1. Home
  2. Discover
  3. Design
  4. Responsive Design Weekly

RWD Weekly #420 - Ultimate Product Design Guide awaits

Read online
Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 420.

This week I was very happy to pick up an iPad Pro and I’m testing it out in the creation of this newsletter. The last tablet I got was 6 years ago when I got one of the original iPad mini’s, and while it’s still going strong it has been such a massive jump to the pro.

I ended up going with he 12.9” version with the idea that it would become a replacement for a laptop. So far, it’s coming along nicely for 90% of the work that I do, but for the price of a new laptop I’d expect just as much. I’ll keep a running overview of how it goes for anyone that is thinking about switching, but so far it’s one of the best tech purchases I’ve made.

Changing gears, let’s see what http status code 420 has for us this week.

It seems like we’re back in the Tea Pot territory again as there’s no real official status code. Twitter, however, took advantage of this missing code in their first iteration of their API and returned 420: Enhance Your Calm for whenever client requests were being rate limited. Technically, they should be using code 429 for too many requests... but that is hardly as much fun now is it?

Let’s get into our links, But first, let's take a look at our sponsor this week and see what our good friend Ethan Marcotte has been up to lately.
 

Sponsor

New! Free Accessibility Course

It’s our job as designers to make the web work for everyone — and this new course Designing Accessible and Responsive Websites with Ethan Marcotte is a great way to get started.

In the time it takes to step away for lunch, learn a handful of best practices to help make a more inclusive web. Plus, earn a badge to share on social media when you pass the final exam.
Enroll Now for Free
Advertise your product, service, or job opportunity to 27,020 tuned in web designers and developers. Find out more.

Article

The Guide to Design

A free, self-guided class to help you take your first steps into digital product design.  The website naturally is a great design which is why it is also our feature site for the week too.
 

4 Design Patterns That Violate “Back” Button Expectations – 59% of Sites Get It Wrong

The Baymard Institute has produced a very long article which looks at four key areas where we tend to get things wrong and break the user's expectations about what will happen when they click on the back button. None of it is theory either, this is taken from a bunch of tests and video was taken of the screen as well as the user's interaction with the device so you can see how some decisions that we make (or choose not to think about) cause issues in the real world.
 

Responding to Crisis: Web Performance Style

This is a great article from Doug Sillars as he looks at all the imagery that has been created and used on websites with the keyword of COVID as well as images used on websites that contained the keyword of COVID in the domain name. If you think we have an image size problem now, just wait until there’s a global pandemic (oh wait...). This is most likely due to people who don’t have the technical skills rushing to share information with the wider public, which is great until the wider public can’t access the content because the page is too slow or they can’t afford the data plan.
 

Tutorials

 

How to Improve Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and SEO

By optimising your images on your site you can go a long way to improving the impact of LCP on your site. With Google’s move towards using LCP as part of their new Web Vitals scoring system and impacting upon SEO it’s another good reason to optimise your images (as if optimising them to improve your user's experience wasn’t enough).
 

WordPress-Powered Landing Pages on a Totally Different Site via Cloudflare Workers

I was listening to the Shop Talk Show podcast a couple of weeks ago on a run (it helps distract me from how unfit I am) and Chris was talking about utilising CloudFlare workers to bypass the need to use AJAX to pull in content. The idea is that the work is done on the CloudFlare Edge rather than the users browsers, which means performance is a first-class citizen and there’s no risk in the JS not running on the client browser.  Did I mention it was super performant too?
 

Modern CSS Techniques To Improve Legibility

There are some nice tips in here around making the words on your website easier to read through better typography decisions. There were two approaches that I wasn’t aware of in the past, both things that I tried to do (like making sure the fallback font didn’t cause a huge layout shift while the font was loading) but not in the way that is approached in this tutorial.
 

The Designer’s Guide to Letter-Spacing

 

How to Make a Monthly Calendar With Real Data



Tools, Resources and Specs


CSS Vocabulary

 

Extension Spotlight: SponsorBlock for YouTube

Do you get frustrated when watching a video on YouTube only for an Ad to appear just as they’re getting to the good bit? Me too. This Firefox plugin helps with that by keeping the ads out.
 

