My thoughts on all things WordPress and the world of front end web development. If you want to browse by a particular subject then go to my categories page.
I recently posted on Twitter that we should stop using carousels for calls to action. I then followed that up with another statement saying: “Whilst we’re at it can we also do away with delayed pop-ups!” At the time I was making a throw away comment due to my frustrations browsing websites on that day. However I realised, thanks to Matt Saunders, that I really should be providing...
One of the easiest ways I’ve found to improve my WordPress development skills is to stop installing plugins. Instead I started focusing on writing them and learning more about WordPress filters and actions. When you start out it might be more convenient to quickly install a plugin which solves your problem. However every time you add another plugin you increase your technical debt. This coul...
Recently I’ve been working on a rebuild of my website and one of my key goals is to improve accessibility considerations across the site. The first thing I wanted to tackle was the navigation menu. For a while I had contemplated not using any sort of toggle to display the menu on a mobile device and just have the links on view. However after much deliberation, I felt the balance of the desig...
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 Sc...
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 prefer...
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. Un...
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 we...
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 cheap products of...
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...
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 ...
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 ot...
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. Ever...