Bad at CSS

Web design tools are great but they still fall short of all the incredible intrinsic based features of CSS. While there are features like auto-layout in Figma, they still fall so short of all the content driven features of The Web. Why is it that we still try to paint pretty pictures in a design tool and act like the web works that way? We can't control every details of what happens when our website is loaded on different devices over different networks and across different user preferences. Mattias Ott joins the show to discuss why design tools have fallen behind CSS and the mindset and skills we need to progress in our web designs.

Links
Mattias Ott - https://matthiasott.com/
Bad at CSS - https://x.com/badatcss   
Adam Twitter - https://x.com/argyleink   
David Twitter - https://x.com/_davideast

CSS: The Definitive Guide is exactly 1126 pages, written by Eric Meyer and Estelle Weyl. As they both said, "We read the CSS spec so you didn't have to." We ask them a ton of CSS questions and they gave us a ton of CSS answers.

Apologies for the audio only upload. There were issues with getting the video feed published but check out YouTube for the video.

CSS Day put on 14 different talks about some pretty interesting topics in CSS. It ended up being almost 12 hours of amazing CSS content and we’re going to give you an overview of each talk in just an hour. We’re going to talk about how design tools are falling behind with CSS, which I’m starting to really believe more and more every day. We’ll cover How Tailwind CSS isn’t at all like inline styles and this talk was brave. Then there’s incredible font features in CSS, like seriously these ones are unreal. And also the magic of Anchor Positioning... to be honest I still barely know this one is. And so many other great topics so, let us be your guide.  

Links

• CSS Day - https://cssday.nl/2024
• CSS Day Playlist -  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjnstNlepBvO0-I7iwqpkOY_fwAop6Pl-
• Bad at CSS - https://x.com/badatcss 
• Adam Twitter - https://x.com/argyleink 
• David Twitter - https://x.com/_davideast

There are so many things we spend time on thinking they’ll save us more in the long run but really, do they? Today on Bad at CSS we’re going to dive into a list of things we think are Time Wasters disguised as Time Savers.

0:00 - Is the juice worth the squeeze?
0:50 - Tests
6:07 - CI/CD*
13:37 - Build systems
16:02 - Rewrites
22:42 - Note taking apps
31:27 - Courses
38:37 - A tangent on Objective-C and fixing squiggles
41:37 - More CI/CD problems
44:07 - Append Only
46:07 - Color and Dark Mode
56:28 - Designing with constraint
60:00 - Not engagement farming… tell us your time wasters

Links
Bad at CSS — https://x.com/badatcss
Adam Argyle — https://x.com/argyleink
David East — https://x.com/_davideast

What can you do with a single CSS keyframe? A metric ton.

0:00 - 50% keyframes are magic
0:49 - Animation is easier than you think
2:17 - Why at 50%?
6:51 - Trick 1 Shake
12:00 - Trick 2 Pulse
23:25 - Trick 3 Glitch
27:55 - Trick 4 Flip  
32:45 - Trick 5 Fill  
41:20 - Trick 6 Sheen  
44:25 - Trick 7 Emphasize  
46:50 - Trick 8 Censor  
48:35 - Trick 900 Tony Hawk    

Links
Bad at CSS - https://twitter.com/badatcss
Adam Twitter - https://twitter.com/argyleink
David Twitter - https://twitter.com/_davideast
Codepen Demo: https://codepen.io/davideast/pen/MWxvzjm
Open Props: https://open-props.style

Container Queries are one of those CSS features everyone is so hyped about and with good reason. They give us a modern way to build and scope responsive components based on the size of the parent element rather than the browser view port. But, I’m not gonna lie. There’s a lot to this new feature.

Dave Rupert knows his inputs and we got a lot to learn.

Dave's great blog - https://daverupert.com/
Dave on Twitter - https://twitter.com/davatron5000

CSS is Hard. Each and every year. So what are the things that we should improve on in 2024?

We promise that after this episode you'll never forget the three parameters of the clamp() function ever again.

