Mac VoiceOver Testing the Simple Way
Learning VoiceOver can feel overwhelming, so I’m here to give you a simple, repeatable process you can follow to make testing with VoiceOver as easy as possible.
Sharing what we learn about the responsive web, Page 3
Cloud Four Dot Com: What’s New in 2022
We just shipped the largest update to cloudfour.com since 2016! This time around, we had three main goals…
Font Subsetting Strategies: Content-Based vs Alphabetical
Font subsetting allows you to split a font's characters (letters, numbers, symbols, etc.) into separate files so your visitors only download what they need. There are two main subsetting strategies that have different advantages depending on the type of site you're building.
Truly Portable Design Patterns
Components are everywhere, but they are rarely reusable across systems. A design system component is written differently than a CMS editor component. But does it have to be this way? Could we take one set of components and port them to multiple JavaScript frameworks, import them into design tools, and use them for the editing interfaces in content management systems?
Web Design Tool Wish List
I’ve spent years looking for tools that help designers who don’t code participate in a process like the one we use. Something that would let them reuse design system components and would allow them…
Responsive Design Process that Works
Responsive design sprints are a significantly better way to design and build for today's web than the traditional web design process. We provide the receipts. Unfortunately, not every organization can adopt this responsive design sprints. Why is that and what can be done about it?
Faulty Assumptions and Unwanted Features of Most Web Design Tools
Web design software makers saw the pain caused by the design to developer hand off and built features to help. Unfortunately, these features don’t help as much as the software makers hope. At best, they are unwanted features to be ignored. At worst, they reinforce faulty assumptions that undermine design systems.
Defensive API Handling
On a recent client project, we built a form that submitted to a third-party registration service. Easy-peasy, right? What followed was a comical series of incidents that served as an excellent lesson in defensive API handling.
Design Happens Between Breakpoints
The traditional web design process hopes that static mockups—representing mobile, tablet, and desktop breakpoints—provide developers with everything they need to know to turn the designs into functional web pages. In reality, design happens between breakpoints.
You Can Have It All
Good news: Browsers are more capable today than ever before!