Something new for 2022
This month, I’m saying goodbye to my projects at EMBL but my career in web work continues.
The blog
Using Nunjucks templates with React
A lightweight React wrapper with precompiled Nunjucks
Lerna monorepos with fewer tags
Getting the perks of monorepo publishing while curating our git tags and release notes.
Moving from Panini to Eleventy
Back in February 2018, I wrote about updating this site to use a static-site generator by Zurb (makers of the Foundation Framework) called Panini.
Publishing since the 2000s
In a career of 20 years, the more things change the more they stay the same.
Building your first page with the Visual Framework 2.0
A quick start on how to work with Visual Framework 2.0 CSS, JS and structure your HTML — and lots of links to learn more.
Fractal and Eleventy: Getting static sites closer to the design system
For the Visual Framework 2.0 component system we recommend Eleventy for static sites: Eleventy sites get direct access to component templates with associated metadata and a focused component library.
Integrating Eleventy with gulp, upstream JS
Eleventy notes that it, "works great with data — use both front matter and external data files" but the static site generator stops short of working well with upstream in-memory data objects for local development.
Inside the Content-Action Model
An ontology to document, plan, define and implement CAM magic.
What if: A web font for data
Alphanumeric data works well for programmatic query, but less so for direct human consumption. What if a font was designed specifically with life sciences data in mind?
Migrating to Zurb Panini 2.0
Not yet stable yet, but has some compelling features.
UX, discovery, analysis + the CAM
What does it mean to 'do UX' with our Content Action Model? Beyond the buzz.
The Content-Action Model origin story
Beyond the Core Content Model and into organisations, actions.
Introducing the Content-Action Model for Web Systems
Wiring ‘ugly truth’ UX diagnostics for better web strategy & IA.
Comparing IBM Plex and Fira Sans
Here's a quick comparison between, Plex, Helvetica, Fira and a couple of other stand-ins.
8 Video conferencing tips, dos, don’ts
While most any video platform and kit can work great for one-to-one video calls, I'll share lessons learnt in my previous roles and during my time in EMBL-EBI's Web Development team.
Five highlights from EuroIA 2017
I'll tragically ignore Stockholm and highlight inclusion, embracing and enabling.
Fluid IA to enable user discovery, prepare for change
Subtitled: Resisting entropy and preparing for change by binding content to mission.
A new site for little reason
As is apt for us web types, on 25 July 2017 I gave a reboot to this website.
Better corporate design through information architecture
Using 'brand archetecture' at the heart of identitity design.
UX success story: Doubling conversion rates, sales
The results were immediate: the site launched in the fall shopping season and saw a doubling of conversion rates from visitors — compared to both the previous months and previous fall sales — and that pace has held strong.
A model for better content, better readers, better journalism
Six years ago my then roommate and I founded TheDigitel on the idea that the future of news was changing and that the service was in curating and linking content, and that curation was going to be bigger than the massive link mills then in existence.
Muliple IPs on an Ubuntu EC2 VPC? Yes, please!
How to configure a second ethernet adapter on an Ubuntu EC2 VPC instance.
Cutting down on Postfix spam relaying
Postfix, it's used with many a LAMP stack to send out messages from a site, unfortunately it's prone to relaying many spam messages out of the box.