jQuery: Maybe you’ve heard of it. If not, may I welcome you to the internet and introduce you to some cool websites? jQuery is a hugely popular JavaScript library that gives you an API to manipulate DOM elements easily, handle events, AJAX your content, and create all the other cool features that make the web go ‘round. The scale of jQuery’s popularity is incredible; it’s used on over 80% of the most trafficked websites, and its CDN serves up over 500 million files a day.
Times are changing in the PHP world. Some call it the PHP Renaissance. PSR standards are bringing interoperability between frameworks and unity to coding standards. Composer offers access to an array of best-in-class components and a simple way to integrate them into your applications. There are some great, new PHP language features showing up like Traits and more. A new breed of frameworks and content management systems are getting on board. It’s a great time to be a back-end developer!
In a world that requires specialized Drupal developers, Wordpress developers, ExpressionEngine developers, and other pre-renaissance CMS developers, Craft CMS gives me hope for a day when being a PHP developer is enough.
Rdio announced last month that its music service would be available “free in the U.S. on the web.” The service is still accessible on desktop web browsers with Flash installed, but the site instructs users on smartphone and tablet browsers to access its service via native applications. So, is Rdio’s use of the term “the web” faithful to its technical implementation? Our own developer Brandon Rosage debates the issue with his brother Tyson, a software designer at Treehouse.
Business development in a client service organization is a complex responsibility. Each approach is different from the next, but good salespeople share core competencies. I’ve talked to dozens of agency owners at Owner Camp, where the importance and role of business development is a popular conversation topic. Salespeople can be found in all walks of life. But, more than a few great ones I know were formerly recruiters, and here’s why.
Pop on your headphones (or why not be that coworker who “accidentally” plays over your office’s sound system). Welcome to the first installation of Cognition Roundtable, where we have a casual conversation with Happy Cog folks.
In this 24-minute session, our VPs of Project Management, Design, and Technology sit down to discuss changes we made to our process in 2013 and how we’re going to apply what we learned to make improvements in the new year. During our conversation, we discuss how adding HTML wireframes to our arsenal has helped us illustrate responsive behavior and how more modular design systems, accompanied by the right documentation, are better future-proofing our work. Changes like these have fostered a stronger partnership between our own designers and developers, and they’ve enabled us to collaborate more effectively with our clients.
There are countless sayings about fresh perspective: “A little distance will give you a whole new perspective,” “You need to step away for a while,” etc. Unfortunately, we live in a culture where that’s not always possible—or practical. I have a very hard time getting up and walking away from my computer when I’m in the middle of a problem. My mind wants to sit and work right through it, no matter how long it takes.
Luckily, I work at a company that encourages collaborative problem solving. Someone always walks by my desk, hears my mutter, and asks me what’s up. Typically, explaining the issue is enough to help solve it (or at least put me on the correct track).
I am knee-deep in my first home renovation. My latest project was to replace all of the trim—around the doors, floors, and windows—which, while labor intensive, sounded to me like a simple enough project. After ripping out the old stuff, I found that my seemingly well-installed floors were anything but. The floor was inches away from the wall, and none of our doorjambs were actually connected to anything. I thought I had one big job ahead of me, but it turned out I had three. Whoever did the work the first time took the easy route, leaving me with extra work.
This is for everyone who wants to achieve greatness, tries too hard, and ends up driving their efforts right into the ground.
In my life, I’ve had a few notable personal achievements which I believe merited a celebration—champagne, a ticker tape parade, wild applause—but went relatively (okay, completely) unnoticed. Two come to mind:
Never look back, Steve Jobs said, or maybe it was Bernie Madoff. But at this time of year, it is customary to look at where we’ve been, and take educated guesses about where we’re going.
As web designers, we are in a time of new patterns. But we are making sense of these patterns and naming them. I traveled the world this year. Everywhere I went I heard the same four or five ideas.
From Cardiff to Costa Mesa, in every business meeting and at every conference I attended, we all spoke of responsive websites, finding new design and approval processes, and the challenge of delivering great design and appropriate content to a continually expanding universe of devices.
There’s something that’s hard for some of us web designers to just flat out admit: we stubbornly hate to code. I’m a designer, dammit. I live and breathe Creative Suite. Give me Photoshop or give me death. My former coding knowledge included two things: what a div is, and how to stylize my MySpace page (circa 2004).
And without even realizing it, my attitude has changed, seemingly overnight.
Within the past month, I have learned to build responsive, HTML wireframes using Foundation and Compass. The initial setup was enough to make me want to run away and join the circus. With the added confusion at first, it seemed like everything broke if I merely looked at my code the wrong way. But, with patience, coaching, and helpful documentation, it soon clicked—and with only a few tears shed along the way.
Some agencies adhere to the mantra “you get the clients you deserve.” If that’s the case, clients also get the results they deserve—especially when they hire based on spec. This past year, I watched two projects implode after they landed with other agencies who provided spec work in the sales process. I’m not typically a sore loser, but if you hire a partner based off of spec work, you’re digging your own grave.