10 Tenets All Web Developers Should Follow
In my time working with and managing teams of developers, I've continually added to a mental list of traits and behaviors that make someone a great teammate. I decided to write them down. Somewhat surprisingly, it has less to do with coding ability than you might think. Below is a list of 10 tenets that all of our new developers are introduced to on their first day at Eastern Standard. 1. The...
Making Uncertainty Your Secret Weapon: How to Get Ahead of the Curve
Flux . It’s a strange place for any business to operate, and Eastern Standard is no exception. Our teams have all transitioned to working remotely, and while we’re moving along pretty seamlessly in that area, the thing we miss most is the regular interactions with one another and with our clients. This is a deeply personal business, and removing all face-to-face interaction just feels so foreign...
A Guide to Web Accessibility for Designers, Content Managers, and Developers
There's a lot of web accessibility information online, but it's not always easy to get a concise overview of best practices for WCAG/ADA compliance for your team. As a result, I've created this brief handbook on web accessibility. Table of Contents Introduction Why Accessibility Matters What It Means to Have an Accessible Website How and When Designers Should Think About Accessibility How and...
The Case of the Indoor Cat — Techniques for Networking for Introverts
Indoor cat (n.) — One who does not like to socialize more than necessary, one who hates networking, and/or someone who has recently moved in with their significant other and has given up their wild days for making organic blueberry pancakes from scratch and arguing over light fixtures. I would like to first say, I did not create this term. Let me set the scene: It was an ordinary Wednesday, and...
How to Write a Company Values Statement When You Are Skeptical of Company Values Statements
Last year, Eastern Standard set out on an exercise that’s probably familiar to many of you: crafting a company values statement. It was long overdue. We were approaching our 5-year anniversary as a company and hadn’t ever taken the time to codify what we felt was important and compelling about the work that we do. The exercise proved interesting — and a bit difficult — for two reasons. First, the...
Mapping the Coastline: Project Planning in Unknown Territory
Perhaps the most misunderstood thing about digital project management is that much of the job revolves around making educated guesses. We collect user research, client feedback, and team input to estimate scopes and develop timelines, but still, these are predictions. What’s more, it can be difficult to know what level of detail to include at which stage in a project, and how to keep those...
Storytelling Through Content-First Design
Beautifully designed websites are a delight to look at, but if the site’s content is incongruous to its aesthetic, the website hasn’t served its main function. To translate information into meaning quickly and easily for the user, the design should be built with content as the guiding light that shapes the mood, the typography, the hierarchy, the photography, and the color palette. This website...
Which Aria Attributes Should I Use? Accessibility and Aria Tags for Common UI Patterns
In this post, I've attempted to track down and document best practices recommendations for creating accessible versions of various UI components: Choose a UI component to see accessibility and aria attribute recommendations: Hamburger Menus / Push Menus Accordions Dropdown Menus Hamburger Menus / Push Menus The "hamburger" menu, where an icon or button triggers a flyout or "push menu" from the...
Be More Than Just “The Dev”
As a group, developers have curated a deep-rooted, stymieing fear borne of our industry's highly competitive "culture of competency" and our laundry-list résumés: the fear of not understanding things. Specifically, the fear of others knowing we don’t understand — and it’s holding us back. Admitting that you don’t comprehend something and need to ask for an explanation seems to be, for many...
Rules for Implementing Top-Level Section Landing Pages
I have strong feelings about how top-level pages in your navigation should be a) designed and b) incorporated into the flow of a website. I think they’re often implemented in a sub-optimal way, so I’ve written my thoughts here. I’ll summarize these rules concisely for those of you just browsing, but I’ll unpack my thoughts a bit more below: Top-level pages should serve the exclusive purpose of...
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