I was feeling some creative angst on Tuesday. One of the projects coming down the pipe to me is an annual report that I need to do before the end of the month. The print (PDF) version is currently still in design. But I have started thinking about it and have some different ideas. On Tuesday, I got a peak at the print piece that was still in process. And that sparked some more ideas.

I have been wanting to do a scroll-driven animation site. I have never done one and have been wanting to build one for the past 3 years. I have also started playing around with the new Web animations API. I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to build something as I learn. Because the API is not supported in all browsers yet, I thought I would build a basic version of it and then progressively enhance the design with animations. I would also plan to only serve it to users who did not have a prefers reduced motion preference on their computer and allow all users to turn the animations off if they would choose.

My angst on Tuesday is that I have a lot of half-baked ideas in my head or more of a vague sense of what I would like to try to do. I was itching to start trying to play around and build a prototype. I decided to start by just translating the content into HTML. I was going to need that regardless of what else I did. On Wednesday, I decided to focus on a section and play around with some layout ideas. One of the threads in the print design was the idea of a river flowing. I envisioned a river path animating as the user scrolled on the page. The 2021 UX London site was one inspiration as the curve element animates on scroll. I envisioned content revealing itself along the flow of the river. I am also a fan of the Runway app site that animates driven by the scroll.

But as I was building layouts, I was getting frustrated because I was having trouble coming up with an underlying grid. I was playing around with some compound grids that Michelle Barker’s tool helped me to come up with. But it felt like the page was going to go very long by pursuing this river flow idea.

I decided to touch base with our communication director Emily on Thursday. I knew she also had some ideas and I thought it would be helpful to hear her ideas and share mine. Our conversation gave me a lot of things to consider and in the end, we agreed that a much simplier route was the way to go. We are going to use the same layout framework as the 2023 report as a base and then try to enhance it from there. Given the timeline of when the project needs to be delivered, I think that is a better direction to go. And I am not sure that a lot of my ideas fit the brand well. That was a topic that came up in my discussion with Emily.

Lessons from this experience:

• be willing to let go of or kill your darlings
• it is always a good idea to call a meeting and get input from the stakeholder or key person in the process
• talking it out with someone else always gives you a better perspective

Other notes from the week

• I worked through a couple more lessons in JavaScript is for Everyone
• I did several different projects on the Revive Our Hearts South Africa site. I updated the hero image on the homepage and I added in a curved element that we have on the Revive Our Hearts site. It is amazing how something small can make a big difference and make a site look more polished.
• I played around with “pinning” animations. Pinning is a GreenSock (GSAP) thing. I wanted to try to recreate it with CSS using the new Web animation API. I was trying to scale an item down in a “pinned” section and then have the page scroll. I was inspired by Lando Norris’ site that I mentioned last week. See my pen (Chrome, Edge, and Safari)
• My site celebrated 20 years last week.
• I decided to publish an unfinished post regarding my thoughts on AI. I had started writing it back in July. I had gotten stuck and not got back to it. But after reading it last week, I thought I would publish it as is because it documents my thinking back in July after reading a lot of different perspectives on AI. I may or may not add more thoughts in the future.

Caught my eye

Beyond Tellerrand redesign

A beautiful new site for these conferences in Germany. I have always enjoyed Mike Kus‘ designs and this is another one. A nice focus on typography and layout. And no animations. I think that is refreshing because I expected it because it has become so commonplace. I like all the graphic design elements throughout the front page. Nice work.

Josh Farrant

Very simple and clean design for a personal site. The delight comes in hovering over the theme chooser. Each one plays a different musical note (piano keys).

