to get lost in a sea of CSS frameworks and libraries, each promising easier styling and smoother layouts. Brecht De Ruyte demonstrates four CSS utility classes (plus a bonus) using techniques that allow them to be used practically anywhere you need a particular layout — be it Grid or Flexbox — with configurable options.
JavaScript
rimmel: A Functional-Reactive UI library for the Rx.Observable Universe
Rimmel treats Observables and Promises as fist-class citizens.
- When a DOM event is triggered an Observer reacts
- When an Observable emits the DOM is rendered
No need for JSX, Virtual DOM, Babel, HyperScript, Webpack, React. No need to "set up" or "tear down" observables in your components, so you can keep them pure. No need to unsubscribe or dispose of observers or perform any manual memory cleanup.
Rimmel works with standard JavaScript/TypeScript template literals tagged with rml and it works out of the box.
Sneaky React Memory Leaks: How useCallback and closures can bite you
Avoid performance issues caused by memory leaks in your React applications by understanding closures, useCallback, and best practices.
KAPLAY, The JavaScript easy game library
KAPLAY is a JavaScript game library that makes it easy to create games. Is the successor of KABOOM.JS.
UX
Did we fail to develop the next generation of designers?
We weren’t always so close-minded to new designers entering the field. We started out as more open. We weren’t always over-focused on visuals. We used to see people’s strengths in other areas. Remember that people’s soft skills matter greatly, and their hard skills, like visual design, are teachable. Why do we have it backwards? Our history has clues, but it’s not too late to change our course.
The Accidental Tyranny of User Interfaces
My thesis here is that an obsession with easy, “intuitive” and perhaps even efficient user interfaces is creating a layer of soft tyranny. This layer is not unlike what I might create were I a dictator, seeking to soften up the public prior to an immense abuse of liberty in the future, by getting them so used to comical restrictions on their use of things that such bullying becomes normalised.
Miscellaneous
Mediocre Engineer’s guide to HTTPS
As a mediocre engineer, I took Internet and HTTPS communication for granted and never dove any deeper. Today we’re improving as engineers and learning a rough overview of how internet communication works, specifically focusing on HTTP and TLS.
Design Systems vs. Style Guides
Design systems and style guides are highly related and often confused, but they aren’t the same.
Design systems and style guides both capture certain guidelines, principles, and visuals for creating interfaces or other designs within a company, product, or service. They allow UX professionals and developers to design and develop with visual consistency that otherwise would be challenging to produce and maintain at scale.
Their main distinction lies in their depth of complexity and relationship to each other. Design systems and style guides take the form of a parent-child relationship. The design system is the “parent” — it contains different smaller pieces, including style guides. Style guides, pattern libraries, and component libraries are the “children” that collectively make up a larger design system.