Design links and live music

A weeknote starting 17 June 2024.

I've had a busy few weeks both in and out of work so I've been struggling with the time and motivation for blogging. But I finally have a free weekend. So here goes…

Emulate Windows high contrast mode

I learnt that you can emulate Windows high contrast mode in google chrome.

Andy Bell has also written a good blog post on Piccalilli that describes the transparent borders and outlines technique. It's a useful way to make sure buttons are still visible in high contrast mode without affecting the design in other modes.

You can also emulate lots of other things using google chrome's rendering panel (like print mode, dark mode or prefers reduced motion etc.)

Prototyping emails

I learnt that you prototype emails and text messages using the GOV.UK Prototype Kit and a Notify account.

Looking forward to an opportunity to try this out.

Toggle buttons

I dug out my copy of Heydon Pickering's Inclusive Components book to help with a toggle button that I was working on.

I'm a big fan of the book and it's one I consistently refer back to.

Make bangers not anthems

I enjoyed this blog post from FF Studio. There should be more blog posts that reference The Streets.

Updating my weeknotes naming convention

I'm switching up how I name my weeknotes. Inspired a bit by Vicky Teinaki.

I'm going to try giving each post a unique and descriptive heading. Then I'm going to add "A weeknote starting 17 June 2024" to each post's excerpt / meta description.

This should make it clearer what the post is about, and also removes the incremental count… which I found was putting too much pressure on me to keep posting every week.

Live music

I've seen lots of live music recently…

• In It Together Festival, highlights included: Artful Dodger, Adjua, Mellt, The Mysterines, Gardna, Prince Levy, Afrocluster, Gruff Rhys and Dr Meaker
• The Smashing Pumpkins and Weezer in at Cardiff Castle
• Only Fool And Corpses and MWN in Swansea