Great Front End Writers to Follow
As this is a brand new blog, I want to highlight some of the people in web development who have inspired me and whose articles (and writing style) I love.
When I was thinking about starting CSS {In Real Life} I just wanted a place I could put all my articles, whether long or short, and any random thoughts about CSS and front end development in general. My aim is to write about what I discover, and hopefully demystify a few things for whoever takes the time to read the articles. It might not always be perfect, but I find writing a great way to learn, and to pass on knowledge.
The people I’ve taken inspiration from are hugely knowledgeable about their field, and their passion for the web shines through in their articles. I aspire to write articles that are as useful to others as theirs have been to me. I encourage you to read their writing, and to write about and share your own discoveries and explorations, if you feel able.
Here they are, in no particular order…
Sara Soueidan
Sara’s ability to take a topic and drill down into it, examining it from every angle is unsurpassed. I’ve learnt so much about CSS layout and SVG from reading her posts. She has a gift for explaining things in a way that anyone can understand.
Recommended reading:
Optimizing SVG Text & Image Delivery with Inline SVG
Zell Liew
When I was getting into CSS layout methods in a big way, Zell’s blog was where I got a huge amount of information from, particularly on Susy, the Sass grid framework (before CSS Grid was widely supported). Now he covers a wide range of topics - he’s recently published a JavaScript course, so his blog features lots of JS articles (and now video). His style of writing is very personable and beginner-friendly - he never assumes any prior knowledge and takes care to explain thoroughly.
He isn’t afraid to share more personal posts about his journey as a developer, which is great to read whenever you feel less than 100% confident in your work – as most of us do at one time or another!
Recommended reading:
New CSS Features That Are Changing Web Design
Rachel Andrew
Rachel is a font of knowledge on all things CSS layout-related, which means I frequently find myself reading her articles, whether on her own blog or on Smashing Magazine. She has a very clear and direct way of writing, extremely helpful for a topic as vast as Grid layout.
Recommended reading:
Changes to the Grid Spec and taking on Multi-Column layout
Dudley Storey
I’ve used many of Dudley’s tutorials over the past few years - there was a time when literally every CSS problem I had, Dudley had the solution in his blog! His articles are useful step-by-step walk-throughs, with creative, visual examples, and are a great for introducing new concepts.
Recommended reading:
Rotating Elements To Mouse and Touch Locations Using JavaScript
Una Kravets
I love Una’s great mix of informative articles and visual, interactive demos. Her blog feels like a goldmine, with lots of useful nuggets to uncover, heavily focused on CSS. I like how she includes her own blog articles alongside others with external links posted on other sites like CSS Tricks.
Recommended reading:
Solved with CSS: Dropdown Menus
Ire Aderinokun
Bitsofco.de is another one that constantly crops up when I’m Googling for a particular CSS property or HTML attribute. Written by Ire Aderinokun, the site is chock-full of super useful information, well written and thoroughly explained, with lots of code examples and real-world use cases.