Reading The Last Song Of Penelope by Claire North.
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Public Domain Image Archive
Explore our hand-picked collection of 10,046 out-of-copyright works, free for all to browse, download, and reuse. This is a living database with new images added every week.
una.im | Updates to the customizable select API
It’s great to see the evolution of HTML happening in response to real use-cases—the turbo-charging of the select element just gets better and better!
Changing
It always annoys me when a politician is accused of “flip-flopping” when they change their mind on something. Instead of admiring someone for being willing to re-examine previously-held beliefs, we lambast them. We admire conviction, even though that’s a trait that has been ...
Thursday session
Thursday session
Conference line-ups
When I was looking back at 2024, I mentioned that I didn’t give a single conference talk (though I did host three conferences—Patterns Day, CSS Day, and UX London).
I almost spoke at a conference though. I was all set to speak at an event in the Netherlands. But then the li...
The new Salter Cane album is available on Spotify now: https://open.spotify.com/album/3MeUNUs1EKdleklacQMaQB
The new Salter Cane album is available on Spotify now:
Daring Fireball: One Bit of Anecdata That the Web Is Languishing Vis-à-Vis Native Mobile Apps
daringfireball.net/2025/01/one_bit_of_anecdata_that_the_web_is_languishing
I have to agree with John here:
There’s absolutely no reason the mobile web experience shouldn’t be fast, reliable, well-designed, and keep you logged in. If one of the two should suck, it should be the app that sucks and the website that works well. You shouldn’t be expected to carry around a bundle of software from your utility company in your pocket. But it’s the other way around.
There’s absolutely no technical reason why it should be this way around. This is a cultural problem with “modern front-end web development”.
Durable products | Brad Frost
Wherein Brad says some kind words about The Session. And slippers.
Slippers are cool.
Prescriptive and Descriptive Information Architectures | Jorge Arango
jarango.com/2025/01/09/prescriptive-and-descriptive-information-architecture/
Interesting—this is exactly the same framing I used to talk about design systems a few years ago.
A long-awaited talk
Back in 2019 I had the amazing experience of going to CERN and being part of a team building an emulator of the first ever browser.
Remy was on the team too. He did the heavy lifting of actually making the thing work—quite an achievement in just five days!
Coming into t...
At the thee-ah-tor!
At the thee-ah-tor!
25, 20, 15, 10, 5
I have a feeling that 2025 is going to be a year of reflection for me. It’s such a nice round number, 25. One quarter of a century.
That’s also how long myself and Jessica have been married. Our wedding anniversary was last week.
Top tip: if you get married in year ending ...
Website Speed Test
Here’s a handy free tool from Calibre that’ll give your website a performance assessment.
I can’t wait to play this song live! https://saltercane.bandcamp.com/track/something-underwater “There’s something in the water Like the holy face of God It’s out there on the borders And rising inside us”
I can’t wait to play this song live!
https://saltercane.bandcamp.com/track/something-underwater
“There’s something in the water Like the holy face of God It’s out there on the borders And rising inside us”
The new Salter Cane album just dropped on Bandcamp! https://saltercane.bandcamp.com/album/deep-black-water
The new Salter Cane album just dropped on Bandcamp!
If you want to watch me and Remy presenting live, join us here at 7:30pm https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XONerj4rE2I
If you want to watch me and Remy presenting live, join us here at 7:30pm
People of Brighton—myself and Remy are giving a talk this evening at AsyncJS; you should come along! https://asyncjs.com/built-www-in-5-days/ There will be pizza!
People of Brighton—myself and Remy are giving a talk this evening at AsyncJS; you should come along!
https://asyncjs.com/built-www-in-5-days/
There will be pizza!
Dark Patterns Detective
Deceptive design meets gamification in this explanatory puzzle game (though I wish it weren’t using the problematic label “dark patterns”).
I created this interactive experience to explore the intersection of design ethics and human psychology, helping us all make more informed choices while browsing the web.
Hixie’s Natural Log: When complaints are a good sign
This is a very smart way to handle feedback about a product.
> His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead. — James Joyce, The Dead
His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
— James Joyce, The Dead
Brighton snow!
Brighton snow!
The Two Rules Of Software Creation From Which Every Problem Derives – Ask The UXer
asktheuxer.com/2025/01/07/the-two-rules-of-software-creation-from-which-every-problem-derives/
- Humans can not accurately describe what they want out of a software system until it exists.
- Humans can not accurately predict how long any software effort will take beyond four weeks. And after 2 weeks it is already dicey.
Withdrawing from a conference I was supposed to be speaking at later this year. The line-up currently shows that out of a total of 73 speakers, a grand total of 8 are women.
Withdrawing from a conference I was supposed to be speaking at later this year. The line-up currently shows that out of a total of 73 speakers, a grand total of 8 are women.
Tuesday session
Tuesday session
Progressive enhancement brings everyone in - The History of the Web
thehistoryoftheweb.com/the-inclusive-web-of-progressive-enhancement/
This is a great history of the idea of progressive enhancement:
It is an idea that has been lasting and enduring for two decades, and will continue.
HTML Is Actually a Programming Language. Fight Me | WIRED
wired.com/story/html-is-actually-a-programming-language-fight-me/
When haters deny HTML’s status as a programming language, they’re showing they don’t understand what a language really is. Language is not instructing an interlocutor what to do in a way that leaves no room for other interpretations; it is better and richer than that. Lik...
Monday session
Monday session
Your App Should Have Been A Website (And Probably Your Game Too) - Rogue Engine
Remember when every company rushed to make an app? Airlines, restaurants, even your local coffee shop. Back then, it made some sense. Browsers weren’t as powerful, and apps had unique features like notifications and offline access. But fast-forward to today, and browsers can do all that. Yet businesses still push native apps as if it’s 2010, and we’re left downloading apps for things that should just work on the web.
This is all factually correct, but alas as Cory Doctorow points out, you can’t install an ad-blocker in a native app. To you and me, that’s a bug. To short-sighted businesses, it’s a feature.
(When I say “ad-blocker”, I mean “tracking-blocker”.)
2024
There goes 2024.
It was a year dominated by Ukraine and Gaza. Utterly horrific and unnecessary death courtesy of Putin and Netanyahu.
For me personally, 2024 was just fine. I was relatively healthy all year. The people I love were relatively healthy too. I don’t take that ...