Articles

I was recently working through Learn Eleventy From Scratch by Andy Bell which I highly recommend, where he mentioned the use of type scales. Specifically a Perfect Fourth scale. This got me thinking whether there was a simple way to automate the creation of CSS Variables via SCSS for using type scales in my own projects. After some Googling I came across an older post on Rawkblog titled Modular Scale Typography with CSS Variables and...

Dark themes seem to be all the rage currently. No doubt you’ve seen them on your phone, computer and the various apps you frequent. Some consider them a gimmick, others find them beneficial to their online experience. Dark themes can be a more comfortable way to browse at night and in low light, and a way to reduce battery consumption for OLED devices. Sometimes they are just a visual preference that suits a desired aesthetic...

CSS :focus pseudo-classes are an important visual aid to accessibility that shouldn’t be overlooked. However there’s been a number of times when I’ve seen requests to remove styles like outlines on focusable elements because it’s not in keeping with a design. Generally this is a bad idea. I’ve also seen compromises suggested that result in very subtle focus styles. Unfortunately these aren’t to be recommended either. Focus indicators by their very nature are designed to...

If you need to find git commands quickly then try Git Command Explorer. I recently found this through a Twitter recommendation. Coming from a design background I do tend to gravitate towards GUI based version control tools. So having a convenient resource for a git command line refresh is pretty helpful. I could also see this being a helpful tool if you’re starting out and learning git as well. It’s very simple to use, just...

If I as a web developer could impart one piece of advice to businesses with regards to their websites, it would be this… Please do not buy the cheapest web hosting you can find. It is a sure fire way to spend more money in both the short and long term. As well as increasing the likelihood of issues for you, your customers and your web developers. As it is in day to day life...

Keeping your WordPress development website password protected is an important requirement that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s a useful way to keep progress and information secure from outside sources should they stumble onto your development domain. Previously I have been using the WP Maintenance Mode plugin to achieve this. And whilst it’s good at what it does, it requires you to login to the admin area first before being able to view the frontend. This just...

My recommendation this week is Waterfaller. A new tool I’ve discovered thanks to the Perf.email newsletter. Incidently, if you are at all interested in website performance than I suggest signing up to Perf.email. It’s been a fantastic resource as of late for me. What is Waterfaller? Waterfaller takes a given page URL and outputs actionable tasks to improve page speed. Where it differs from Googles Page Speed insights is in it’s break down of how...

It’s time to admit that when comes to content creation I’m currently struggling with quality vs consistency. Over the last 6 months I have been determined to try and write more. When I decided on this I had two key goals in mind. Firstly I wanted to organically increase awareness of my freelancing as a WordPress developer. Secondly I hoped that the content I wrote might be useful to others. When I started out I...

As a web developer please don’t copy and paste code you find in examples and tutorials without taking the time to understand it. Learning what’s actually happening will be far more valuable to you in the long term than getting the job done quickly. So if you need to take a few extra minutes to refer to documentation do it. Your clients will be grateful of quality in the long term. Everyday you code is...

Recently I’ve been using the All-in-One WP Migration plugin for hassle free database migrations between local, staging and production environments. I have also found it helpful for copying clients existing websites when a local development version is needed. So far I like the straight forward nature of it. It’s easy to run a find and replace on domain names so turning mywebsite.local into staging.mywebsite.com or mywebsite.com is simple. You can then export your database to...

If you’re a front end dev I’m fairly certain everyone knows @chriscoyier’s The Power of Serverless website exists. However just incase you don’t. Go check it out. It’s full of great resources if you’re interested in the JAMstack. https://serverless.css-tricks.com/

Whilst doing some research on WordPress performance I came across this excellent article from Kinsta® It’s in-depth and long read but there’s some great value in here if you want to get your head into the technical aspects. https://kinsta.com/learn/speed-up-wordpress/