Fred is soft skills and professional development editor at Smashing Magazine and a software engineer at The Guardian. His interests include American literature, reviewing an album a week with two friends on their music webzine, Audioxide, and sleeping.
Balancing the age-old simplicity of words on paper with the myriad creative possibilities of the web is a tension as old as the web itself. Leaning into that overlap can bring new dimensions not just to the things we write but also to how we write them.
Read more…
Words alone aren’t enough to safeguard best practices in the world of web design and development. Web design documentation must be like its medium — interactive and constantly evolving.
Read more…
Perhaps more than any other person in history, Leonardo da Vinci showed the kind of magic that can happen in the overlap between art and science, where much of web development lives. His methods and outlooks are just as applicable to the web today as they were in Renaissance Italy.
Read more…
All the data in the world won’t do anyone any good if we can’t make sense of it. Or better yet, make it sing. Here are some stunning examples of data visualization in the wild, and some pointers on how to start making your own.
Read more…
This installment of Web Design Done Well celebrates weird and wacky websites. Sites with sweet, innocent, sometimes pointless purposes. Are they money makers? Game changers? Not necessarily, but they sure are fun, and in ways only the web could really manage.
Read more…
The last 18 months have been a time of unprecedented turbulence. As the people of the world have flooded online, businesses have joined them, using web development tools to adapt in real-time.
Read more…
They say content is king, and they’re right. The web has unlocked untold possibilities for storytellers — provided the story is right, of course. Here are some of our favorite examples of editorial content thriving in the digital realm.
Read more…
Design often revolves around visuals, but the other senses deserve love too. In this article, we tune in to audio features that are making sites sing.
Read more…
Sometimes it’s the little things in web life that make us look twice. From carousels to documentation to cookie disclaimers, here are some sites taking the mundane and sprinkling in a little magic.
Read more…
Quick, constant change is a given on the web. It is often one of its greatest strengths. As ever, though, there is a balance to find. Although longevity takes a different form online, its value is immeasurable.
Read more…
Film credits, brand logos, posters… Saul Bass did it all, and the principles that informed his work are just as valuable now as they were 50 years ago.
Read more…
The founding principles of the World Wide Web have been warped by years of over-reliance on advertising. Fixing that imbalance and moving toward a more ethical, open web means relaying the foundations, with sites showing other ways are possible.
Read more…
It can be a daunting world for folks who aren’t familiar with SEO (and even those who are at times), so we’ve decided to publish a checklist that breaks down the key factors when stumbling upon those tedious search engine optimization issues. You can even download it as a PDF and print it out whenever you like!
Read more…
Modern websites aren’t inseparable from screens any more. Between phone assistants, home speakers, and screen readers, more and more people are using the web without even looking at it. Websites need to evolve in kind.
Read more…
The dream of a machine-readable Internet is as old as the Internet itself, but only in recent years has it really seemed possible. As major websites take strides towards data-fying their content, now’s the perfect time to jump on the bandwagon.
Read more…
SEO is an ever-changing world. Blink and you’ll miss the latest best practices, thought leaders, and tools. Feeling out of touch is natural. This guide is your way back into the groove, baby.
Read more…
The ancients can teach us a thing or two about design — even web design. The Roman architect Vitruvius had buildings in mind when laying out his golden triad, but its principles are just as applicable to the web as they are to brick and mortar.
Read more…
Readability programs may seem like a godsend, but the worst thing writers can do is write to please them above all others. Finding your voice is hard enough without also trying to sound like everyone else.
Read more…
Retrofitting search engine optimization only gets you so far. As metadata gets smarter, it’s more important than ever to build it into the design process from the start.
Read more…
Foldable devices have brought with them talk of a ‘foldable web,’ and the idea that long-standing web conventions may be on the verge of a serious shakeup. Is it all hype, or is it time to get flexible? The ‘foldable web’ will bring with it new challenges, new opportunities, and, in all likelihood, new syntax. The web could be in for its biggest shakeup since the smartphone. Users and coders alike have gotten rather used to the playing field: desktop and mobile with a sprinkling of tablets. Not any more. If you thought you knew responsive design before, In this article, Frederick O’Brien will show you that you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Read more…
No frills, or flashing neon frills with sprinklers attached? ‘Brutalist’ websites have flourished in recent years, but their guiding philosophy remains unclear. Brutalist web design has grown so quickly that there does not seem to be a clear consensus on what the style actually is. To some it means practicality, to others audacity. Love it or hate it, brutalist architecture celebrates rawness.
Read more…
Before the home page, there was the front page. From the Gutenberg Principle to grid systems to above the fold, newspapers teach us much about the foundations of web design. In this article, Frederick O’Brien will examine several tenets of newspaper design and show their connection to best practice online. At the core of that connection is a principle childlike in its simplicity, one newspaper and web designers alike would do well to remember.
Read more…