Wiki.js  

The most powerful and extensible open-source Wiki software. Make documentation a joy to write using Wiki.js's beautiful and intuitive interface!
 

Never-Consent

It’s rare these days that you don’t get a GDPR Cookie pop up when you’re visiting a site. It creates an unnecessary step for most users to click at least once to dismiss this and get on with what you were trying to do. This browser extension handles this all for you by automatically saying NO to any of the opt-in options.
 

Media Queries Level 4

 

 

Finally


That's all for this week. As always thank you to those that sent through link recommendations, if you've come across something or have written something please send it through.

Cheers,

Justin.
Twitter
Facebook
Website
Copyright © 2020 Simple Things, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you rock! You wanted to know more about Responsive Web Design so you signed up to this list to receive a weekly update with links to articles, tools and tricks of the trade.

Our mailing address is:
Simple Things
Simple Things LTD
Thame, Oxfordshire OX92EQ
United Kingdom

Add us to your address book


Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

Email Marketing Powered by Mailchimp

Older messages

RWD Weekly #419

Friday, July 17, 2020

Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 419. After our brush with the teapot http code last week we're moving into unofficial codes (which is funny to think that the server being a

RWD Weekly #418 — I'm a teapot

Friday, July 10, 2020

I'm a little teapot short and stout, here is my handle here is my spout. View this email in your browser Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 418. Last week I said that the longer we

RWD Weekly #417 — New Performance Tool, Accessibility Tips, and more

Friday, July 3, 2020

View this email in your browser Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 417. As we get further along the 400's with our status codes the stranger they are becoming (and certainly the

RWD Weekly #416 — Accessibility, Dev tools updates, and AMP turns 5

Friday, June 26, 2020

View this email in your browser Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 416. This week we look at Accessibility on the flip side, how we can design for voice interaction, a look back over

RWD Weekly #415 — Unsupported Media Type & Bootstrap 5

Friday, June 19, 2020

View this email in your browser Hello and welcome to RWD Weekly Newsletter edition 415. Over the past few weeks and the interview series I let our journey through the HTTP status codes fizzle out, but

You Might Also Like

🐺 How to create a high impact press page.

Friday, February 14, 2025

͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏

#494: UX and Product Design

Friday, February 14, 2025

Redesigning complex navigation, product design process, UX in legacy systems, UX workshops with users. Issue #494 • Feb 11, 2025 • View in the browser Smashing Newsletter Halò Smashing Friends, How do

Nick Mafi on Capturing LA’s Loss

Friday, February 14, 2025

View in your browser | Update your preferences ADPro 77 Stories Shared As we watched the worst fires in Los Angeles history spread across the city, the editors at AD came together to discuss the

🐺 Content that Converts - the replay is up!

Friday, February 14, 2025

And everyone who joined loved it! ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌ ͏ ‌

Designer or Couple’s Therapist?

Friday, February 14, 2025

View in your browser | Update your preferences ADPro Let's Make a Deal There's no shortage of spoils in the wonderfully eclectic Hudson Valley home of actor Walton Goggins and writer-director

178 / Visualize your dreams in 2025

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

Product Disrupt Logo Product Disrupt Half-Monthly Jan 2025 • Part 1 View in browser Welcome to Issue 178 Ever get curious about how this newsletter is doing? I shared the 2024 behind-the-scenes and

Mayer Rus on Loss, and Living, in LA

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

View in your browser | Update your preferences ADPro LA, I Love You Los Angeles has been my home for nearly 20 years, and the devastation here, now, is unfathomable. Entire neighborhoods have been

🐺 How to make a great first impression

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

With real examples. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

#490: Interface Design

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

How to design better interfaces, how to choose icons, optical effects, iconography, Gestalt principles and icon design. Issue #490 • Jan 14, 2025 • View in the browser Smashing Newsletter Buona

🐺LAST CHANCE to get 20%-off our PR Masterclass Series

Monday, January 13, 2025

Make 2025 your biggest press year yet. ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