Ongoing education in our industry is a must. Attending conferences is a great way to learn and network with other industry professionals. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to attend conferences, but have no fear! Many of the best conferences post videos online, giving our community an easy way to learn on our own time from anywhere in the world. Our first video in this series is a talk by Sarah Parmenter titled “Designing Using Data” given at An Event Apart Orlando.
In her presentation, Sarah Parmenter walks us through a journey of using research throughout the design process to make informed decisions. While she is known for her work in user interface design, she goes beyond designing screens and showcases how she created a successful (non-web design) business by focusing on every detail of a customer’s experience.
I’ve personally struggled with accepting data from tools like analytics and a/b testing at face value. While the raw data is reliable, the human interpretation and organization of that data to provide meaningful insight is where my hesitation begins. I’ve seen experts rely far too heavily on data without considering the context of their visitor’s situation, emotional state and more. Sarah’s talk showcases how you can use both research and experience to create the best results.
How do you use research to help you make design decisions? Let us know by sending us a message via Twitter.
It’s not just a shorthand for anchor()
position-area might be my favorite part of the CSS Anchor Positioning spec, with a ton of features packed in to make things just… work. But there’s no magic here, just a few key parts that work well.
Are we responding to the right inputs?
For many years, it has been ‘best practice’ to use relative units (especially em and rem) for sizing text. That’s great! But after playing around with my user preferences, I think we can improve on the common approaches.
How to find an anchor element
It is frustrating to track down why an anchor isn’t being found. I’ve found a simple way that should work in most cases. If that doesn’t work, step through the checklist, and then dive in to get a better understanding of how Anchor Positioning works.