Weeknotes 24:11

March 23, 2024

Week of March 10–16

Highlights

The time change to daylight savings time kicked my butt and I was tired most of the week. I had trouble concentrating and it was harder to get self-started.
I fixed the mobile view of the header of this site. I forgot to fix things before launching the site refresh a few months ago. I had some time on Monday and reworked the layout to work on smaller screens.
I helped out one of our designers, Matty, by researching the block options he had available in a Craft build for one of our clients. Our team is making some recommendations for a new page but we have to use existing blocks and cannot build new ones.
I added an option on my archive page to view the posts without the images in a list view. I applied some techniques I learned when I built a video catalog for Principal Media.
I updated a badge generator for one of our clients. The badge generator allows a user to upload a picture and create a badge to display on social media. The generator uses canvas to apply a designed overlay for the badge image. I had to update the PNG overlay image for this one.
I spent a couple of days working through Adam Argyle’s article on CSS scroll animations. I had some trouble following along and keeping some things straight. The time change tiredness came into play when I was trying to read through this. I revisited Michelle Barker’s article on scroll animations and was able to sort several things out that didn’t make sense to me after working through Adam’s. I need to take the next step and start building some Codepens so that I can understand how everything works. I might take a previous project that I built with GSAP‘s Scroll Trigger or the Intersection Observer API using the new CSS tools.
I updated a badge generator for another client and then cloned that one and updated the overlays. This one was for a financial institution’s small business program.

New apps

I am working this year to improve my physical health and also my financial health. I started using Strava at the beginning of the week to track my daily walks. I am trying to walk each day to get in better shape as I prepare for my trip to Europe at the end of April. Several of my teammates have used Strava so I thought I would give it a try. I like that it tells me the distance I walked, and the time it took, and generates a map of my route. I like that it is so simple to record.

My wife and I are working with a financial coach to help us better prepare for the future. We created a budget and we are tracking our spending for the next 3 months to begin to gain control of it. I started using Every Dollar. I like that I can do it on my laptop and my phone.

I am impressed with the usability of both of these apps. Things are very clear and they are both easy to use.

What I wrote

The Web is 35 years old today
Accessibility journey – Oops – I found out that I had a text contrast accessibility issue in a post about my accessibility journey. Many people were reading the post last week after linking from an accessibility-focused newsletter. Oh, the embarrassment. And the irony. This too is part of my accessibility journey.
Animation Inspiration – Vendredi Society
Throwback Friday – PopPhoto.com – I reflected on a project that I built 13 years ago when I worked at the Bonnier Corporation. I was inspired by Elliot Jay Stocks who posted about one shared about the Brooklyn Beta site he designed 14 years ago.