Blog posts from 2021

Safari 15’s Tab Groups

Article posted 30th December 2021 in Apple

The road to Safari 15 was a bumpy old ride. Some things were announced at WWDC and then undone; others, like Safari’s Tab Groups, turned out great.
Design for everyone

Article posted 9th December 2021 in Accessibility and Design

Design is a hugely responsible role, and one responsibility is ensuring everyone can use our websites, products, services, and applications.
An update on Google and the open web

Article posted 30th November 2021

A year ago, I wrote about how Google were spoiling my Blue Beanie Day. Since then, there have been some changes; some positive, others not so much.
What do we do with a link or button matters

Article posted 22nd November 2021 in Accessibility and Design

Language is a powerful thing; if the metaphor we use to describe actions to our users is ‘click’ we tend to forget about all those who don’t.
If HTML and ARIA don’t allow it, it’s probably a bad idea

Article posted 25th October 2021 in Accessibility, Design and HTML

I like to use invalid HTML and ARIA as a design constraint; a line I can’t step across. Sounds obvious, but in practice it’s not always that simple!
Mac event 2021

Article posted 19th October 2021 in Apple

Apple had their final event of the year last night and it was especially exciting as I’m in the market for a new Mac. Here are my thoughts.
Face ID on the Mac won’t happen

Article posted 11th October 2021 in Apple

With an October Mac event looming, I got to thinking about Face ID on the Mac; I don’t think it’ll be added now, and might not ever be.
Always style links with a pseudo-class

Article posted 1st October 2021 in CSS and Development

Ever wondered why we have the :link pseudo-class as well as the a selector in CSS? Aren’t they doing the same thing? Turns out they’re not.
Links, missing href attributes, and over-engineered code

Article posted 30th September 2021 in Accessibility, Development and HTML

Links without an href attribute are ignored by browsers; making them ‘behave’ using JavaScript, CSS, and other HTML attributes is not a solution.
A week with iOS 15

Article posted 29th September 2021 in Apple

I’ve been using iOS 15 for just over a week and there are some and there are some changes that have made a big difference. Here’s a short list.
iOS 15, Face ID, sunglasses, and Apple Watch

Article posted 27th September 2021 in Apple

The latest iOS release uses Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone when you’re wearing sunglasses. This is not only very convenient, but great for security.
What if no-one’s listening?

Article posted 17th September 2021

Spending hours writing and editing a blog post only to publish and get zero feedback can be demoralising. My advice? Keep going!
How I approach CSS: my ABC system

Article posted 3rd September 2021 in CSS and Development

CSS is easy to write but can become messy and bloated over time. A solid methodology can make maintenance much more comfortable; here’s how I do it.
Critical CSS: what it is, why it’s useful, and how it works

Article posted 19th August 2021 in CSS and Development

With Critical CSS, we can give our visitors the most important styling as early as possible and the rest when it’s ready. Here’s why and how to do it.
Using Pandoc to convert Markdown to Jira’s Textile in Sublime Text

Article posted 22nd July 2021 in Development, Markdown, Tools and Workflows

It’s a real pain that Jira’s plain text input isn’t Markdown. Here’s how to I write in Markdown and export to Jira’s version of Textile.
Apple dials back the Safari 15 for macOS redesign

Article posted 15th July 2021 in Apple

The ultra-condensed tab bar in the up-coming Safari for macOS has been reverted in the betas; it’s now just an option in Safari’s Preferences.
Share anyway

Article posted 9th July 2021

One of the best things you can do is share what you know. Even if you think it has been done before or someone else is more expert, share anyway!
Downloading a website as HTML files

Article posted 8th July 2021 in Development and Tools

How do you download a website as HTML, including the CSS, JavaScript files, and image assets? Wget is the easiest way to do it; here’s what I do.
Text underline thickness on Chrome

Article posted 7th July 2021 in Development

Link underlines are thicker on Chromium-based browsers than on Safari and Firefox; so much so that they can look odd on larger text like headings.
Website version 6

Article posted 6th July 2021 in Accessibility, Design and Development

The last major version of this website was a complete behind-the-scenes rebuild. This version, on the other hand, is almost entirely visual.
Sass mixins for Increased Contrast Mode (and Dark Mode)

Article posted 22nd June 2021 in CSS and Development

When I added a high contrast version of my website I used an almost-identical Sass mixin to the one I use for Dark Mode. Here’s how it works.
Using the Increased Contrast Mode CSS media query

Article posted 21st June 2021 in Accessibility, CSS, Design and Development

Satisfying the enhanced contrast AAA WCAG rule can be limiting; luckily prefers-contrast: more allows us more freedom with our default themes.
Craig Federighi on, essentially, mobile first

