Forget death and taxes. The only certainty on the web is change. Ste Grainer takes a brief look at the history of the web and how it has been constantly reinvented. Then he explores where we are now, and how we can shape the future of the web for the better.
Topic: State of the Web
Can standards help us cope with varying screen sizes, pixel densities, input types, and more? Universal design in real life: if our sites are supposed to be accessible to anyone, why aren’t our conferences and events? Publication standards. Responsive images and web standards. For a future-friendly web. What ate the periodical? The vendor prefix predicament. Conversation is the new attention.
Responsible JavaScript: Part III
Convenience always comes at a price. On the web, developer convenience often means third-party JavaScript—and we pass the hefty cost on to our users. Jeremy Wagner shows us how to get and keep third-party scripts under control through clean-up sprints and eternal vigilance in Part III of Responsible JavaScript.
Progressive Web Apps: The Case for PWAs
You’ve no doubt heard the buzz, but Jason Grigsby offers a strong business case for going PWA in this excerpt from his book Progressive Web Apps.
Web Developer Representation in W3C
Fronteers, the Dutch front-end association, is announcing their plans to become a member of the W3C, and to appoint Rachel Andrew as their representative. As a member, Fronteers will be entitled to four representatives, whom they intend to compensate for their time. Their mission is not without its challenges, however. Learn how you can help keep independent web developers’ voices from slipping through the gutters.
The Cult of the Complex
’Tis a gift to be simple. ALA’s Zeldman bemoans our industry’s current fetish for the needlessly complicated over the straightforward. Escape the cult of the complex! Get back to improving lives, one interaction at a time.
New A List Apart wants you!
As A List Apart approaches its 20th anniversary—a milestone in independent, web-based publishing—we’re once again reimagining the magazine. We want your feedback. And most of all, we want you. We’re getting rid of advertisers and digging back to our roots: community-based, community-built, and determinedly non-commercial. Find out how you can help!
Big Data Visualization with Meaning
Good data visualizations bring new meaning to “great UX.” They deliver something real, accessible, and human. And our designs can help users customize that experience. The web is a natural medium for truly interactive data, as author Byron Houwens explains.
Insisting on Core Development Principles
The expectations for our work have matured significantly over the last couple of decades. If this overwhelms those of us who build the web day in and day out, imagine how our clients must feel. And yet time and again, we fail our clients by offloading too much responsibility for the development process onto them. We need to build best practices into our workflows from the start, Kendra Skeene reminds us—not wait for our clients to request specific core practices.
Designing Interface Animation: an Interview with Val Head
Animation has come a long way over the course of the web’s still-young history. For years, designers felt the need to take sides. Should we build hypnotic sites in Flash? Or should we stick to static, standards-compliant sites built with HTML and CSS? Author Val Head never wanted to choose. Her new book, Designing Interface Animation, celebrates how animation is finally coming into its own, and shows us what we can do with it. In this wide-ranging interview, she tells us why she loves animation so much.
The Future of the Web
Is the web’s way forward to be defined by a bunch of renegade mavericks armed with Flash or JavaScript? Matt Griffin argues that it may not be so bad to let web authors kludge together the things they’d like to build, and follow where their mistakes lead us.
