2015 January Archive

Best Practice for Creating Custom Elements

It looks like custom elements, and web components in general, are beginning to break through into general developer consciousness, as I see more and more articles and talks discussing what they are, what they are good for, and how to make them.

As they’re not yet being used heavily in development, however, I think there’s a good opportunity to define best practices in the way we use them. In this post I want to propose a best practice method for writing custom elements: I’ll do that by comparing two methods for creating custom elements, along with the advantages and drawbacks of each.

Aside: it strikes me that I haven’t written about custom elements here on my own blog, despite having given a few talks and written a few published articles on the subject. In case you’re not sure what they are, I recommend you read my Detailed Introduction To Custom Elements first.

Read the full article


The Thoughtful Web #9: Teens, Things and TMI

This is the latest of my semi-regular collections of links to the best writing about the web and technology, information, soci­ety, science, and philo­sophy. I also send this out as an email newsletter, a format better suited to the ‘slow web’ ethos I’m trying to support. If you agree, you can subscribe to the newsletter.

The Links

I promise I’ve read every single one of these, and can recommend them all.

The Interface Layer: Where Design Commoditizes Tech
Scott Belsky makes the case that the future of digital services lies in building a simple interface over convenient utilities and services – a reverse of the atomisation of apps and services we’re currently seeing.

Mobile First
No, not that mobile first. This is Ben Thompson’s theory that we’re seeing a shift where products and services – online and physical – are undergoing changes driven by smartphone culture. Based on some speculation about an unannounced product, but pretty sound theory nonetheless.

Technology Has Made Life Different, but Not Necessarily More Stressful
A study indicates that frequent internet and social media users are no more stressed than those who use technology less often, and some women even show a reduction in stress when using digital tools. By Claire Cain Miller. I love seeing data that goes against the general narrative.

The Internet of Things needs a few SMACS
Scott Jenson lays out the requirements for the ThingNet, and it’s more than just the things and a standard protocol.

Europe is Wrong to take a Sledgehammer to Big Google
Search becomes more useful the more it knows about you, and forcing a breakup of Google would make all of its services less useful. Evgeny Morozov argues that what we need is not to hobble big services, but to provide data regulations to allow thousands of smaller companies to compete.

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The Elements of a Good Conference Talk

Recently on Twitter a few people, myself included, had a short conversation about what we like to see in conference talks, prompted by Sara Soueidan’s question:

I’ve been wasting a lot of time lately trying to decide which talk topic to do at which conference. Any tips, fellow speakers?

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Aside

I’ve updated my Speaking page to include more conferences, more videos, and a little on my speaking requirements and preferences. I’m planning to cut down on the number of talks I give in 2014 (twelve is too many), but am always open to interesting offers and opportunities, so please get in touch if you’re organising an event.

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