Joshua Johnson
Equal parts editor, writer, designer, & photographer. Hit me up on Twitter, read my Mac tutorials or check out my photos.

Emmet, formerly Zen Coding, is one of the most downright practical and productive text editor plugins that you will ever see. With its ability to instantly expand simple abbreviations into complex code snippets, Emmet makes you feel like a powerful coding wizard with the world at your fingertips.
As a follow up to our previous article on the basics of Zen Coding, today we’re going to dive into seven awesome tips to help you become a true Emmet pro.
December 17th, 2012 Posted in CSS

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.
Today’s site is HealthyHearing, a source for hearing health and hearing aid information. Let’s jump in and see what we think!
December 14th, 2012 Posted in Critique

As a designer or developer, paperwork is probably a necessary evil, not something that you particularly enjoy. Tasks like creating and managing client quotes and sending invoices can be annoying or even intimidating.
Fortunately, QuoteRobot is here to streamline the process for you. We took a look at this great app when it first launched, but now it’s been completely overhauled for version two, so it’s high time we had another peek!
December 13th, 2012 Posted in Business

Smashing Magazine, one of the most significant forces on the web for all things design and development related, is hitting us with another tome of practical and insightful industry knowledge. The Mobile Book is the latest product of Smashing’s foray into publishing, and it just might be the best one yet.
Read on to see what The Mobile Book is, who it’s for, and why there should be a copy sitting on your shelf as soon as possible.
December 12th, 2012 Posted in Reviews

Recently, we took a close look at Easel, a web-based site builder that leverages Twitter Bootstrap. Today we’re following that up with a tour of a very similar tool: Divshot.
With Divshot, you can quickly and easily build clean, responsive web page layouts using a combination of visual tools and hand coding. It’s a really slick tool and I think you’re going to enjoy using it.
December 11th, 2012 Posted in CSS
In recent years, web typography has gone from an embarrassment to a point of pride. From CSS to JavaScript, we’re gaining great tools almost daily that help us implement awesome type.
Today we’re going to look at the best jQuery plugins around that are specially built to make web type more awesome. Download a few and take your type further.
December 10th, 2012 Posted in JavaScript

This tutorial is yet another fun CSS project that helps you build something that you may have thought was only possible with JavaScript. We’re going to create a modal window that can be shown and hidden with a click that’s powered by a CSS checkbox.
To sweeten the deal, we’re also going to use a media query to ensure that the modal screen adapts well to smaller screen sizes. Let’s jump in and see how it all works!
December 5th, 2012 Posted in CSS

Recently, author Luke Stevens published an awesome article on Design Shack titled, “HTML5: Hype, Substance and Scrutiny“, which took a fascinating look at what HTML5 really is and isn’t and even strayed from the typical rhetoric by offering up some serious critiques.
Today we’re following that up with a giveaway of Luke’s amazing book, “The Truth About HTML5.” Read on to learn more about the book and see how you can win!
December 3rd, 2012 Posted in Competitions

Tooltips are awesome, there’s simply no denying it. They provide a simple, predictable and straightforward way to provide your users with useful, context-sensitive information, and they look cool to boot.
We all agree on how great tooltips are, but how we go about implementing them can differ dramatically. If you’re at square one, looking for some tooltip ideas for your current project, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got a whopping twenty-five different options that fall into two categories: JavaScript and CSS. No matter which method you’re looking to use, we’ve got the best techniques available.
December 3rd, 2012 Posted in JavaScript

Every week we take a look at a new website and analyze the design. We’ll point out both the areas that are done well in addition to those that could use some work. Finally, we’ll finish by asking you to provide your own feedback.
Today’s site is Surfcamp Portugal, a site from Rapture Camps. Let’s jump in and see what we think!
November 30th, 2012 Posted in Critique