Progressive enhancement is a web development design strategy where you build a fully working version of the content, before adding any styles or interactivity for those who can use them. This has been a cornerstone of the “GDS approach” to front end web design and development when building public digital services. It’s how GOV.UK was built, and it’s a requirement of the Service Manual today.…
Life Events
It’s been 3 months since my last note, in which time I’ve become Head of Technology for the 6 digital adult national screening programmes, raised 2 kittens into young adults, built and run a new art piece, and got engaged. But that’s all very productive and too much to write about. Let’s do some recent mundane consumption bits.
Throughout my 30s I have increasingly got a sore back. A couple of weeks ago it hit my sciatic nerve and I spent the next 3 days trying to find comfortable ways to lie in bed.
It’s a New Year and I have plans of writing yearnotes, and liked the idea of making plans for the quarter, but then I remember I still can’t write weekly notes and its already the 12th of January, so I should accept who I am, get out of my own way and write a note already. I’ll just go backwards in time until we have enough content.
Sometimes my brain gets so overloaded that simple decisions become too overwhelming and I start crying over what to pack for a weekend away. When this happens I have learnt that it’s helpful to empty my brain into post-it notes. This isn’t a productivity system. I have no rules. There’s no set size of each one. One might be “put on socks” and another might be “write a novel”. I just need to get…
In 2017, I was asked by the Co-op to rethink their membership program. How could we reimagine co-operative membership for the internet age, reignite the radical roots of the movement, and transform how communities organise themselves? Here’s what I proposed.
3 weeks ago I was busy building a workshop with my dad. It inevitably took more time and brainspace than anticipated. It is still not finished. But I had to stop as I had run out of dad time, I needed to get back to my life, and I needed a break. Of course I made a timelapse. Here it is:
After last week’s introverted cerebrality, this week was social and busy. I’ve dashed from having lunches and drinks to catch up with people, to collecting second hand windows from gumtree and leftover building materials from friends for the workshop I’m building in my garden next week, to a wedding and a birthday drink.
I’ve been in my brain a lot recently. This is by design: I’ve got things I want to learn and think about, and it’s been rewarding and fun. But the impact on my mental and physical health has been stark. I go to bed with a full head, and wake up with an immediate desire to scroll on my phone until something makes me get out of bed. Self-care has felt hard.