A few months ago, I started to research build processes to help improve the pattern we currently follow at work. During my research I somehow ended up configuring Grunt and discovered the true awesomeness it has to offer. Unfortunately, so far I haven’t managed to integrate it into our workflow, but for my after-hours development, it has become an integral part of the way things roll.
Resources
Handy Sass Mixins
Mixins are one of the most powerful features of Sass. Mixins allow for efficient and clean code repetitions as well as an easy way to adjust your code with ease. If you are using Sass in your development workflow, no doubt you are using some of the mixins that I have covered below but some might also be new and helpful.
Getting Started with KSS-Node
The NodeJS implementation of Knyle Style Sheets (KSS) developed by Hugh Kennedy is super handy. With one simple command after you have set it up you can generate a living style guide. Having to always update your style guide is generally a chore. This saves the day.
Find Web Design Jobs Online
Late last week an article I wrote was published on the awesome Smashing Magazine site – Preparing For A Front-End Job Interview. The article explores ways to help you prepare for job interviews and gives some good tips to help you land your ‘dream job’. Ever since writing it, I thought some people would also be interested in finding out where the best places to look for web design jobs are. At present there are lots of popular sites that have job boards but there is definitely a select bunch which attract the ‘good’ jobs.
Each of the job boards I have listed below tend to have a knack for attracting great companies to advertise and also offer various ways to stay up to date (RSS, Email, iPhone apps, etc).
Keeping up with Chrome Developer Tools
In today’s world, as the web evolves so do the tools. Keeping up with what’s happening is important in our industry. However, keeping up with everyday development tools is as important, if not more so.
The Developer Tools in Chrome have been in rapid development for the last couple of years, and I certainly have not been using them to their fullest potential. Hopefully the resources below will bring you up to speed.
Handy Apps for Web Developers
It seems the days of opening up and developing a website solely with a text editor are long gone. Thankfully, today we are privileged to have access to so many amazing applications to help us develop better products.
The Best of the Best Boilerplates / Bootstraps
Boilerplates, bootstraps or whatever you want to call them have become a valuable resource for any web developer. Not only do they provide great knowledge into the best practices to use, they also save us vast amounts of time.
Back in the day, there was great pleasure in coding something up from scratch. In this day and age, I think most people are more than happy to start with a base, whatever that base might be. All of the resources listed below can be used in any way that suits you.