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When you’re about to start a new website, what do you think first? Do you start with a library or framework you know, like React or Vue, or a meta-framework on top of that, like Next or Nuxt? Do you pull up a speedy build tool like Vite, or configure your webpack? There’s a great tweet by Phil Hawk..

New Age DAM APIs to Simplify Your Media Workflows

(This is a sponsored post.) High-velocity, online businesses produce multiple digital assets like banners, images, videos, PDFs, etc., to promote their businesses online. For such businesses, Digital Asset Management (DAM) solutions are essential. These solutions help centrally store, manage, organ..

Empathetic Animation

Animation on the web is often a contentious topic. I think, in part, it’s because bad animation is blindingly obvious, whereas well-executed animation fades seamlessly into the background. When handled well, animation can really elevate a website, whether it’s just adding a bit of personality or pro..

On Yak Shaving and md-block, a new HTML element for Markdown

Lea Verou made a Web Component for processing Markdown. Looks like there were a couple of others out there already, but I agree with Lea in that this is a good use case for the light DOM (as opposed to the shadow DOM that is normally quite useful for web components), and that’s what Lea’s does. The ..

Add a Service Worker to Your Site

One of the best things you can do for your website in 2022 is add a service worker, if you don’t have one in place already. Service workers give your website super powers. Today, I want to show you some of the amazing things that they can do, and give you a paint-by-numbers boilerplate that you can ..

Our favorite Chrome extensions of 2021

I hadn’t heard of most of the Chrome extensions that Sarem Gizaw lists as 2021 favorites. Here are my hot takes on all of them, except the virtual learning specific ones that aren’t very relevant to me. LoomOh that’s neat how it records your screen and your camera, encouraging you to do little pers..

Honor prefers-color-scheme in the CSS Paint API with Custom Properties

One of the coolest things I’ve been messing with in the last couple years is the CSS Paint API. I love it. I did a talk on it, and made a little gallery of my own paint worklets. The other cool thing is the prefers-color-scheme media query and how you can use it to adapt to a user’s preference for l..

Strut Your Stuff With a Custom Scrollbar

The first time I had my breath taken away by a humble scrollbar was on this very site. When CSS-Tricks v17 rolled out with its FAT CHONKY BOI, my jaw dropped. I didn’t know you could do that on a professional site. And it would look… good?! I appreciated so much about it—the gentle gradient, the r..

Care for the Text

How do you make a great website? Everyone has an answer at the ready: Flashy animations! The latest punk-rock CSS trick! Gradients! Illustrations! Colors to pack a punch! Vite! And, sure, all these things might make a website better. But no matter how fancy the application is or how dazzling the tec..

Remember You Are Not the User

One thing people can do to make their websites better is to remember that you are not representative of all your users. Our life experiences and how we interact with the web are not indicative of how everyone interacts with the web. We must care about accessibility. Some users rely on assistive te..