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Articles I read

• Everything Is Broken (Jim Nielsen)
• Responses (Jeremy Keith)
• Echoes of Connection (Matthias Ott) – love the comparison of posting on a personal site to the Golden Records sent out on Voyager. And it is nice to know that someone received the message when they reach out, mention it on social media or write a post to add to the conversation.
• Can you catch ’em all? (Andy Clarke) – I went and played this easter egg game on Andy’s site. And I caught them all. I love how Andy has added delight to his site.
• Why (Really) Do We Become Prayerless? (Seth Troutt on Desiring God)
• Don’t Forget These Tags to Make HTML Work Like You Expect (Jim Nielsen)
• Help! The wrong type of person is turning up at church! (Stephen McAlpine)
• Page headings don’t belong in the header (Martin Underhill) – I agree with the gist (the page heading should live in the main content) of what Martin is saying. But there are a lot of times that the hero (header with role of banner) live inside the main content.
• Amateurs! (Matthias Ott) – This book looks interesting but I think I will wait to hear from Matthias before buying it myself. I like the premise but interested to hear if it delivers.
• Start implementing view transitions on your websites today (Cyd Stumpel on Piccalilli)
• Pure CSS Tabs With Details, Grid, and Subgrid (Silvestar Bistrovi? on CSS Tricks) – An interesting solution. But I appreciated Sara Soueidan’s input that just because you can get it to look like tabs, it does not have the semantics. And you still need JavaScript to make it accessible.
• The Idol of the Life We Think God Owes Us (Randy Alcorn)
• You’re Their Mom or Dad, Not Their Pastor or Evangelist (Tim Challies)
• Cryosleep (Jeremy Keith)
• HotFX Split Flap (HotFX) – I like this train station flap board solution.
• How I Use AI (David Bauer) – I like that he pulls back the curtain to discuss how he is incorporating AI into his work. I think it is important to see.
• The Shift from Individualism to Mob Identity (O. Alan Noble)
• Emma Thompson speaks of her ‘intense irritation’ with AI (The Guardian)
• That time some rando turned me into a meme coin (Jason Grigsby) – Bizarre story.
• It’s insulting to read your AI-generated blog post (Pablo Enoc)
• Understanding what “I am not ‘anti-AI’… I am pro-craft.” means to me (Guy LeCharles Gonzalez) – I like this idea of “pro-craft” because I think it captures an essential idea of why I am more concerned than excited about AI.
• My Programming Career is a Historical Artifact (Paul Payne) – This caught my eye on LinkedIn because it was written by a former colleague. I don’t agree with the “inevitable” narrative. There is so much that LLMs do not bring to the table in terms of problem solving, creativity, and understanding of humans.
• Studio Notes #56 (Dan Cederholm)
• A New Chapter – The New beyond tellerrand Website Is Live! (Marc Thiele) – I enjoyed this story about the evolution of the site and some insight into the new site they launched this week.
• Getting Creative With Small Screens (Andy Clarke on CSS Tricks) – I love how Andy challenges designers to think outside the box and come up with creative solutions that they wouldn’t necessarily have thought of. It gave me some food for thought for a project I am working on.
• Four Steps to Becoming an Informed AI Skeptic (Guy LeCharles Gonzalez)
• 3-2-1: The importance of bad days, making the most money per minute, and how to start a revolution (James Clear)
• What the hell is ego? (Joe Crawford)
• God’s Witness In True Myths: The Story of the Peace Child (Amy Hall on Mere Orthodoxy) – I was interested in this article because I know Steve Richardson and have heard his father speak many times before.
• Female Culture is Being Pornified (Samuel James)
• Shiver With Antici- (Jonathan Snook)
• The Trouble with Aging (Paul David Tripp)
• Awaken Your Hunger (Glenna Marshall)

What I watched

• Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth’s first session at True Woman ’25 – We have been encouraged to watch the different sessions from the conference. I caught bits and pieces of this one backstage but it was good to hear the whole thing when I was able to concentrate. The video will be available to the public in January.
• The unexpected burden that can come from a disability (Kevin Powell and Salma Alam-Naylor)
• World Series – BlueJays versus Dodgers (FOX) I watched a few innings of Game 3 but gave up long before it ended in the 18th. I watched most of games 4, 5, 6, and 7. I was rooting for the BlueJays. It was an exciting series and exciting final game.
• Watson (Paramount+)
• Matlock (Paramount+ and CBS)
• Szabadság, Szerelem (Children of Glory) (YouTube) – I found the movie I mentioned in a post about the 1956 Hungarian Revolution last week. I enjoyed watching it again.
• Love & Gelato (Netflix) – This movie was surprisely not as cheesy and predictable as we thought it might be. An enjoyable watch for my wife and I. And I loved seeing places in Italy that we visited.
• Who Killed the Montreal Expos (Netflix) – It was harder for me to follow because it was French with English subtitles. It was mildly interesting. I have not quite finished it yet.

What I listened to

• Navigating the modern job market with Adam Argyle (General Musings with Kevin Powell)
• A Liturgy, A Legacy, & The Songs of Rich Mullins (Live)
• I listened to old Michael W. Smith albums later in the week

Books I am reading

• Sunday Matters (Paul David Tripp) – I read one devotional a week.
• Everyday Gospel (Paul David Tripp) – Reading through the Bible this year with this devotional.
• Faithfully Present (Adam Ramsey)
• Telling a Better Story (Joshua Chatraw)

Walking

After a very rainy and cold week, I was glad to get back out walking on Saturday. I listened to the Adam Argyle podcast and A Liturgy, A Legacy, & The Songs of Rich Mullins (Live)

• Saturday – 4.56 miles in 1 hour 23 minutes

What I played

MLB The Show 20 (Twins) – I won all five games I played this week. Three against the Tigers and two against the Brewers. I reached 99 wins and still have a month to go in the season.

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