“Middleware” isn’t a new term in computing. It is often used as a term to describe a piece of software that holds two systems together. You could call it “glue” for software, and essentially, that’s
Most sites I build are static sites with HTML files generated by a static site generator or pages served on a server by a CMS like Wordpress or CraftCMS. I use JavaScript only on top to enhance the
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I could build a website from beginning to end by myself with nobody interfering. I would create the content, design the look and feel, and write the code.
In these difficult times, we all are Ukraine. Today we would like to highlight a wonderful initiative from the community: Devs For Ukraine, a free online charity conference in support of Ukraine, or
Nobody gets particularly excited about breadcrumbs navigation. You know, those tiny little crumbles of pathways that illustrate where a user currently is in the intricate hierarchy of the website. T
Next.js has five types of data-fetching patterns for determining how you want content to be seen in your application: static-site generation (SSG), server-side rendering (SSR), client-side rendering
JavaScript, CSS, images, iframes, and other resources impact how quickly website loads, renders and becomes usable to the user. Loading experience is crucial to the user’s first impression and overa
It can be easy to assume that everyone needs a design system, that you can pick one off the shelf or put one together pretty quickly, and your problems are over. As with many things on the web, your
Carousels don’t have a good reputation, and rightfully so. They have plenty of accessibility issues, they often exhibit low click-through rates, can be very disruptive when auto-advancing and people
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Using freelancers has always been a somewhat d
As human beings, we love stories. And stories come in all shapes and sizes. Children love fairy tales; teenagers ask “and then what happened?” when their friends recount gossip; history buffs explor
I’ve spent the past several years building messaging tools — for more than three years now I’ve been leading the design team at OneSignal, a customer engagement platform that enables developers and
In the early days of the Jamstack, developers mostly used it for static sites and opt for a more verbose frontend framework like Vue and React when they need to perform more sophisticated operations
Sometimes it’s the little productivity hacks that turn out to be the most precious. A shortcut or tool that saves only a few seconds of your time but that makes you wonder how you could have gotten
When designing interfaces, we often focus on the usual suspects. How do we design better mega-menus and carousels? How do we support users with better breadcrumbs? How do we better display our sideb
Thousands of tools for the command-line interface (CLI) are out there, without exaggeration. They serve all kinds of purposes. Yarn is one of the most used CLIs in the world, bringing ease to the pa
One of my main mantras is using “Creative Coding” to level up your skills. It’s one of the main reasons I have gotten to where I am. But when so much of the web is very “set in its way”, it takes a
Let’s take a moment to think about the time you’ve spent navigating intranets, password resets, project management software, or government websites. How many moments of technological frustration can
Imagine that you’ve just received an invite to a new meeting. The description is a bit vague, but the title is sitting right there, with its heavy weight, making you a bit worried: design KPIs. Now,
I have a confession to make — I am not overly fond of modal dialogs (or just “modals” for short). “Hate” would be too strong a word to use, but let’s say that nothing is more of a turnoff when start