For the third year in a row, CSS-Tricks is doing an End of Year series with posts from several web developers. This time, Chris asked all selected developers the same question: What is the one thing people can do to make their website better?
All submissions are being published on a dedicated 2021 End of Year Thoughts page. Earlier this week my submission “Embrace the Platform” was added to the list.
In my post, I first take a step back into the past, in order to move forward and provide a proper answer to the question. Central themes are The Rule of Least Power, Resilience, and Progressive Enhancement.
By embracing what the web platform gives us — instead of trying to fight against it — we can build better websites.
Keep it simple. Apply the Rule of Least Power. Build with progressive enhancement in mind.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript — in that order.
Is what I’m saying there all new? Of course it’s not. If you’ve ever seen or heard a talk by Jeremy Keith — a person who has been of great influence throughout my career — this will all sound very familiar. Is what I’m saying there relevant? In times where JavaScript is eating the world: more than ever.
Be sure to give the other submissions a read as well. Some good high-quality stuff in there. Also great to see some recurring themes, knowing that each author wrote their piece independent from each other.
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