Journal

Here’s Eric Bailey with some very relatable thoughts on the need to tell design system stories even though it’s difficult.

The component works. And because it works, nobody pays attention to it.

This is the promise of a design system made manifest: Consistent, quality experiences for complicated interactions, distributed at scale with minimal fuss.

This is objectively great. The problem, however, is how we talk, or fail to talk about this type of success.

The FT’s design system Origami not only has a cool name but also some interesting metrics.

This is a wonderful guide that’s choc-full of practical examples.

CSS container queries help us to write a truly fluid components that change based on their container size. In the next few years, we’ll see less media queries and more container queries.

Question: when presenting users with a means of downloading a file, should you use the anchor element or the button element?

Answer: you should use the anchor element.

When asking users for numbers and dates, which HTML form elements should we use?

Scott proposes an interview question relating to web standards and intelligent use of JavaScript.

How would you attempt to build Wordle (...or some other complex app) if you could only use HTML and CSS? Which features of that app would make more sense to build with JavaScript than with other technologies? And, can you imagine a change or addition to the HTML or CSS standard that could make any of those features more straight-forward to build?

Well that was a fun weekend!

First up on Saturday was lunch with my niece Chloe at Gusto and Relish (we thought it might be nice for her to visit the southside). We had a good blether about her wee boy Leo, her future plans and more while enjoying some tasty sandwiches and coffee. After that Chloe visited our flat which provided a chance for her to chat with Clair and meet Rudy.

Later that night was an event Clair and I had planned for a while – our Traitors night with friends! We assembled at Church on the Hill where Clair took on the role of host Claudia while I, Marty and Jenny, Simon, Gillian, Tom and Nessa, Mark, Martin and Izzie, Dan and Sarah were the participants.

We all chucked a tenner into the pot as an incentive to spice it up, then Clair set about blindfolding us and tapping the shoulders of those she’d picked as traitors. I was a faithful but ended up being voted out first! Cracking one too many jokes in the WhatsApp beforehand was my downfall, I think. That aside it all went really well and we didn’t even get launched by the unsuspecting bar staff for our theatrics. The winners also donated the cash to charity which was a really nice touch.

Competition aside, it was just lovely to catch up with people. In particular I hadn’t seen Dan and Sarah for ages. I enjoyed hearing about their recent visit to Cork (I now fancy visiting too) and also Sarah’s positive ideas about how Glasgow city centre can rise again.

We knocked it on the head at a good hour and resisted the urge for a nightcap – a sign of the mature adults we have all become (or something like that).

Just had a memorable midweek night at the cinema with Craig and Jason.

Opus presents Ryuichi Sakamato at the piano in the final year of his life. It consists of him playing twenty pieces one after the other and is beautifully shot in black and white by his son, Neo Sora.

I found the film’s style and starkness to be quite unusual at first, but once I got into its rhythm it was very immersive. The music and playing were at times just mesmerising and given the circumstances it was quite moving.

It was great to unexpectedly bump into Liam, too. I might have known this film would be up his strasse!

An amazing time was had by all yesterday as Gillian, Clair and I, Tom and Nessa had lunch at Cail Bruich on Great Western Road. Annoyingly on arrival I had a slightly dodgy stomach so went with a non-alcoholic cocktail to start. Fortunately I didn’t need too long to get up to speed, as by the starter I was happily eating raw fish.

As usual the food was fantastic. Among a range of delights we had langoustine, monkfish and that killer mushroom dish. The wines were pretty special too, although the accompanying origin stories are getting pretty long.

In our excitement Clair and I invited everyone back to ours. There, Nessa gave us a great laugh telling us about seeing her current favourite band Tool umpteen times, and we all shared our musical guilty pleasures – Seal’s Kiss from a Rose from Tom C was an unexpected and memorable inclusion! Mark M was at a loose end and joined us, bringing Jura to give Rudy a playmate, and the merriment went on into the wee hours. Ach well, I’ve been pretty good most of the year so I’m allowing myself this blow-out without the need for a post-mortem!

My nephew Daniel and his girlfriend Helena moved into their new home toward the end of last year. I was overdue a visit and rectified that today.

It was great to see them both and get the tour of their lovely home including back garden! I had to chuckle at the fairly intense metal music on quietly in the background. I don’t think they do laidback sounds – fair play to them!

Now I think about it, their music taste might provide an insight into why they named their dog Satan. And it was great to meet the wee guy! He’s a Kingpin – a miniature Pinscher and King Charles spaniel mix – who’s very affectionate and I was instantly smitten. They’re currently doing some of the same training we’ve done with Rudy to keep him a bit calmer.

I also picked up the (casually dropped-in) news that they are engaged, which is lovely to hear. They’re such a great couple.

I was treated to a lovely bacon roll and cup of tea so needless to say, I’ll be back. But maybe I should invite them to our place next time.