Design Articles / Aug 30-2016

Open design at Mozilla Mozilla Open Design shows seven branding concepts from Johnson Banks, which are now being opened up for comment from the community. Just click on the branding concepts you want to see more about, and then comment with your thoughts. It's more of a quantitative feedback process.

Improve your typography now Five ways to improve your typography now talks about things like taking on serious work (work that matters), learning to use a baseline grid, and checking proofs at scale. The biggest tip, though, is the last one: Cheat. Things like optical kerning, breaking the rules, and horizontal scaling can all be used to set your designs apart.

The never ending redesign loop It happens at companies big and small. You get a shiny new website, it's all great, and then the years go by with no updates until the site is so outdated it finally starts getting complaints. Alarm bells sound and a redesign is launched, only for the loop to repeat itself. The Neverending Website talks about the solution.

Confused about what to do with your life? WTF should I do with my life is a simple website that tells you what you should do with your life. Just click a button and it will give you a job, which you can then either accept (getting information about that job) or decline and get a new job. The site design is simple, with a bit of a retro Field Notes vibe.

What makes a great developer? 11 Signs to Spot a Great Developer is a great reference for when you're looking at hiring a developer. Things like asking questions, having references, an active GitHub account, experience with at least 2 programming languages, side projects, proactive learning, and more are included.

Stop punching the clock Why 'punching the clock' is the easiest way to kill your creative momentum discusses why finding mental and physical space is key to being creative. We focus on how people work as if it's different than how they live, but in reality the two are so intertwined that you can't view them as separate things.

Short and useful JavaScript tips Want short and useful JavaScript tips every day? JS Tips is there for you. They post and tweet a new tip each day. Prior tips have included things like Create an easy loop using an array, How to use optional arguments in functions (with optional callback), and Passing arguments to callback function.

Easy media queries for any device Michael Gannon has put together a huge resource of Simple CSS Media Queries for virtually any device you can think of. Specify which platform you want (iOS, Android, Windows, or your screen), or search for the correct platform. Click on the device and it gives you the correct media query.