ShopTalk Show

ShopTalk Show

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ShopTalk Show episodes

  • 094: With Emily Dunkle

    This week we were joined by Emily Dunkle. Emily is a UI & UX Designer from Massachusetts. She believes in semantic markup, design of all kinds, and a good old-fashioned legal pad.

    We talked about (roughly in order):

    Q & A:

    • 16:37 My company’s IT department has taken over our website. What can I do about it?
    • 25:03 Just wondered what approach you guys take to testing your sites. Not just design, but also functionality and calculations etc. Do you write tests or use any nice tools?
    • 32:55 Will Macaw (and similar tools) replace web designers?
    • 42:40 I have been a web developer for 4 years and I recently built a site for a client that is by far the worst I have built in my career. Should I intentionally ignore best practices just because the client doesn’t understand and wants the web to work like it did in 2001?
    • 51:00 I would like to get your opinion and thoughts on how to better interact with other developers who either don’t care or don’t have an understanding for why and how you have laid out your markup the way you have.
    • 57:05 What is the best responsive solution for image/video galleries? I need my work to be easily accessible on mobile. My problem is that most websites use lightboxes and this seems outdated now. What are your opinions?

      • Sponsors:

      • 30:48 Harvest Spend less time tracking and more time doing. Fantastic desktop and mobile apps, used by 10,000+ awesome companies. Time tracking, invoicing & reports made super easy. Starts at $12/month. Go check it out!
      • 48:32 Environments For Humans: InControl Conf Dave is gonna be there! Orlando Florida, FEB. 17-19. Early bird pricing! Interesting keynotes: Scott McCloud and Daniel Ryan (Director of Front-end Development for President Obama’s 2012 election campaign). Get your ticket now!

        • Show Links:

        • Emily on Twitter
        • Emily on Dribbble
        • MIT Technology Review
        • Emily’s Website
        • This is a Motherf***ing Website
        • Wraith
        • Huxley
        • Macaw
        • Scott McCormick’s Website
        • Adobe Muse
        • Adobe Reflow
        • Webflow
          • 1 hr 5 min
        • 093: RAPIDFIRE #21

          This week, it’s another RAPID FIRE!!! Chris and Dave take on listener questions, fast and furious.

          • 2:27 Do you guys have any advice when the time comes to hand over a WordPress site?
          • 5:57 What are your opinions about disabilities (hopefully about stuttering but not necessary) in the workplace?
          • 9:06 How do I address responsiveness on items that don’t scale well (table, video embeds)?
          • 14:15 What is Grunt.js? What do I use it for?
          • 17:37 I was wondering what your opinions are on training from places like MakerSquare (in Austin), G-School (in Denver) and others that say they can teach you to become a developer in a relatively short amount of time. Would you consider attending schools like these?
          • 21:14 I’m looking to start a video blog and I’m searching for a CMS to use with my static site which I designed and developed. Do you have any experience or thoughts about Leaf CMS?
          • 25:17 Lately I’ve just been frustrated with all the work needed to make WordPress speedy. The Admin Dashboard in particular can be so slow at times. Any hot tips to make WordPress snappy?
          • 28:35 So we’ve just launched a startup, what’s the best way for us to get the app / platform out there, and get people using it?
          • 34:28 I am yet a CSE undergrad student. I like both C++ and CSS. I like native programming and front end programming. Will I have to choose one or can I do both?
          • 37:56 What are your opinions about Oracle ADF?
          • 42:00 Does it make sense to use sprites in your workflow when your image folder is broken up into 2 or more sub folders?
          • 44:40 Could you talk a bit about Custom Elements (web components) and why they are (or aren’t) a good idea? Won’t they dilute the semantic value of already existing elements such as and?
          • 48:20 Have you investigated switching your local development to AMPPS? I know you have been a big MAMP Pro fan, but I’ve been reading that it’s stale and AMPPS has a lot of activity. Thoughts?
          • 52:31 It’s 2013. What’s up with with setting type in pixels, ems and rems, or even %. I understand the differences in theory, but in practice, I really only use pixels. I get that pixels are static (not relative) and don’t really mean much with today’s high-dpi screens, etc. Do I need to suck it up and just get comfy with a modern approach to type, or are pixels ok?
          • 57:30 What SASS pre-processor do you suggest to use on a windows machine to replace Compass and Code Kit?

