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How To Stay Up To Date on Web Stuff

How To Stay Up To Date on Web Stuff

Chris Coyier

October 22, 2013
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  1. AlwaysReadTheManual.com Three beautiful, illustrated hardbound books a year, each holding

    six articles and six personal lessons that use the maturing of the discipline of web design as a starting point for deeper explorations of our work and who we are as designers.
  2. “And what is it that you do?” “I’m a web

    designer.” “Oh. That’s nice.”
  3. Once more, I’ve proven to be a poor representative of

    the industry I’m so proud to belong to.
  4. I’m about to start a new project. I want to

    make smart decisions on what tech to use.
  5. Is the tech right for the project? Is it just

    short-term cool or long-term right? What is the fail cost?
  6. Will the team be into it? Can I hire people

    that know it? How big is the community around it?
  7. Watch/talk to the “big” players Look at enormous GitHub repos

    Be aware of tech you hear about over and over Look at community sizes Research investment costs (mostly: time) Employ good decision making
  8. It might not be that you’re getting old. It might

    be that you’re getting bored.
  9. Get a good night’s sleep. 1 Or ten. The bigger

    the decision the most rested you should be.
  10. 2 Gather and clearly lay out all the options. Often

    boolean: yes/no, use/don’t use, do/don’t do
  11. Who do you choose to work with? What is my

    attitude? What culture am I trying to cultivate?
  12. Am I letting UX drive choices? Am I building something

    people love? Am I writing things people want to read?
  13. Should I start using icon fonts? Is single-color OK? Is

    performance better or worse? Will it speed up or slow down development? Can we deal with all accessibility concerns? Can I find ones that work for me? I can build my own? Do I have time for that? Do they look better to my audience?
  14. Should I use HTML5 form features? <input type=date> What is

    the browser support? Quirks to watch out for? What features do I need? What control do I have? What kind of fallback is acceptable?
  15. Should we use Sass? What is the cost to switch?

    Can we get the whole team on board? What is the learning curve? What are other people saying/doing? What other benefits/effects does it have?
  16. What browsers should I support? Look at YOUR data. What

    are trending indicating? What is the cost of support? What do you gain from that support? Do the math.
  17. IcedCoffeeScript is a superset of CoffeeScript... it will interpret almost

    all existing CoffeeScript programs. IcedCoffeeScript (ICS) adds two new keywords: await and defer. parallelSearch = (keywords, cb) -> out = [] await for k,i in keywords search k, defer out[i] cb out
  18. I BET If you stopped reading any dev tech news

    for a year, you could catch up in a week. Binge on some blogs. Go to a conference or two.
  19. A VERY SMALL SMATTERING OF VERY SMART AND INTERESTING BLOGS,

    PODCASTS, & PEOPLE YOU SHOULD FOLLOW.
  20. Smashing Magazine smashingmagazine.com Cognition cognition.happycog.com NetTuts+ net.tutsplus.com 24 Ways 24ways.org

    Codrops tympanus.com/codrops HTML5 Doctor html5doctor.com HTML5 Rocks html5rocks.com A List Apart alistapart.com
  21. ShopTalk shoptalkshow.com The Web Ahead 5by5.tv/webahead Non Breaking Space nonbreakingspace.tv

    The Big Web Show muleradio.net/thebigwebshow/ Build Podcast build-podcast.com Rails Casts railscasts.com JavaScript Jabber javascriptjabber.com This Developer’s Life thisdeveloperslife.com The East Wing theeastwing.net BizCraft unmatchedstyle.com/bizcraft
  22. Paul Irish @paul_irish / paulirish.com Estelle Weyl @estellevw / estelle.github.com

    Martin Wolf @_martinwolf / theamazingweb.net Ryan Seddon @ryanseddon / thecssninja.com Zoe Gillenwater @zomigi / zomigi.com Jeremy Keith @adactio / adactio.com Nicole Sullivan @stubbornella / stubbornella.org Rebecca Murphey @rmurphey / rmurphey.com/ Tab Atkins @tabatkins / xanthir.com Christian Heilman @codepo8 / christianheilmann.com Divya Manian @divya / nimbupani.com Val Head @vlh / valhead.com
  23. Elijah Manor @elijahmanor / elijahmanor.com Mike Taylor @miketaylr / miketaylr.com

    Ethan Marcotte @rwd / @beep / ethanmarcotte.com/ Jeff Starr @perishable / perishablepress.com Lea Verou @leaverou / lea.verou.me Scott Jehl @scottjehl / scottjehl Hakim El Hattab @hakimel / hakim.se Rachel Nabors @rachelnabors / rachelnabors.com Rachel Andrew @rachelandrew / rachelandrew.co.uk Raquel Velez @rockbot / raquelvelez.com Jina Bolton @jina / jina.me Pamela Fox @pamelafox / pamelafox.org
  24. Peter-Paul Koch @ppk / quirksmode.org John Resig @jeresig / ejohn.org

    Jonathan Snook @snook / snook.ca Jake Archibald @jaffathecake / jakearchibald.com Ana Tudor @thebabydino / about.me/thebabydino Stephanie Rewis @stefsull / w3conversions.org Jennifer Robbins @jenville / jenville.com Sara Soueidan @sarasoueidan / sarasoueidan.com Laura Kalbag @laurakalbag / laurakalbag.com Veerle Pieters @vpieters / veerle.duoh.com Harry Roberts @csswizardry / csswizardry.com Dave Rupert @davatron5000 / daverupert.com
  25. James Padolsey @padolsey / james.padolsey.com Tim Holman @twholman / tholman.com

    Mathias Bynens @mathias / mathiasbynens.be Ben Alman @cowboy / benalman.com David Walsh @davidwalshblog / davidwalsh.name Mat Marquis @wilto / matmarquis.com Simon @simurai / simurai.com Nicolas Zakas @slicknet / nczonline.net Pam Selle @pamasaur / thewebivore.com Jenn Lukas @jennlukas / jennlukas.com Kimberly Blessing @obiwankimberly / kimberlyblessing.com Lara Swanson @laraswanson / laraswanson.com
  26. “And what is it that you do?” “I work at

    a small web design shop and we’re building a website that sells car parts for old cars. ”
  27. If you’re looking for a few quick wins, there are

    some great newsletters you can subscribe to.