I have a particular methodology that I use to write all my JavaScript.

First, I decide to add some sort of gratuitous, showy, processor-hogging, performance sapping JavaScript animation to my site. Then I spend two weeks writing code that is a horrible disorganized mess that is about 90 percent functional but completely breaks every time I try to fix it.

Then throw it out and rewrite it all in about three hours.

Which brings me to the latest addition to this site. I’ve added a scroll progress meter to the top menu bar. I even consulted for several months with... More

I’ve been to several design conferences in the past couple years, and typically within the first few hours some sort of discussion will break out – usually on Twitter – over “should designers code”.

A lot of pixels and a some vitriol have been also spilled on the subject. But it’s really nothing but a bunfight. Opinions get tossed around but no one actually gets hurt.

My position has always been of course designers should code. Why would you not? It’s the fundamental technology of the web.

But “designers should code” sounds a little bossypants.... More