            • Sponsors:

            • 12:40 Sponsor: lynda.com

              • Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily

              • One low monthly price of $25/month provides access to the entire course library

              • Over 2 million active members, and over 500k fans on facebook

              • HTML/CSS/JS – WordPress/Joomla – UX – Adobe – Objective-C/PHP – Photography/Time Management/Negotiation

              • Searchable transcripts / Playlists / Bookmarks 7 day trial at lynda.com/shoptalk

              • 33:12 Environments for Humans – InCtrl Conf InCtrl 2014 put on by the wonderful folks at Environments for Humans. Lots of great speakers. Put this on your calendar. February 17-19th in Orlando, Florida!

                • Incontrolconference.com

                  • Show Links:

                  • Advanced Custom Fields WordPress Plugin
                  • WP Help
                  • Chris Coyier’s post on responsive tables
                  • Jason Grigsby’s post on responsive tables
                  • Grunt.js
                  • MakerSquare
                  • G-School
                  • The ATX Web Show
                  • Leaf CMS
                  • Oracle ADF
                  • Web Components
                  • AMPPS
                  • Vagrant
                  • Koala for Windows
                  • PrePros for Windows
                  • Codekit
                  • Mixture.io
                    • 1 hr 1 min
                  • 092: With Dudley Storey

                    This week we were joined by Dudley Storey. Dudley is a teacher, craftsman, designer & writer, and the author of Pro CSS3 Animation.

                    News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                    • 7:00 Webkit hates src-N

                      • End Of Year Responsive Images Report

                      • 13:14 CSSOff 2013

                      • 17:20 Learn jQuery from Scratch (CSS-Tricks Class)

                        Q & A:

                        • 21:15 Is it worth taking the time to learn Flash in 2013?
                        • 26:56 Is getting a degree from a university something that you feel is a necessity for our line of work or is there enough value in self teaching the skills used in web development?
                        • 33:54 Can you give a general overview of the things someone new to the field should study right away to build their core coding skills?
                        • 39:57 StackOverflow and books can only teach me so much. What are your recommendations for code mentoring both at work and when I freelance? I never know if I am doing things the “right” way.
                        • 48:32 As someone just starting out in web design, should I be using Flexbox right now?
                        • 52:23 I’ve been designing and developing for a couple years and just moved into WordPress. I stumbled upon the editor that allows you to edit the templates and CSS and I wonder if its a good idea to do edits here or continue to edit the files from the FTP?
                        • 56:12 I don’t do any coding, I solely focus on web design. Can I use a robust, well-maintained Behance/Dribble profile instead of building a separate portfolio site? Will potential employers look down on me if I decide to go in that direction?

                          • Sponsors:

                          • 31:30 lynda.com

                            • Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily
                            • One low monthly price of $25/month provides access to the entire course library
                            • Over 2 million active members, and over 500k fans on facebook
                            • HTML/CSS/JS – WordPress/Joomla – UX – Adobe – Objective-C/PHP – Photography/Time Management/Negotiation
                            • Searchable transcripts / Playlists / Bookmarks
                            • Get a free 7-day trail at lynda.com

                            • 38:15 Environments for Humans: InControl 2014 in Orlando Florida

                              Show Links:

                              • Freakonomics Goes to College
                              • Dudley on Twitter
                              • Dudley’s Website
                              • Dudley’s Reading List for Beginners
                              • Cafe Bedouins
                              • Flexbox
                              • Blue Box on a Screen
                              • Springloops.io
                                • 1 hr 6 min
                              • 091: With Jamison Dance AND Merrick Christensen

                                This week we were joined by Merrick and Jamison from the Javascript Jabber podcast. They are both super awesome at javascript and very handsome.

