SOSOLOG
Design Systems, Beyond the Code
I'm on my third design system now. I built one entirely from scratch, and rebuilt the other two on top of systems that already existed. Across all three, I learned what actually matters and what doesn…
Deploy 2023
It's December, retrospective season again. This year stretched me wider, both personally and at work. Here's a look back built around the experiences that stuck with me most. A New Team, A New Design …
Improving Rendering Performance (2) — Using Composited Animations
This time I want to revisit rendering, but through the lens of performance. So how should you actually approach optimizing it? Web performance optimization isn't about building the single fastest rend…
Improving Rendering Performance (1): Understanding the Rendering Process
Intro I recently tuned up the rendering performance on a side project, and while I was at it, I mapped out how browser rendering actually works: what was really behind the slowdown, and what fixed it.…
Deploy 2022
I feel like every year's retrospective opens with "this year was special," but this time I really mean it. A lot changed, big and small, at work, in my career, and in my personal life. So I've organiz…
Design System Decision Record
My FEConf2022 talk, "Design Systems, Beyond Form", left out a bunch of the thinking behind linear, the design system I built. This post picks up where that talk left off. Table of Contents Principle T…
Scoped Context
The React Context API lets you share global data across a React component tree. Any component below a Provider can read that Context's value. Another way to say "components below a Provider can use it…
Select Component
Intro What do you expect from a Select component when a design system provides one? Here I'll go through the features I want out of a Select, how to build them, and example code along the way. ⚠️ Ever…
Where Did All Those `import React from ‘react’` Go?
React 17 shipped a new JSX Transform, and this post digs into the RFC behind it to work out what that change actually means. I've thrown in my own commentary and some guesswork along the way. If you'v…
Deploy 2021
What I wrote last year This year didn't go where I expected. Looking back, I ended up on a pretty different path than the one I mapped out in last year's retrospective. Studying infrastructure was one…