Today is January 28, 2021, and for this Thursday Thoughts episode we're covering: Getting Your First Dev Job What You Should Do as a Junior Developer Helping Developers Be Leaders Let's dive in! ---- When starting off as a web developer it can be difficult to juggle learning and job searching. Therefore, it is important to know what potential employers are looking for to ensure you are prioritizing the right tasks and opportunities. A recent post on freeCodeCamp gives a handful of...

Today is January 27, 2021, and for this Wednesday Wisdom episode we're covering: Fullstack Development Trends Responsive CSS Frameworks State of Design in 2021 Let's dive in! ---- Fullstack development has moved from rarity to commonplace over the past few years. In 2021 it is easier than ever to be a fullstack developer simply because of all of the tools available. A recent post on noupe.com highlights the top 7 fullstack development trends to follow In 2021. It provides a stellar...

Today is January 26, 2021, and for this Tuesday Tips episode we're covering How to Setup Your M1 MacBook for Web Development Let's dive in! ---- The worst part (or perhaps the most fun for some) of getting a new laptop is setting up everything you need as a web developer. Adding programs and tools that you had installed over the many years of ownership of your previous laptop can seem daunting. With the release of the new Macbook M1 laptops, there are some interesting new considerations as...

Today is January 25, 2021, and for this Monday Medley episode we're covering: Success as a Creative in 2021 Chrome 88 Performant Animations and Micro-Interactions Let's dive in! ---- Last year changed the game for most designers as we had to find new ways to be collaborative, adaptive, and productive in a different environment. Hopefully, 2021 brings better predictability, but regardless it is important to stay up to date with trends and learn new skills. The latest post on...

Today is December 8, 2020, and for this Tuesday Tips episode we're covering The Modern Way to Center Content in CSS Let's dive in! ---- For many years the bane of any web designer's existence was something simple: centering an object on the page. Horizontally centering was one thing, but getting an item to vertically center was a whole different monster. Even worse was both vertically and horizontally centering an element. However, modern CSS stylings have made this a snap with just a few...

Today is December 7, 2020, and for this Monday Medley episode we're covering: Reactathon 2020 Helping Clients with a Website Content Strategy Questions to Ask as an Interviewee Let's dive in! ---- https://www.reactathon.com/ (Reactathon) is typically a conference that takes place in San Francisco every March and involves technical talks and workshops centered around React. This year the conference has gone completely online and starts today through Wednesday. Tickets are available on the...

Today is September 11, 2020, and for this Friday Facts episode we're covering: Landing Pages that Convert Scaffolding Web Development Tools Design Systems Let's dive in! ---- Landing pages can make or break a product sale or other intended call-to-action. It can be difficult to create a landing page that boils down your product or service into a quick and easily consumable page. Yesterday, Dribbble posted about how to design a landing page that converts which offers several helpful...

Today is September 10, 2020, and for this Thursday Thoughts episode we're covering: Improving App Support Website Considerations for Blind People Tools for Website Accessibility Let's dive in! ---- Without a doubt, when you think of a company you love, one of the key components is most likely a great support team. For me, the way a company handles a support request can make or break my opinion of the company. Luckily, Shopify brought together a panel of experts to give their opinions...

Today is September 9, 2020, and for this Wednesday Wisdom episode we're covering: Reduced Motion Design Linking to the Web Archive Improving Client Communication Let's dive in! ---- Modern web browsers now support a wide range of CSS and JavaScript properties that can create awesome interactive features and animations. However, it is important to keep accessibility in mind and realize that some people have sensitivities to too much motion. Yesterday's post on Smashing Magazine...

Today is September 8, 2020, and for this Tuesday Tips episode we're covering How to Rename Your Master Branch on GitHub Let's dive in! ---- Recent events have brought to light the negative connotations of having the main branch on a repository called master. Whether you want to change your primary branch name for this reason or just for fun, it is important to know how to do so and there are a few key steps to ensure that the change goes smoothly. ---- Before we jump into changing our...

Today is September 4, 2020, and for this Friday Facts episode we're covering: Building a Portfolio for Your Dream Job Successful Telecommuting Free Courses for Web Designers Let's dive in! ---- A web design portfolio can be one of the most difficult things to create. It can be hard to think up new ideas and projects to build from scratch. Yesterday, The Next Web posted several suggestions to help create a great portfolio to land your dream job, including designing a WordPress theme...

Today is September 3, 2020, and for this Thursday Thoughts episode we're covering: Starting a Freelance Business Finding Freelance Clients Habits of Successful Freelancers Let's dive in! ---- Starting a freelance business is the dream for many web designers and developers. Making your own schedule and working from anywhere are some of the benefits but there are also many cons to consider. Before you quit your full-time job and dive right in, read through Sunday's post from Pixel77...