We promise. This episode is actually about CSS... I mean we get to it eventually. But what happens when you get a TypeScript fan (David) and a TypeScript skeptic (Adam) in a discussion? Well, a lot of spicy things are said.

NOTE: We swear we recorded this before the whole DHH Turbo TypeScript fiasco. 

The amazing Chris Coyier (founder of CSS-Tricks.com and CodePen.io) sat down with us to tell us all the things in CSS that he's bad at. He even brought us a list.

Figma has a brand new feature called Dev Mode! Adam was at Figma's big conference Config and he came here to teach us everything he knows about what Dev Mode has to offer. We also discuss why design handoffs are so difficult and tricks we've learned along the way.

Chapters:

0:00 - Is Figma bad at CSS too? 

0:29 - We are bad at design handoffs.

1:46 - Adam was at Figma Config

2:59 - A designer and developer story

5:34 - The difficulties from a design to CSS

7:45 - “Micro-decisions” in design

9:54 - Handoffs were the inspiration for Visbug

10:42 - It’s hard to get consistently get the design correct

12:44 - What is DevMode? 

13:40 - 30% of Figma users are developers.

15:10 - How DevMode works

18:48 - Figma can be the “source of truth” for Components 

20:39 - Visually coding in Figma 

21:53 - Designers can mark things “ready for dev”

21:59 - Generates a changelog 

21:30 - A copy SVG button! 

23:24 - DevMode still needs some work with layouts 

25:23 - There’s a Box Model in Figma! 

27:00 - A tangent on :has() 

28:20 - display: contents is a hidden gem

30:02 - A recap of DevMode features

View Transitions are a brand new totally rad cutting edge feature in the browser. They allow you to specify animation states from one state to another a lot easier than ever before. But guess what? We’re still bad at them. In this episode Adam explains how awesome View Transitions are by explaining the difficulties of the FLIP animation technique. Adam then discusses how he struggled, but finally succeeded, to build a morphing button with View Transitions. Oh and we also discuss how Adam isn’t a TypeScript fan, but you’ll have to listen to the end for that part.

Links:

Morphing Button - https://youtu.be/N2BKAKwGP6M

View Transition Pseudos Visualized - https://codepen.io/bramus/full/xxQKvJP

View Transitions like isotope.js - https://codepen.io/argyleink/pen/VwBKjwj

Chapters:

0:00 We are bad at CSS

0:54 Why are we talking about View Transitions?

4:03 Adam sings MMMBop

4:24 What problem are View Transitions solving?

5:29 Adam’s Mickey Mouse impression

5:44 Using FLIP to explain what View Transitions solve

6:27 Adam’s amazing getBoundingClientRect() joke

6:45 Using FLIP to explain what View Transitions solve

9:00 Tweening was easier in Flash

10:45 View Transitions simplify the amount calculations needed to animate

12:54 David is plugged into the Matrix

13:40 MPA View Transitions require no work! (but need a flag)

14:20 We are going to see some of the most wild transitions

16:35 What is Adam bad at with View Transitions?

22:04 What is a functional pseudo selector and why is it so fun to say?

23:50 Adam continues to be bad at View Transitions

25:35 Adam gets to talk to browser engineers to tell him why he’s bad

26:33 A rare case where height 100% did something

29:10 Adam gets even worse at View Transitions

30:00 Understanding view transition image pair and view transition group

35:29 David is bad at Sesame Street

37:55 An amazing visual of View Transition Groups and Pairs

39:52 Can you use other properties than transform and opacity?

40:27 Adam’s leaves to go tend to his kids

42:00 We’re finally wrapping up

45:33 Fun fact: Adam is not a TypeScript fan

47:12 View Transitions like isotope.js

49:32 Stay humble or CSS will humble you

Video moments

23:10 - functional pseudo selector

30:00 Understanding view transition image pair and view transition group

34:00 Especially here

37:55 An amazing visual of View Transition Groups and Pairs

47:12 View Transitions like isotope.js