Article posted 17th June 2021 in Apple

In a post-WWDC interview, Apple’s Craig Federighi explained why Shortcuts for macOS looks to be such a success; essentially as it was mobile first!
Styling code snippets in Keynote

Article posted 15th June 2021 in Apple

No sooner than I had published my story on why I like Keynote, I spotted a post in my RSS feeds on how to highlight code syntax in Keynote.
I’d forgotten how much I like Keynote

Article posted 14th June 2021 in Apple and Tools

When COVID-19 struck, Keynote became unusable for remote presentations. I used other, lesser tools for over a year before Apple released a fix.
WWDC 2021 roundup

Article posted 9th June 2021 in Apple

Just like last year, I’ve written a list of the announcements that stood out at this year’s World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC).
The trouble with back links

Article posted 4th June 2021 in Development and HTML

You’d think that adding a back link to a web page would be straightforward. Well, it turn out that it’s not! Let’s have a look at three ways to do it.
Fixing Safari’s HTML-only Dark Mode bug

Article posted 3rd June 2021 in Accessibility, CSS and HTML

A bug with link text colours in Safari’s HTML-only Dark Mode theme means we need a bit of extra code. Here’s how to patch things until it’s fixed.
HTML-only Dark Mode

Article posted 2nd June 2021 in Accessibility, CSS and HTML

When our CSS contains Dark Mode rules and the file fails to load, we’re left with plain old HTML. Luckily we can request Dark Mode in our markup!
Front of the frontend

Article posted 1st June 2021 in CSS, Development and HTML

Frontend development use to be simple. First it was just HTML, then it was HTML, CSS and some JavaScript; then it exploded.
Accessible responsive tables

Article posted 28th May 2021 in Accessibility, CSS, Development and HTML

Tables can be tricky to make work responsively; they can also be tricky to make accessible. Here’s a step by step guide to making your tables both!
Refining focus styles with focus-visible

Article posted 25th May 2021 in CSS and Development

:focus-visible triggers only on keyboard focus; not on click. This can make our interfaces cleaner, but should it replace :focus completely?
AVIF and WebP are not always better than PNG and JPG

Article posted 24th May 2021 in Development and Performance

AVIF and WebP are better image compression smaller files than PNG and JPG, but
Converting images to AVIF in 2021

Article posted 18th May 2021 in Development and Performance

AVIF is amazing, but the big downside is that it’s not an export option in any of my image software yet. Here’s what I’m doing in the meantime.
AVIF image compression is incredible

Article posted 17th May 2021 in Development and Performance

WebP images are now supported in all modern web browsers, but the emerging AVIF format promises to be even better; I’m pleased to tell you it is!
Using Git restore to discard changes within a file

Article posted 11th May 2021 in Development and Git

git restore is great, and one of its superpowers is its patch mode where we can restore parts of a file, rather than the whole file at once.
Undelete a file with Git

Article posted 10th May 2021 in Development and Git

I’ve talked about how great git restore is, but I missed a really obvious use of git restore: restoring a deleted file!
Be careful with strikethrough

Article posted 20th April 2021 in Accessibility, Development and HTML

Struck-through text isn’t read by screen readers. This is true of all text-level semantics, but it’s worth drawing attention to strikethough.
The difference between strikethrough and del

Article posted 14th April 2021 in Development and HTML

Just like <em> and <i>, and <strong> and <b>, the distinction between <s> and <del> is subtle, but it’s worth knowing.
Git restore to discard changes

Article posted 13th April 2021 in Development and Git

I no longer use git checkout to switch branches; I’ve also stopped using it to discard uncommitted changes: let me introduce git restore!
Using Git switch to change branches

Article posted 12th April 2021 in Development and Git

Since upgrading to macOS Big Sur, I’ve noticed that git switch works. But why do we need it when we’ve got git checkout?
Cleaner focus outlines with box-decoration-break

Article posted 8th April 2021 in CSS

When I changed my site’s form and button focus styles, links felt a bit left out. But discovering box-decoration-break has made things consistent.
Bold and italics aren’t read by screen readers

Article posted 2nd April 2021 in Accessibility

Emphasis and other text-level semantics are normally ignored by screen readers, so it you’re relying on them for meaning you could be in trouble.
Sentence case versus title case

Article posted 31st March 2021 in Accessibility and Design

I’m a fan of good typography, and something I come across a fair bit is whether sentence case or title case is better for headings.
Reset to a previous commit

Article posted 29th March 2021 in Development and Git

Have you ever made a bunch of commits on the wrong branch? I certainly have… Luckily, there’s an easy way to put things right.
My user manual

Article posted 26th March 2021

A couple of years ago, a colleague introduced the idea of personal user manuals. I liked the idea, and I’ve finally got round to writing my own.
On not setting an upstream for short-lived branches

