Blog

  • Breaking Out of the Box

    Breaking Out of the Box

    CSS is about appearance boxes. In fact, the whole website is made of containers, from the website viewport to components on a webpage. However, there are times when we have a fresh element that forces us to reevaluate our design strategy.

    Square features, for instance, make it fun to play with round picture areas. Finding the best way to organize articles that stays out of reach with smart screen notches and electronic keyboards is challenging. And having two or more portable devices forces us to reevaluate how to make the most of the available space in a variety of different device positions.

    The design of products has become more challenging and interesting as a result of new changes to the web platform. They’re fantastic options for us to leave our triangular boxes.

    The Window Controls Overlay for Progressive Web Apps ( PWAs ) is a new feature that I’d like to discuss.

    Liberal Web Apps are bridging the gap between websites and apps. They bring together the best aspects of both. On one hand, they’re firm, shareable, searchable, and reactive just like websites. On the other hand, they provide more effective features, work online, and read documents just like local apps.

    PWAs are really exciting as a style area because they challenge us to consider how to combine online and native user interface. We have more than 40 years of experience telling us what software may look like on desktop products in particular, and it can be challenging to get out of this psychological design.

    PWAs on desktops are ultimately limited to the top of a square with a name bar.

    Here’s what a standard desktops PWA app looks like:

    Sure, as the creator of a PWA, you get to choose the color of t

  • Designers, (Re)define Success First

    Designers, (Re)define Success First

    I introduced the concept of normal social style about two and a half years earlier. It was born out of my disappointment with the many obstacles to achieving style that’s accessible and equal, protects people’s protection, firm, and target, benefits society, and restores nature. I argued that we must overcome the difficulties that prevent us from acting morally and that we must functionally integrate design ethics into our daily routine, procedures, and tools to raise it to a more realistic level.

    However, we’re still very far from this perfect.

    At the time, I didn’t realize yet how to functionally incorporate morality. Yes, I had found some tools that had worked for me in past projects, such as using checklists, notion monitoring, and “dark truth” sessions, but I didn’t manage to use those in every task. I was still battling for time and support, and at best I had only partially surpassed my goal of having a higher ( moral ) level of design, which is not what I would consider to be structurally integrated.

    I made the decision to investigate deeper the causes of organization that prevent us from practicing regular social style. Today, after much research and experimentation, I believe that I’ve found the code that will let us functionally combine morality. And it’s amazingly easy! However, we must second move out to understand what we’re going through.

    Control the program

    Unfortunately, we’re trapped in a capitalist structure that reinforces materialism and inequality, and it’s obsessed with the dream of infinite growth. Sea levels, temperature, and our demand for energy continue to rise unquestioned, while the divide between rich and poor continues to increase. Owners expect ever-higher returns on their investments, and firms feel forced to set short-term goals that reflect this. Over the last years, those goals have twisted our well-intended human-centered mentality into a powerful system that promotes ever-higher levels of consumption. When we’re working for an organization that pursues “double-digit growth” or “aggressive sales targets” ( which is 99 percent of us ), that’s very hard to resist while remaining human friendly. Yet with our best intentions, and even though we like to suggest that we create solutions for people, we’re a part of the problem.

    What can we do to alter this?

    We can start by acting on the right level of the system. Donella H. Meadows, a system thinker, once listed ways to

  • Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?

    Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?

    The mobile-first style approach is great—it focuses on what really matters to the consumer, it’s well-practiced, and it’s been a popular style design for years. But developing your CSS mobile-first should also be fantastic, too…right?

    Well, not necessarily. Classic mobile-first CSS development is based on the principle of overwriting style declarations: you begin your CSS with default style declarations, and overwrite and/or add new styles as you add breakpoints with min-width media queries for larger viewports (for a good overview see “What is Mobile First CSS and Why Does It Rock?”). But all those exceptions create complexity and inefficiency, which in turn can lead to an increased testing effort and a code base that’s harder to maintain. Admit it—how many of us willingly want that?

    Mobile-first CSS may yet be the best option for your own tasks, but you need to first determine whether it is appropriate in light of the physical design and user interactions you’re creating. To help you get started, here’s how I go about tackling the elements you need to watch for, and I’ll discuss some alternative remedies if mobile-first doesn’t seem to fit your job.

    Benefits of mobile-first

    Some of the points to enjoy with mobile-first CSS growth —and why it’s been the de facto growth strategy for thus long—make a lot of feeling:

    Development pyramid. One thing you definitely get from mobile-first is a great development hierarchy—you only focus on the cellular view and get developing.

    Tried and tested. It’s a tried-and-true method that has worked for years because it solves a problem actually also.

    Prioritizes the smart see. The smart see is the simplest and arguably the most significant because it covers all of the crucial consumer journeys and frequently accounts for more user visits ( depending on the project ) in terms of complexity.

    Inhibits desktop-centric growth. It can be tempting to first focus on the desktop perspective because desktop computers are used for growth. No one wants to spend their time retrofitting a desktop-centric website to work on mobile devices, but thinking about mobile right away keeps us from getting stuck later on!

    Disadvantages of mobile-first