Wouldn’t it be great if we could spend less time trying to style the markup we’ve been handed, and more time creating a system of smart, reusable design components?
Well, we’re in luck. With the increased popularity of pattern libraries and the Twig powered flexibility we’ll be seeing in Drupal 8, we finally have the tools to create and deploy our own design systems.
But what is a design system, and how do we create them? What rules should it follow? How do I get my team on board?
They are what philosopher Harry Frankfurt would call “bullshitters.” Those that are giving advice for the sake of giving advice, without any regard as to how it is actually implemented, if it can even be implemented at all. “It’s not important to [the bullshitter] what the world really is like,” he says in a short video documentary about the phenomenon (below). “What is important is how he’d like to represent himself.”
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This Bullshit Industrial Complex has always existed. But thanks to the precarious economics and job prospects of the creative person, it is often in a creative’s financial interest to climb the bullshit pyramid. In the short term, it’s creating a class of (often young) creatives deluded into thinking they are doing something meaningful by sharing “advice.” Long term, it’s robbing us of a creative talent.
Portland, Oregon based interactive designer Miranda Slayter who specializes in UX/UI Design wrote a nice article entitled “UX Portfolios – Everybody is Lying to You“. If youj are web designer or web developer you really should go and read this article.
I just received this message from a graduate of the Clark College Web Development program:
Hey Bruce! Just wanted to say hi and give you an update. I’ve been at my front end developer job for almost three months and I received an awesome 90 day review from my employer (they had nothing bad to say about me and everything is going well). So this career has been pretty awesome for me so far. You really made a difference in my life when you mentored me because I wouldn’t have gotten this far without your guidance.
I am very blessed.
Today in my Business Web Practices class, I had the pleasure of sharing this video with the class. If you are a creative, a programmer or involved in any type of business you must watch Mike Monteiro’s talk:
Here’s a free, hour-long talk that Derek Featherstone recently delivered at the CSS Developer Conference in New Orleans.
When most people think about accessibility, they think about HTML as the foundation for accessibility. It makes perfect sense — strong semantic HTML has a huge impact on a visually impaired person using a screen reader. But, what about people with other disabilities? The truth is, there are many more people with low-vision out there than there are blind. There are more fully-sighted keyboard users in the wild than there are non-sighted keyboard users. And there are a huge number of other disabilities that most people don’t even consider when they build their sites and applications. In order to provide the best of user experience to people of all abilities, we must move beyond “write great HTML and you’ll be accessible.” To do that, we use CSS. In this session, we’ll share with you some of the most significant accessibility challenges we face when it comes to the web today and share with you solutions for addressing those head on with the CSS you write. You’ll learn all about the issues, AND know what to do about them.
Here are some great resources that my colleague Lorelle VanFossen has put together regarding web accessibility. Have a read and let me know if web accessibility is part of your design work.
Last night I gave a presentation for an amazing group of web designers and developers in Portland, Oregon. I spoke about web accessibility, a long time passion of mine. My co-presenter was Winslow Parker from the
Oregon Commission for the Blind
who has been teaching screen reading and computer techniques to the blind. He’s also a long time expert and consultant for
JAWS Screen Reading Software
. He also happens to be blind, so his passion for his work is tightly mixed with his passion for life and accessibility.
As I stood before the crowd at WebTrends, beside me in spirit are two of the world’s passionate leaders in web accessibility. Glenda Watson Hyatt, author of Blog Accessibility and the free ebook, The POUR Ebook: Standards, Tips, and Techniques for Meeting Web Accessibility Standards, and Aaron Gustafso, author of Adaptive Web Design: Crafting Rich Experiences with Progressive…
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I must admit, that after reading the article “Outdated UX Patterns and Alternatives” by Brian Krall, I felt a bit of guilt about some of the UX patterns that I am still using in some of my work. After reading the article, please share your thoughts. Do you consider these patterns outdated?
Bruce Elgort 