Today is September 2, 2020, and for this Wednesday Wisdom episode we're covering: Burnout Symptoms for Developers Writing a Good Pull Request Description Improving Novice JavaScript Coding Patterns Let's dive in! ---- Burnout is defined by the World Health Organization as "a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed." And this stress is very common among developers who are frequently overworked and stressed. A recent...

Today is September 1, 2020, and for this Tuesday Tips episode we're covering How to Integrate Media Queries into JavaScript Let's dive in! ---- There's no doubt about it, media queries are one of the most useful CSS features for a modern website. They allow you to create a breakpoint for your website where you can adjust styles for larger or smaller screen sizes. While this is great for use in CSS, what if you want to utilize media queries in JavaScript? ---- As with anything in...

Today is August 31, 2020, and for this Monday Medley episode we're covering: Open-Source for Beginners Bootstrap Icons Using Frontity for Headless WordPress Let's dive in! ---- One of the greatest parts of being a developer is using and participating in open-source projects. But it can seem intimidating for first-time developers to jump into a project. A post yesterday on the DEV community goes through how to contribute to an open-source project for beginners. It outlines some basic...

Today is August 28, 2020, and for this Friday Facts episode we're covering: Landing Page Design Having a High-Quality Website in 2020 Getting More Newsletter Sign-Ups Let's dive in! ---- Landing pages are still an important promotional tool for many modern businesses. They allow a company or individual to promote a product, email list, or other services in a small and concise package. They are the perfect place to drive marketing campaigns and advertisements with a tailored page...

Today is August 27, 2020, and for this Thursday Thoughts episode we're covering: Fresh Content Marketing Strategies Google vs Netlify Analytics Increasing Productivity in the Workplace Let's dive in! ---- As freelancers, we are always looking for new ways to establish our business as an expert in our respective fields. Content marketing has always been a staple strategy to drive our business forward, examples being blogs, ebooks, webinars, and podcasts. But it is important to be on...

Today is August 26, 2020, and for this Wednesday Wisdom episode we're covering: WordPress Auto-Updates 10 Online Design Tools React vs Angular Let's dive in! ---- With the recent release of WordPress 5.5, an auto-update feature was added for plugins and themes. This goes along with the auto-update feature for WordPress Core that was recently added. Allowing your WordPress site to update your themes or plugins can have pros and cons, which are highlighted in a recent post on...

Today is August 25, 2020, and for this Tuesday Tips episode we're covering How to Determine Where to Put Logic for Jamstack Websites Let's dive in! ---- A very common blog logic is displaying posts or events on your website based on the date. We may want to not show a post if it is in the future or change how a past event is displayed. When looking at a Jamstack website this can be confusing as there are several places in the build lifecycle that this logic can occur. And each occurrence...

Today is August 24, 2020, and for this Monday Medley episode we're covering: Most Appreciated Web Solutions of 2020 Bootstrap Alternatives Becoming a Full-Stack Developer without a Degree Let's dive in! ---- Web Designer Depot recently posted a list of 47 most appreciated web solutions of 2020. The list ranges across many areas of web design, including WordPress tools, logo creators, and other web development services. Check out the list for some services you have seen and new ones...

This Thursday Thoughts covers ways to improve your website in 2020, thinking in design systems, and improving website readability.  Transcript: Today is April 16th, 2020 and for this Thursday Thoughts episode we’re covering ways to improve your website in 2020, thinking in design systems, and improving website readability. Let’s dive in! -- Treehouse published an article today titled “5 Ways to Improve Your Website in 2020”. The post outlines common issues that people have with websites...

This Wednesday Wisdom coverings free GitHub Team accounts, new Firefox 75 developer features, and Shopify’s App Challenge Transcript: Today is April 15th, 2020 and for this Wednesday Wisdom episode we’re covering free GitHub Team accounts, new Firefox 75 developer features, and Shopify’s App Challenge. Let’s dive in! -- Yesterday GitHub announced they were making core features free for team accounts. Previously team accounts could not have private repositories without having a paid...

Today's Tuesday Tips covers everything that is possible with CSS. Transcript: Today is April 14th, 2020 and for this Tuesday Tips episode we’re covering everything that is possible with CSS. Let’s dive in! -- CSS is one of the first languages that budding web designers learn. This is probably because the tangible results are easier and quicker to achieve than other languages. However, CSS can be used for so much more than changing a few background colors or positioning elements on the...

This Monday Medley covers responsive CSS layouts without media queries, onboarding a junior developer, and open-source fonts. Transcript: Today is April 13th, 2020 and for this Monday Medley episode we’re covering responsive CSS layouts without media queries, onboarding a junior developer, and open-source fonts. Let’s dive in! -- CSS-Tricks published a post today titled “Thinking in Behaviors, Not Screen Sizes”. The main point of the post is that in modern web development we should think...