Words that would otherwise be coming out of my mouth

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  1. 14 Sep, 2017

    Is there any value in people who cannot write JavaScript?

    This is a great post from Mandy Michael, and touches on some of the things I talked about in my post about full-stack developers. What I am very concerned about is that many still don’t see value in being skilled […]

  2. 13 Sep, 2017

    Full-Stack Developers

    In my experience consulting with and workshopping with companies of all shapes and sizes, I always ask “who owns the frontend code here?” I help web teams create design systems and collaborate more effectively, so it’s important for me to […]

  3. 11 Sep, 2017

    FBPurity

    I wrote about Facebook’s aggressive tactics, and Steve Portigal responded with a recommendation for FBPurity. F.B. Purity is a browser extension / add-on that lets you clean up and customise Facebook. It filters out the junk you don’t want to […]

  4. 11 Sep, 2017

    Facebook, You Needy Sonofabitch

    Several months ago, I turned off notifications from Facebook on my phone. Last week, I went ahead and removed the Facebook app from my phone. Now, I genuinely enjoy Facebook. I use it for keeping up with with my family […]

  5. 05 Sep, 2017

    Documenting The Pittsburgh Potty: An Architectural Mystery In Our Basements

    I have a toilet in my basement. Not a bathroom, just a toilet sitting in my corner. Lots of other Pittsburghers have Pittsburgh potties as well. In the steel industry’s heyday, workers would come home filthy from the mills, wash […]

  6. 05 Sep, 2017

    Building a design system for HealthCare.gov

    This is a great post that lays out the nuts and bolts of the design system used to build Healthcare.gov. It details a lot of architecture and tooling, and I’m super happy to hear they took inspiration from my post […]

  7. 31 Aug, 2017

    A New bradfrost.com!

    So after a good many years (cobbler’s children and all that), bradfrost.com has finally gotten a facelift! This makes the 8th redesign of the site (although a few redesigns have been relatively minor). Here’s what I’m excited about with the […]

  8. 31 Aug, 2017

    A Cat Is Not An iPhone

    A brief note on opinion: If you look at a cat and say, “In my opinion that’s an iPhone” that’s not an opinion that’s just you being wrong. This is a great point. It seems like something this commonsensical doesn’t […]

  9. 30 Aug, 2017

    3 Ways to Stop Designing for Addiction

    There’s some really smart stuff in this post. Pamela recommends some actionable things we designers can do to better ensure our creations don’t harm people. Ultimately this comes down to actively thinking about this stuff, so seeing articles like this […]

  10. 25 Aug, 2017

    David Byrne A View from David Byrne Eliminating the Human

    Speaking of David Bryne, here’s an important read by him that discusses how technology is (perhaps deliberately, perhaps inadvertently) removing important human interactions. The consumer technology I am talking about doesn’t claim or acknowledge that eliminating the need to deal […]

  11. 25 Aug, 2017

    History of Music Books

    I just finished a few incredible books that cover the history of music from a few different perspectives. Theft: A History of Music The first is Theft: A History of Music (Amazon link) by Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, which covers 2000 […]

  12. 21 Aug, 2017

    The end of walking

    Holy shit, what a depressing and truthful read. When my wife and I moved to Pittsburgh from New York City, we deliberately sought out a neighborhood where we could walk to get where we needed to go. The thought of […]

  13. 17 Aug, 2017

    Blank by Cotton Bureau

    This is so great. Our friends at Cotton Bureau are launching better fitting t-shirts for women and men. Support the Kickstarter!

  14. 17 Aug, 2017

    Things you could be doing instead of designing & building that card component for the umpteenth time

    Making that card pattern more accessible Making that card pattern more responsive Making that card pattern more performant Making that card pattern more agnostic so it can handle different content patterns Making that card pattern more resilient to extreme content […]

  15. 08 Aug, 2017

    Best of Daewon Song | 2017

    My cousin Jesse told me to check out Daewon Song, so I did. Tremendously entertaining and original.

  16. 08 Aug, 2017

    What is Technology Doing to Us?

    I re-listened to this podcast episode after seeing that Tristan’s Ted talk was just released. The podcast episode goes a whole lot deeper than the talk, and I think the subjects discussed are critical for any digital designer working in […]

  17. 31 Jul, 2017

    Pattern Variations

    At the heart of a good design system is a set of solid, flexible components that can be arranged to create cohesive, delightful user interfaces. There’s an oft-repeated misconception that pattern-driven design and development forces teams to use a finite, […]

  18. 26 Jul, 2017

    I Don’t Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People

    This article reenters to my consciousness almost daily. I can’t debate someone into caring about what happens to their fellow human beings. The fact that such detached cruelty is so normalized in a certain party’s political discourse is at once […]

  19. 23 Jul, 2017

    2 Frontend Designers. 12 Days. 1 Website. How We Did It

    Ian wrote about our experience launching a site for Brian Forde’s congressional campaign. One of the reasons we took the project on was that I thought it would be good for Ian to get a dose of how fast-paced the […]

  20. 21 Jul, 2017

    Launching a Campaign Website…Quickly

    I had the opportunity to make a website for Brian Forde, who is running for Congress in Orange County, California. Brian got in touch after reading my Designing an Effective Donation Form blog post, and wanted to bring that thinking to […]