                                We talked about (roughly in order):

                                News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                • 10:42 Responsive Web Design: Relying Too Much On Screen Size by LukeW

                                  • Rebuttal by Ethan Marcotte: RESPONSIVE DESIGN, SCREENS, AND SHEARING LAYERS
                                  • PPK: Of viewports and screens, input modes and event handlers
                                  • Counter Rebuttal: On Using Browser Viewports to Understand Screens

                                  • 14:35 “Offline first is the new Progressive Enhancement” – Zeldman

                                    • Say Hello To Offline First

                                      • Q & A:

                                      • 19:00 I’m in the process of building my first real web app. I’ve been researching the best way to handle authentication and some have suggested to use pre-written scripts, while others have suggested using a framework. What should I do?
                                      • 30:33 I would like to lazy load images on my website to speed up performance, however I am concerned about the fallback issues, users without JavaScript will get no images. Will putting the images in a noscript tag solve this problem? What is your view on this?
                                      • 37:01 Do you know of any awesome web or print resources for learning unit testing in Javascript?
                                      • 45:52 Everything I know I have learned from “just building websites” but with that style of learning, comes an urgency which often makes me feel like I may not have picked up on some of the finer points. Do you have any advice?

                                        • Sponsors:

                                        • 29:26 lynda.com

                                          • Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily
                                          • One low monthly price of $25/month provides access to the entire course library
                                          • Over 2 million active members, and over 500k fans on facebook
                                          • HTML/CSS/JS – WordPress/Joomla – UX – Adobe – Objective-C/PHP – Photography/Time Management/Negotiation
                                          • Searchable transcripts / Playlists / Bookmarks
                                          • Get a free 7-day trial at lynda.com/shoptalk

                                          • 44:21 Environments for Humans – Javascript Summit It’s 3 days of Javascript covering jQuery UI/Mobile, Backbone.js, HTML5 APIs, Grunt, prototyping with Node, AngularJS.

                                            • Speakers include Rebecca Murphey, Ben Alman, Estelle Weyl, Tim Anglade, Val Head, Scott González, & many more.
                                            • Use SHOPTALK for 20% off any ticket.

                                              • Show Links:

                                              • Merrick on Twitter
                                              • Merrick’s Website
                                              • Jamison on Twitter
                                              • Jamison’s Website
                                              • Javascript Jabber Podcast
                                              • Effective JS Book
                                              • Hoodie
                                              • “Sound Of Silver” by LCD Soundsystem
                                              • NGConf
                                              • Web Audio Demos
                                              • Next Desks
                                              • Dad Makes 3D Printed Hand For His Son
                                                • 1 hr 3 min
                                              • 090: With Pamela Fox

                                                This week we were joined by Pamela Fox, a web developer and educator currently working at Khan Academy.

                                                We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                                • 9:30 Big Snow Tiny Conf
                                                • 10:30 Automating Workflow Slide Deck

                                                  • Q & A:

                                                  • 14:54 I’m sold on GIT and have used it locally on my machine. How can I go about deployment without paying for a service?
                                                  • 22:20 What is your preferred UI & Backend workflow when developing web apps for clients? Do you use pre-made libraries, or do you developed your own UI & backend?
                                                  • 32:07 I’m an ad copywriter looking to make the switch to front-end development. Do you have any tips on finding work that requires less formal experience?
                                                  • 37:22 I’ve recently discovered the magic behind Bootstrap. I’m on Rails 3.2 but can’t seem to figure out a good tutorial or method for importing that theme into the asset pipeline, etc. Any advice?
                                                  • 46:25 How do you guys approach mobile first and responsive design?
                                                  • 56:00 I’m going to be interviewed for a front end dev job. If you were going to hire me, what questions would you ask? What level of CSS and JavaScript should I have?

                                                    • Sponsors:

                                                    • 30:45 Harvest Beautiful, easy to use time track and invoicing software. Track your time, expenses, and invoice your clients. Start a free 30-day trial at GetHarvest.com.

                                                      • 44:44 Environments For Humans – Javescript Summit It’s 3 days of Javascript covering jQuery UI/Mobile, Backbone.js, HTML5 APIs, Grunt, prototyping with Node, AngularJS.

