Friday Round-Up #006

We arrive at the end of another chaotic week, overshadowed by another big election here in the UK. With everything that’s been going on recently it seems appropriate to distract ourselves a little. That said, put the kettle on and take a few minutes out to look at some of the bits and pieces that have flown under the radar.

Moments Of Happiness

EPIC Agency have put together Moments Of Happiness, a wonderful WebGL project featuring six cute, 3D animals to play with.

I always remember Aral Balkan talking about the “Superman effect”, and how design should fill us with wonder. Moments of Happiness may be an experiment in animation in the browser but it has that same effect, leaving you with a smile on your face.

The source code is available on CodePen for anyone wanting to tinker with Chilli the Lion and friends.

Best Practices For Hero Images

If your page has a huge hero image, it’s the first thing your users will see and react to. It’s your “shop window”; the image should set the tone for the rest of the content and give your users an idea of what to expect.

Sadly hero images are often neglected or done badly, despite best intentions. Adobe have written an interesting article covering some of the best practises for hero images, helpful for both designers and developers.

Google not, learn not: why searching can sometimes be better than knowing

I have no problem admitting that I am a serial Googler. I used to think that having to repeatedly look up snippets of code that I’d written doesn’t of times before meant I would never be a “proper” developer. Now I think that the opposite is true; rather than trying to remember every bit of code I’ve ever written I treat them as tools, looking up the right tool for the job when I need to.

This is the basic premise of Google Not, Learn Not, and goes through the many reasons why sometimes knowing what to search for is better – and more realistic – than knowing everything.

“Never memorize something that you can look up.” — Albert Einstein

Hey! Stac – The Setup

I recently got the chance to speak to Hey! Stac for The Setup, an on-going series where industry experts talk about what they use to get the job done. It grinds my gears when designers and developers humble-brag about their £600 brand-name chairs and the specs of their iMac, so I tried to avoid that. Hopefully it came across well!