How tracking pixels work

Julia Evans: I spent some time talking to a reporter yesterday about how advertisers track people on the internet. We had a really fun time looking at Firefox’s developer tools together (I’m not an internet privacy expert, but I do know how to use the network tab in developer tools!) and I learned a few …

Fundamentals of Hierarchy in Interface Design

Visual hierarchy is the order in which the user process information by importance. In interface design, like in any other form of design, this concept is necessary to be functional at sight. With the correct use of hierarchy, the mind can group and prioritize elements to give them a specific order, which facilitates the understanding …

Understanding positioning in CSS

Chen Hui Jing: Everything on the web is a box. The positioning algorithms used to calculate the position of a box on the page is determined by the position and float properties. I’ll try my best to explain this in a way that makes sense. But first, let’s look at them individually. Good introductory post …

Have a web page prevent your screen/computer from dimming/sleeping with the Wake Lock API

On some sites you don’t want the screen to dim (and eventually turn off) when left idle. Think of a run-tracking app, a puzzle game that takes device motion input, a recipe site for example: you’d want to keep the screen awake even if there is no touch input. This is where the Wake Lock …

How to build smaller Docker images

When you’re building a Docker image it’s important to keep the size under control. Having small images means ensuring faster deployment and transfers. Wish I had found this post before I started playing with Docker, as it is packed with solid advice which I found out “along the way” myself. In short: Find the right …

Print to CSS – Magazine layouts recreated with CSS Grid

Just like Jules Forrest before, Dan Davies has recreated some magazine layouts using CSS Grid: I’m a huge fan of magazine layouts, the use of typography, the structures, just the general look. I also love CSS Grid and as part of my learning, I have been looking at magazines for inspiration so I decided to …

SVG Line Animation with Vivus.js

Vivus is a lightweight JavaScript class (with no dependencies) that allows you to animate SVGs, giving them the appearence of being drawn. There are a variety of different animations available, as well as the option to create a custom script to draw your SVG in whatever way you like. Think SVG line animations, but then …

RTL Styling 101

Ahmad Shadeed created this extensive RTL reference. Over 292 million people around the world speak Arabic as their first language. Arabic is my native language, and I sometimes build websites that need to support both left-to-right (LTR) and right-to-left (RTL) styles. Be sure to read the section on CSS Logical Properties too, as that will …