                                                        Speakers include Rebecca Murphey, Ben Alman, Estelle Weyl, Tim Anglade, Val Head, Scott González, & many more.

                                                        Use SHOPTALK for 20% off any ticket.

                                                        Show Links:

                                                        • Pamela on Twitter
                                                        • Pamela’s Website
                                                        • Kahn Academy
                                                        • WP Migrate DB Pro
                                                        • Beanstalk
                                                        • Google App Engine
                                                        • Chris’s post on deployment
                                                        • FTPloy
                                                        • React JS
                                                        • Laravel PHP Framwork
                                                        • Craft CMS
                                                        • Angular JS
                                                        • Ember JS
                                                        • Sinatra
                                                        • “Responsive Web Design” & “Mobile First” E-books
                                                        • Chris’s CSS interview questions
                                                        • Darcy Clarke’s Front-end Job Interview Questions
                                                          • 1 hr 5 min
                                                        • 089: With Karen McGrane

                                                          This week we were joined by Karen McGrane. Karen is a mobile content strategist and has a fantastic book called Content Strategy for Mobile.

                                                          We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                          News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                                          • 24:08 Front End Architechture Showdown CSS Cargo Cult
                                                          • 25:19 Does our Industry have a Drinking Problem?
                                                          • 29:34 Scroll Hijacking

                                                            • Q & A:

                                                            • 34:56 Why does no one talk about RWD in the opposite direction, making things bigger for larger screens?
                                                            • 40:50 Have you really heard Google say they’ll punish non-mobile-optimized sites?
                                                            • 48:04 I work for a small traditional advertising and marketing agency. We are often finding that clients are not fully understanding our project proposals and specs from the wireframes and spec we present. Some approve the wireframes then want to change core functionality or design features after development has started. Any advice on how to handle this?
                                                            • 53:00 What is your opinion on websites that use large sliders on the landing page? Do you feel this is a waste of website real estate or a powerful instrument to convey a idea?

                                                              • Sponsors:

                                                              • 33:30 Ding.io Time tracking for people running their own show. Built for freelancers & small teams. Ding focuses on the hours you put in and the money you make. Beautiful UI. It’s tool you’ll actually want in your daily workflow. Blazingly fast iPhone app. The easiest way to log hours on the go. Get a 90 day free trial at Ding.io/shoptalk.
                                                              • 57:22 Artifact Conference An hour outside Boston. Ethan Marcotte will be doing the keynote, and they have great workshops: Build Responsively by Ben Callahan, Sass for Beginners by Matt Griffen, CSS Animation by Val Head, and Responsive Designer Patterns by Brad Frost. Use “SHOPTALK” for $100 off your ticket. Check it out!

                                                                • Show Links:

                                                                • Karen on Twitter
                                                                • Karen’s Website
                                                                • Breaking News Website
                                                                • “Recommendations for building smartphone-optimized websites” blogpost from Google
                                                                • Style Tiles
                                                                  • 1 hr 7 min
                                                                • 088: With Scott Jehl

                                                                  This week we were joined by Scott Jehl, a progressive enhancer at Filament Group. We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                                  News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                                                  • 15:48 Godaddy aquired Media Temple

                                                                    • Q & A:

                                                                    • 24:30 I want to use a ‘mobile first’ approach, but the client wants to see the desktop version first. How would you solve this little problem?
                                                                    • 31:14 I’m trying to understand Javascript templating. I’ve heard of Mustache/Handlebars, but not sure how it’s implemented. What are the pros/cons of it?
                                                                    • 42:58 I manage an established, spaghetti-coded academic department website. A redesign is on its way but the menu is still hover based. I needed a quick, temporary fix.
                                                                    • 51:43 My question is about vanilla javascript performance and libraries. What if you already have jQuery running, should you still write as much as possible in plain javascript?

