Author: RustBeltAdmin

 

It’s the end of August again, so that means I am back in Chicago for my yearly recharge, attending An Event Apart. This is the fourth year I’ve come, and once again the show is living up to it’s billing. A few of the talks felt a little too familiar and others were so crammed with information that the speakers were breathlessly racing through them. I suspect that is only because I have been to enough of these conferences (and read enough books, and listened to enough Podcasts) that what I am learning is sticking! I’ve caught up (for now). I’m not drinking from the fire hose, and I guess, in a sick sort of way, I miss that. Chris Coyier and Rachel Andrews gave me my fix though, and by the time things wrapped up I had a head full of ideas and was getting excited about some new possibilities all over again. Continue reading The Event Apart 2017 – Day 1

I first heard Brad Frost give a talk on Atomic Design back in 2014 at An Event Apart: Chicago. I didn’t understand everything he was saying, but it looked like a glimpse into the future of development. Up until that time, I had never heard of Atomic Design, modular design, or pattern libraries. When it came time for me to build a site, I just sat down and built it. Top to bottom. You know the drill; header, navigation, main content, side content, footer. Copy. Paste. Repeat. Changes sucked, but whatever.

Continue reading The Book Report: Atomic Design

Finally getting back into this. It’s been too long since my last post on the site, but a lot has been going on with family and work.

Continue reading The Round Trip

“A build tool is a name for any bit of software that facilitates tasks that help us build better websites. […] You know, things computers are faster and better at than humans.” — Chris Coyer, Practical SVG

This sentence perfectly clarifies the answer to a long running problem I have had with myself. That being, where to draw the line on when to create by hand, and when to use software. I suppose the answer was there in front of me all the time, I just needed to read it exactly like this to finally get it.

Continue reading The Handmade and the Automated

This is the second post in my series on Clarity, the website development process I helped create for LABOV where I am the front-end web developer. This post will cover the first of six phases, Discovery.

Continue reading The Discovery

The third day of any Event Apart is a full-day workshop on one topic. This year in Chicago, we were privileged to get Brad Frost’s first full workshop on pattern libraries (a.k.a. “style guides,” but I prefer pattern libraries because I am partial to Brad’s product Pattern Lab). He covered everything from selling pattern libraries back at work; to kicking off a project; to making sure everyone is reading from the same script; to common patterns; and, of course deployment. Needless to say, it was a lot to learn after two days of heavy learning.

Continue reading The Event Apart 2016 – Day 3

Day two of An Event Apart Chicago is typically where you realize this is an educational marathon, not a sprint. Everything you learned on day one (and are still trying to absorb); the late nights; the deep dish pizza… it all begins to catch up with you on day two. Let’s go second wind!

Continue reading The Event Apart 2016 – Day 2

I am back at An Event Apart: Chicago again this year to get another shot of Web Development insight and inspiration. This is my third year and each AEA conference I’ve been to has packed my brain with new ideas I’m itching to try as soon as I get home. Today was day one of the 2016 show and what follows are my thoughts on the presenters talks. So far this year has been no disappointment.

Continue reading The Event Apart 2016 – Day 1

Speed is king on the web. Having a faster website than your competitor can mean the difference between keeping or losing a potential customer. A question that has been bugging me though is; should speed be king when it comes to having your site created? Continue reading The Cheap and The Quick: Part 1

I know this place has been quiet lately, but there is good reason for it. For the last month or so my fellow LABOV co-worker Lauren De La Cruz and I have been putting the finishing touches on our in-house web process. It has been over two years in the making, but we now have a comprehensive method for us to efficiently and intelligently develop websites where we work, LABOV. It guides us through everything from the first client call all the way to launch day and beyond.

Continue reading The Clarity