What has inspired me so far in 2016
I love Pocket. It’s a modern bookmarking app. However, stuff I like tends to get lost in there. I’ve also noticed that once I’ve filed something in Pocket, if I don’t return to it within a few weeks, I probably lose track forever.
So in 2016 I started a doc in which I save all the things that I really really like (as well as my Todo’s and other ideas). Now that its getting kind of long, I still want to hold on to this stuff so I can continue to reflect on it.
The following is a list of resources and people/organizations I’ve found especially cool so far this year.
People and Projects
awesome-app-ideas
I already have at least 10+ side project ideas I want to build, but I thought this repo was pretty great incase I ever had coder’s block or needed a small idea to try out while testing out some new technology.
Disk Cactus
This is just a really cool company. I found out about them when my friend Madelena gave me their Emoji Keyboard for my birthday this year. Also, they officially incorporated their name in unicode for their 💾🌵 emoji.
Because Recollection
This one has received a lot of attention. It’s great.
Rally Interactive
I really like their website and their work. Rally Interactive is an interaction design studio in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Stink Digital
Another cool company. They created the super weird hands.wtf project.
Susan Lin
Nice website with scrolling animation + highlights really great design/illustration work.
Bad ass use of technology
Some kid made a “free robot lawyer” that has appealed over $3M in parking tickets.
Google Maps Streetview Player
This is something I always wanted to build… so I could take roadtrips using only google maps street view! Looks like this guy got to it first. Congratuations, its awesome!
The Sill
This is a company in NYC. 💯 for working with plants.
Voxel CSS 3D Rendering
Need to build something with this ASAP.
Interactive Story Telling
WebGL
“A platform to create interactive 3D scenes directly from the browser”
Pantone Propaganda
One of the most interesting articles having to do with design and culture I’ve read, ever.
The future of lit?
Someone wrote Kanye West’s autobiography entirely from his lyrics.
Nice UI Loading Buttons
Because, nice.
Useful Tools - Resources
Creating Personas
Important for UX, Design, thinking about your users.
Grid Paper
I tend to do a lot digitally, but I thought this was cool to help with sketches.
Name That Color
For stylesheet color variables to be namespaced more flexibly.
Accessibility
More all-inclusive internet.
continuous visual integration
The problem with CSS is changes you make to one page can have unintended effects to another without your realizing it. Percy is a service for continuous integration testing with CSS so you know what changes.
Not using JQuery when you don’t need to
Equivalents in vanilla javascript that you can use instead of JQuery. I tend to think in JQuery before Javascript when I’m writing presentational JS for static websites… its a nice to do without JQuery when its possible.
UI Examples
When I need some quick inspiration for designing user interfaces.
Sketch App Sources
Great repository of resources for Sketch. If you need some starter kits for wireframes or graphs/charts, this is a good place to go.
icon animations with mo.js
Obligatory codrops article.
stock photos
I hate to use stock photos. But sometimes you have no choice.
Repaintless CSS Animations
For Fast CSS Animations. See the article.
CSS Scroll Snap Points
Great example of a future/soon-to-be-current, CSS feature.
Holistic Vibes
Because who we are and what we do affects everything… these are a few items that have helped inform my thinking over the past few months.