                                                                      • Sponsors:

                                                                      • 23:10 lynda.com

                                                                        • Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily
                                                                        • One low monthly price of $25/month provides access to the entire course library
                                                                        • Over 2 million active members, and over 500k fans on facebook
                                                                        • HTML/CSS/JS – WordPress/Joomla – UX – Adobe – Objective-C/PHP – Photography/Time Management/Negotiation
                                                                        • Searchable transcripts / Playlists / Bookmarks

                                                                        • 40:09 Enviornments for Humans – Artifact Conf November 4-6 in Providence, RI. A fantastic 2 day, single track conference about front end. The theme is “Multi-Device World”. Some great workshops:

                                                                          • Build Responsively by Ben Callahan
                                                                          • Sass for Beginners by Matt Griffen
                                                                          • CSS Animation by Val Head
                                                                          • Responsive Designer Patterns by Brad Frost
                                                                          • Use the discount code SHOPTALK for $100 off your ticket.

                                                                            • Show Links:

                                                                            • Scott on Twitter
                                                                            • Scott’s Website
                                                                            • Filament Group
                                                                            • Mustache
                                                                            • Responsible Responsive Design
                                                                              • 1 hr 13 min
                                                                            • 087: With Nicolas Gallagher

                                                                              This week we were joined by Nicolas Gallagher, CSS expert. We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                                              News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                                                              * 8:29 EFF gets involved in DRM

                                                                              Q & A:

                                                                              • 13:40I want an automated way to produce styles guides. How do you produce guides for your clients? Have you been able to automate the process?
                                                                              • 18:23 Any insight into IE downloading inapplicable stylesheets?
                                                                              • 35:23 I’m a huge fan of inline blocks. Is there any other reason why the whole world is using floats?
                                                                              • 41:10 I want to create a blog for myself, to document and share what I learn. Is it crazy NOT to use a CMS?
                                                                              • 49:23 I’m applying for a dev job with a company and they use LESS. What are the key things I need to bare in mind when changing from Sass to LESS?

                                                                                • Sponsors:

                                                                                • 33:55 lynda.com

                                                                                  • Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily
                                                                                  • One low monthly price of $25/month provides access to the entire course library
                                                                                  • Over 2 million active members, and over 500k fans on facebook
                                                                                  • HTML/CSS/JS – WordPress/Joomla – UX – Adobe – Objective-C/PHP – Photography/Time Management/Negotiation
                                                                                  • Searchable transcripts / Playlists / Bookmarks

                                                                                  • 47:24 Enviornments for Humans – Artifact Conf November 4–6 in Providence, RI. A fantastic 2 day, single track conference about front end. The theme is “Multi-Device World”. Some great workshops:

                                                                                    • Build Responsively by Ben Callahan
                                                                                    • Sass for Beginners by Matt Griffen
                                                                                    • CSS Animation by Val Head
                                                                                    • Responsive Designer Patterns by Brad Frost
                                                                                    • Use the discount code “SHOPTALK” for $100 off your ticket.

                                                                                      • More Links:

                                                                                      • Nicolas’ Website
                                                                                      • Nicolas on Twitter
                                                                                      • KSS Ruby Gem
                                                                                      • Brad Frost’s Pattern Lab
                                                                                      • “Mobile first” CSS and getting Sass to help with legacy IE
                                                                                      • Testing for Asynchronous Load of Inapplicable CSS StyleSheets (github)
                                                                                      • Centering in the Unknown – CSS Tricks Article
                                                                                      • Dave Rupert – “A Brander Newer Blog”
                                                                                      • Jekyll – A Static Site Generator
                                                                                        • 1 hr 3 min
                                                                                      • 086: With Jenn Schiffer

                                                                                        This week we were joined by Jenn Schiffer. Jenn works at sports-ball and knows Michael Jordan. She also makes websites!

