I’ve been listening to the design/mobile/tech podcast Iterate for a while now. While it’s often pretty jargon dense and gets pretty deep in the weeds in terms of iOS and mobile design, as a full time web designer/developer, it’s a must listen each week. Episode 36 with designers Louis, Brad and Jessie of group Pacific Helm is one of my favorites to date. Very funny with plenty of little design tools and tips I didn’t know about.
A great primer on CSS3 transitions by developer Alex Maccaw. I really like how Alex mixes up basic syntax with performance implications and cross browser support.
Robin Sloan:
Today, I don’t think—and I’m almost afraid to write this, because it’s like the tolling of some great bell—today I don’t think the amateur’s best effort is good enough. We as internet users have less patience and less charity for janky, half-broken experiences…
…But you know who can totally craft an experience that works flawlessly on a phone, a tablet, a laptop, and a rice cooker? The team that made Medium. Other teams like it. In a word: professionals.
Robin’s illustrates how responsive, multi-device design has really taken over the web design world. It also underlines how important constant education is for even experienced web designers – experience with the latest and greatest often separates the pros from the amateurs.
Astonishing CSS3 animation work by graphic design major Pedro Ivo Hudson.
Great advice and resources from web developers Paul Irish, Mat Marquis and many more on how to give back to web community. Some essential, timeless links here.
Software developer/startup founder Dan Newcome:
The value of the Web is the content and connections. Just let me use the Web. I don’t care that much if I get slightly jerky scrolling, or if the list doesn’t seem like it’s infinitely scrolling off the edge of my little iOS world.
There’s a reason why this short post made the front page of Hacker News for 24 hours; If there’s anything that I’d like to see end in this new year, it’s the “native apps for everything” trend. Native apps are great, web browsers are great; but neither is great for everything.
As UX Magazine emphasizes here, single page websites are everywhere. I predict we could see a big backlash to the look overall by mid next year.
The iPad Mini is getting rave reviews from most tech sites, yet it presents a major problem for responsive web design. In particular, as several great A List Apart writers point out in this article (including the great Luke Wroblewski), you’ve got a device with the same pixel device width (768px) yet noticeably smaller dimensions than the full size iPad.
Startup founder Vibhu Norby:
All in all, mobile service apps turn out to be a horrible place to close viral loops and win at the retention game. Only a handful of apps have succeeded mobile-first: Instagram, Tango, Shazam, maybe 2 or 3 others…
…You have an entirely different onboarding story on the web. You can test easily, cheaply, and fast enough to make a difference on the web. You can fix a critical bug that crashes your app on load 15 minutes after discovery (See Circa). You can show 10 different landing pages and decide in real-time which one is working the best for a particular user. You can also close a viral loop: A user can click an email and immediately be using your app with you.
If you’re a web developer, you’ve probably had to implement loading animations (e.g. spinners, bars) several times. In the land of ajax and back end validation, it’s essential work. Lately instead of the usual transparent GIF route, I’ve preferred implementing CSS based animation; it’s one less HTTP request and easily customizable.
Yet writing CSS based loaders can be time consuming. That’s what makes cssload.net useful. Pick an animation, color set and download the CSS3 code.