Kilian Valkhof
Founder at Polypane browser for developers
Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
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Kilian is a front-end developer with over 20 years of experience that switched from building websites to building apps to build websites with. He is interested in modern web development, desktop app development and new technologies, and regularly speaks about topics like responsive websites, accessibility, design systems and Electron. Kilian is a frequent open source contributor.
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The art of interrupting: notifications, toasts, dialogs, and when not to use them
Toasts, popups, confirmation dialogs, and live regions are part of every app and most websites. But toasts disappear too fast, dialogs steal focus at the wrong moment, and live regions might be talking your users' ears off. So how do you decide which interruption is the right one?
This talk is a practical decision framework for every kind of user notification: when to use which pattern, how to design them in a way that fits their purpose, and how to make sure they work for sighted, keyboard, and screen reader users alike. You'll walk away with a clear mental model for every notification pattern, including when it's best to say nothing.
Programming principles for web developers
Web development has evolved from building pages with HTML to building complex applications using the web platform, yet many developers miss out on powerful programming principles that can help improve their code quality, productivity and effectiveness.
This talk goes over time-tested rules of thumb like the rule of three, the single responsibility principle and other pragmatic guidelines that aren't taught in web contexts but offer immediate benefits. We'll go over how they can be applied to typical front-end work like UI component design, state management and data handling.
As someone who had to find and learn these maxims in the wild to discover how useful they are, this is the talk I wish I had when I just started out: pragmatic, useful and directly applicable to the work front-end devs do.
Understanding CSS Layout: the concepts underlying your (least) favorite language.
Have you ever felt perplexed by CSS, struggling to understand why the browser put the element where it did, and why it didn’t just follow the clear instructions you wrote? Do you think CSS is hard to work with?
By getting a better understanding of the concepts that underlie the language, you’ll learn to “see the matrix”. There’s normal flow, stacking context, offset parents… how do they interact with grid and flex layouts? This talk unveils those concepts in a fun and engaging way.
Stop using JavaScript for that: moving features from JS to CSS and HTML
Common patterns implemented with JavaScript are being replaced with "native" CSS and HTML equivalents that end up being more performant, more accessible and more resilient. Features like accordions, Autosuggest, smooth scrolling, dialogs, parallax scrolling and more no longer need JavaScript to work. We'll walk through common JS features that now have CSS and HTML equivalents that you can use, or will soon be able to use.
INTL: The best browser API you're not using
Browsers are shipping a massive API: INTL, which is chock-full of features most developer still do an NPM install for. The INTL API will save you time, effort and frustration.
Learn about all the wonderful built-in ways to deal with date formatting, lists, currencies, items and sentences in any language you can throw at the browser, without shipping literal megabytes of packages to your user.
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DeveloperWeek Europe 2023 Sessionize Event
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UX Y'all 2021 Sessionize Event
Kilian Valkhof
Founder at Polypane browser for developers
Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
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