Web Design: Rock Out

Thursday, January 18, 2018

Rock Out

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Align in the Sand

Front-end

First up, cssreference [cssreference] is a free, visual guide to CSS.

canvas-area [github/goessner] is a lightweight HTML container element you can use to as a controller parent for one or more canvas elements.

A post that attempts to demystify CSS alignment [medium/@patrickbrosset].

“How we built a tool to export React prototypes from Sketch files” [medium/tictail].

Ionic has released a Progressive Web Apps toolkit [blog.ionicframework].

8 sites that work just fine without JavaScript [webdesignerdepot] thank you very much.

Luna Module

Mobile/back-end/programming

How to build George Costanza’s bathroom finder app (from Seinfeld!) using WRLD [sitepoint]. I could not approve more. This has inspired me - I'm going to build a Jerk Store powered by Shopify.

Back to basics: a guide to understanding and using a REST API [smashingmagazine].

Helpful Docker commands for local development [andrewlock].

How to add various authentication types to a GraphQL app [scotch].

1backend [github/1backend] is a tool for making it easier to deploy, run and maintain lambda functions or microservices.

A guide to getting started with NativeScript for Augmented Reality [nativescript].

Luna [github/luna] is a programming language that promises to be a “developer’s whiteboard on steroids”.

Beat the Heat

Jobs, positions, engagements, duties and assignments (mainly jobs)

UX/UI designer and DevOps engineer [Hotjar], remote - Europe.

Want your next open position here? You should! 47,000+ very qualified readers will see it and a slightly smaller number of those will apply! Go here and place your ad [sitepoint].

Rock Out

Design/UX/product

Shorthand techniques you can use to capture visual ideas quickly [medium/@roblevintennis].

Inclusive design principles: provide a comparable experience [developer.paciellogroup].

How Japanese aesthetic principles related to digital product design [uxplanet]. Also, Top Gun, for some reason.

rockingpage [rockingpage] features trending websites, helping inspire your next project.

Eyebrow Raising

News/business

Tech companies are being grilled by the United States government for many reasons at the moment. In this particular moment of scrutiny, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter explained how they detect and remove terrorist content from their platforms [theverge].

Other organisations bracing for change when Facebook’s newsfeed de-emphasizes public posts soon: nonprofits [buzzfeed].

Gaming chat platform Discord is also great for those wanting to share revenge porn photos [thedailybeast].

Hot take: Apple should make a less addictive iPhone [nytimes].

It’s a bad time to buy a graphics card. Why? Cryptocurrency [pcgamer].

What it’s like to raise a social media star [theatlantic].

The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) goes into effect in May. Here’s how to GDPR-proof your startup [thenextweb].

Pencil Pusher

Everything else (apps, fun tools, gaming, culture, funny stuff)

An iOS beta next month will include a setting to disable the controversial “battery performance throttling” [macstories].

Nintendo’s announced Labo, a series of cardboard accessories you can slot your Switch into to play various games or improvized toys [youtube/nintendo]. It’s very cool, and I will definitely get one even though I’m not the target market.

Instagram’s now got a text-only mode for Stories [theverge]. Wow… Instagram turned into Powerpoint so gradually we never even noticed.

JS Paint [jspaint] is a web-based remake of Microsoft Paint.

Larry’s Quest is a video game art project that is almost impossible to describe adequately [aresluna]. Open it up, walk your character around, then try to leave the screen, you’ll get the idea.

Finally, Star Wars’ Cantina Song, performed by a pencil [d4niphantom].

There's Thurs-ioning for ya. I should stop trying to make Thurs-ioning happen, shouldn't I?

I'll be back with a little more before the weekend. I just need to go buy a lot of pencils and then work out a name for my new pencil orchestra project. I mean, Lead Zeppelin feels a bit obvious, and I think I've used that pun a lot recently. You know what? Write down any name ideas, record the noise of you doing so, and send the video. You'll be doing me many favors.

Back tomorrow!