CSS Tricks

CSS Tricks Blog by Chris Coyier

This morning with coffee I'm having a quick read of Chris Coyier's Blog, "CSS-TRICKS A WEB DESIGN COMMUNITY curated by Chris Coyier". Recent work on a pro-bono site design project prompted this topic as my reading material of the day. Priding my fluency in CSS, I googled the phrase "css skill level" hoping to find a competent yardstick with which to measure my skill-set. This returned Coyier's slightly dated page, "Rate Your CSS Skill Level: Final Version & Poll". (As an aside, I'd rate myself in Category 5 due to a few concerns):

• I haven't hit perfection on "pixel-perfect cross-browser conversions"
• I don't have a "customized CSS reset"
• I only keep up with browser support & development when its relevant to what I'm doing
• I could expand my use of other technologies to break through the limitations of CSS

Level 5 is not TOO shabby though as Level 6 is the category where you've authored books on the subject!

Use of other technologies to break through the limitations of CSS

Ajax • JavaScript • jQuery

Having realized I need to bone up on a few issues, today's post on CSS Tricks makes perfect sense to me. Chris Coyier's featured screencast of the day is Best Practices With Dynamic Content. This screencast delves into three must-haves when using Ajax-enabled dynamic content: everything still works with JavaScript turned off, a browser's "Back" button functionality is enabled, and deep-linking to pages is possible through the use of hash tags in the URL. Ajax and dynamic content is something I'm not yet using in my site design. Obviously I need to incorporate these tricks at some point in the near future. Did I learn anything from this screencast? Kind of. Most importantly though, I've got the drive to pick up my studies with Ajax, JavaScript and jQuery.

The Result

What is resulting from this morning's half-hour of design theory? I'm again pleased to see I work about the same way as other programmers (screencasts are great for bringing reality and a human side to these tutorials!). I'm still proud of my CSS skill level. I have a new goal of picking up my JavaScript studies and a new book to put in my gym bag for my sauna reading later tonight..

Most importantly though, you can expect to be seeing a JavaScript flavor to upcoming posts on my blog..