Article posted 17th March 2021 in Development and Git

I only set upstream Git branches when I need to push and pull a lot, otherwise I prefer to write out my target branch manually. Here’s why…
Updating Netlify deployments when renaming your main Git branch

Article posted 15th March 2021 in Development and Git

When you rename your Git branch, you’re going to need to reconfigure any Netlify deployments that are set up to watch your old master branch.
Why I stopped using ASCII art

Article posted 10th March 2021 in Accessibility

I love those old-school ASCII art characters, but I’ve stopped using them as they’re not accessible.
Setting an upstream Git branch

Article posted 26th February 2021 in Development and Git

There’s no such thing as syncing in Git, but setting an upstream branch is about as close as it gets.
How to rename the ‘master’ branch on GitHub

Article posted 25th February 2021 in Development and Git

So renaming master to main is a good idea, but how do we do it? Fortunately, it’s really straightforward if your repository lives on GitHub.
Empathy, and renaming my ‘master’ branch to ‘main’

Article posted 24th February 2021 in Development and Git

I’ve noticed a move towards renaming the master Git branch. It’s a racially charged term and I’m very happy to switch from master to main.
Third party platforms, and owning your own content

Article posted 23rd February 2021

Facebook’s run in with the Australian government got me thinking about how important it is not to depend on third parties to publish your ideas.
Caching fonts on Netlify

Article posted 22nd February 2021 in Development, Performance and Serverless

I’m not sure what took me so long to notice, but my website’s custom font wasn’t caching. The good news is that caching is easy with Netlify.
Custom numeric passcodes on iPhone

Article posted 18th February 2021 in Apple

I’ve been keen to ditch my 6 digit iPhone unlock passcode for a while now, as even a very short alphanumeric code is so much more secure.
Face ID and masks

Article posted 17th February 2021 in Apple

Face ID is great, but now that we’re all wearing masks in public our passcodes are seeing a lot more use. Luckily, Apple have a solution in the pipeline.
When and how to use the section element

Article posted 11th February 2021 in Accessibility and HTML

So what on earth is a <section> element actually for? The answer isn’t as obvious as you might have hoped, but it’s definitely straightforward.
Viewing the changes in a Git stash

Article posted 10th February 2021 in Development and Git

Naming stashes is a good idea if some time is likely to pass between stashing and picking up the work again, but sometimes we need even more info.
Deleting a stash in Git

Article posted 9th February 2021 in Development and Git

If you stash a lot, or need to apply a stash non-destructively you might eventually want to clear things down to keep your stash list tidy.
Applying a Git stash non-destructively

Article posted 8th February 2021 in Development and Git

You’ll almost always want to delete a stash when you apply it, but if for some reason you need to keep the stash around, Git lets you do that.
Giving your Git stash a name

Article posted 5th February 2021 in Development and Git

Naming your Git stashes can be really helpful, especially if you’re stashing a lot or saving a stash to come back to another day.
Choosing a stash from the list

Article posted 4th February 2021 in Development and Git

Viewing all of a Git repository’s stashes and choosing one from the list is the next step I took in my Git stash on the command line journey.
Getting started with Git stash

Article posted 3rd February 2021 in Development and Git

I’ve put it off for the longest time, but it turns out stashing changes with Git on the command line is surprisingly easy to get the hang of.
Scrollbar marker colours on macOS

Article posted 25th January 2021 in Accessibility and CSS

The other day, I realised the scroll markers were invisible on my website in Light Mode. The fix was pretty easy once I knew what was going on.
Scroll-bounce page background colour

Article posted 24th January 2021 in CSS

In most browsers, if you scroll and hit the top or bottom of the page, there’s a bounce. Did you know you can change the colour behind your page?
Using VoiceOver’s rotor on macOS

Article posted 21st January 2021 in Accessibility and Apple

If you’re new to VoiceOver, once you’ve got the hang of the basics, the next thing to learn is the ‘rotor’; a supercharged navigation tool.
Getting started with VoiceOver on macOS

Article posted 20th January 2021 in Accessibility and Apple

Understanding how screen readers work is important for anyone who works on digital products. Here’s how to get started with VoiceOver on macOS.
Upgrading from a Home button to a Face ID iPhone

Article posted 14th January 2021 in Apple

One from the Unpublished Drafts archive: my thoughts on moving from a Home button iPhone to a Home button-less Face ID iPhone.
Accessible animated GIFs are pointless

Article posted 8th January 2021 in Accessibility

Animated GIFs are everywhere, but are they accessible to everyone? I’m afraid to say, they’re not, and we probably shouldn’t be using them.

Other years

2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011.