                                                                                        We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                                                        Q & A:

                                                                                        • 9:51 How can we go about getting back in touch with our inner creative coder? And how can we start introducing this back into our ‘bread and butter’ work?
                                                                                        • 20:32 Are there any meet ups in New Jersey?
                                                                                        • 27:06 I have a quick question about redesigning my portfolio. I have big plans for using the canvas element which isn’t supported in IE8-. Would it be a waste of time for me to provide fallback images for IE8 users?
                                                                                        • 29:22 We build our clients websites in WordPress. One thing we don’t do is bake in support/on going maintenance for our clients sites in our contracts. What are your 2cents on support plans/updating sites? Should we be charging and ongoing service fee to make sure the security on our clients sites don’t become vulnerable?
                                                                                        • 36:46 I’m working on learning Git and how to best utilize Github. Should Github should become part of my regular workflow or instead just a backup of my code and a place to share and collaborate with others.
                                                                                        • 42:08 Here’s my question: What’s the deal with Art Direction? What role does Art Direction play in your work?
                                                                                        • 51:42 I keep reading things like “get a mentor” or “have your code reviewed”, yet I’ve never been able to find anyone interested in doing either of those. Any idea how it’s possible to find that kind of people, or why people keep saying that if they don’t exist?

                                                                                          • Sponsors:

                                                                                          • 25:28 lynda.com Over 2,000 courses, with new courses added daily. One low monthly price of $25 will get you access to the entire library of web design and development courses. Follow this special link for a free 7 day trial.

                                                                                          • 47:44 Enviornments for Humans: Artifact Conf Ethan Marcotte will be doing the Keynote, and Dave will be talking about responsive images. There will also be some great workshops:

                                                                                            • Build Responsively by Ben Callahan
                                                                                            • Sass for Beginners by Matt Griffen
                                                                                            • CSS Animation by Val Head
                                                                                            • Responsive Designer Patterns by Brad Frost

                                                                                            • Use discount code SHOPTALK for $100 off!

                                                                                              More Links:

                                                                                              • Jenn’s Website
                                                                                              • Jenn on Twitter
                                                                                              • Joshua Davis
                                                                                              • Tab Atkins Proposal
                                                                                              • Alex Sexton: The Internet’s Mentor
                                                                                                • 1 hr
                                                                                              • 085: With Kimberly Blessing

                                                                                                This week we were joined by Kimberly Blessing. We talked about (roughly in order):

                                                                                                News’n’Links’n’Drama:

                                                                                                • 6:17 CERN – The birth of the web
                                                                                                • The first web browser
                                                                                                • FORK THE LINE-MODE BROWSER

                                                                                                  • Q & A:

                                                                                                  • 16:02 What are your opinions on the nonstandard mozmm units? See also : Blog post.
                                                                                                  • 24:20 I was wondering if either of you have worked for a corporation maintaining a single large scale website, or if you have only worked on projects on a per client basis. If you have done both, which do you prefer?
                                                                                                  • 34:30 I’m trying to find some time to try some JavaScript MVC framework. Could you explain to a dummy what they are actually and in what cases I could use them?
                                                                                                  • 42:18 When I learned the basics of HTML markup, I learned to do it the XHTML way. While technically valid, should I finally let go of my XHTML habits? Should I make my markup look like all HTML5 markup?
                                                                                                  • 48:42 What kinds of things should I include in my online portfolio? How should I display them?

                                                                                                    • Sponsors:

                                                                                                    • 22:40 Responsive Web Design E-Book, $3.99 A collection of interviews, tips, tricks and some responsive sketch pages in one easy to download file. Learn from more than 26 leading responsive design experts across more than 80 pages for the price of an expensive coffee (otherwise known as a beer).

                                                                                                      • 40:08 Environments for Humans – Artifact Conf Nov 4–6, just outside of Boston. Tons of awesome workshops. Use “SHOPTALK” for $100 off!

                                                                                                        More Kimberly:

                                                                                                        • Kimberly on Twitter
                                                                                                        • Kimberly’s Website
                                                                                                        • Jobs at Think Brownstone
                                                                                                        • Thanks for all the time jump links, Phil Zelnar!
                                                                                                        • TodoMVC
                                                                                                        • Egghead.io
                                                                                                          • 56 min

                                                                                                        About ShopTalk Show

                                                                                                        From the publisher's feed

                                                                                                        ShopTalk is a podcast about front end web design, development and UX. Each week Chris Coyier and Dave Rupert are joined by a special guest to talk shop and answer listener submitted questions.