My journal — Ethan Marcotte’s website

Today’s Labor Day in the United States, and I want to mention some tech unions who could use our support.

The last twenty-four hours have been a little…well, eventful.

Today’s the day: You Deserve a Tech Union, my brand new book, starts shipping today.

Hi, it’s me, the one with a new book coming out.

You might have heard I’ve got a new book coming out called You Deserve a Tech Union.

I met a local design hero last night.

Blurbs are starting to come in this week for You Deserve a Tech Union, and let me tell you: that’s been kinda overwhelming.

I realize things have been a little quiet here lately.

Oh, what news: We’re excited to announce that we’ve expanded book distribution globally — which means it’ll be even easier for you to buy A Book Apart books around the world, wherever you’re based.

My biggest adjustment with using Copilot was that instead of writing code, my posture shifted to reviewing code.

Over the last few years, I’ve become increasingly uneasy about the role of “adoption” as a metric for a design system’s success.

You tend to get stuck when you’re writing.

Spend enough time doing design systems work, and you’ll likely come across this one little phrase: “the source of truth.”

Here’s an interesting question Thomas Semmler asked on Twitter: Hey #CSS & #HTML people - I’m writing something and it turns out that I couldn’t find the term “breakpoint” in @beep’s original article, or the book.

We’d known for weeks 1 it was coming, but when it finally did come, the news still broke me.

Still getting back into the rhythm of working on this little site, and into posting on this little site.

Hey, you.

I’m packing an overnight bag.

I’ve noticed a recent trend on the web — or at least, on the parts of it I’ve visited.

I went for a run on Friday.

Hello.

I’m the kind of person who gets overwhelmed, it’s true.

The folks at A Book Apart (ABA) just published a short interview with me, as my little yellow book just turned ten years old!

As it happens, the original “Responsive Web Design” article turned eleven this week.

The Basecamp story’s been a difficult one for me to follow.

I’ve launched four new courses on design systems, and they’re available for free at Aquent Gymnasium.

In much of the design systems work I’ve done, I’ve frequently encountered a subtle, gently persistent impulse to frame most issues as technical in nature: that once this thing is implemented, some other, deeper issue in the design system will be fixed.

Google announced last year that as of May 2021, stories will no longer have to be published in the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) format to appear in Google’s Top News carousel.

I’ve been writing online for nigh on two decades, and I’ve been tagged in my first blogging chain!

Well.

A couple weeks ago, a friend asked if I’d be willing to share some favorite articles about design systems.

Yesterday was a long day, but a very good one.

From colleagues, friends, and folks I follow on Twitter, I’ve been hearing a question pop up with some frequency.

Jeff Eaton and Karen McGrane are two good, dear friends: they’re smart, they’re hilarious, and they’re incredibly generous teachers.

Inspired by Jonnie Hallman, Simon and Robin both added “Reply via email” links to their RSS feeds.

She asked last night, “Are you looking forward to your birthday?”

A few months back, I wrote about how early advocacy promised that design systems would improve the consistency of our products, and how that promise never really materialized.

A small work announcement: over the last month or so, I’ve been working with Aquent Gymnasium to produce a series of five short tutorial videos, which have been launching over the course of this past week.

I’ve been thinking a bit recently about an article by Cap Watkins I’d read some time ago, in which he talks about the “decision tree” his team used to interact with their design system.

I’ve written a bit about power before.

Just a brief post to note that after this entry, I’m pausing my email newsletter for a bit.

When I first wrote the responsive design article, it didn’t feel like I was doing anything especially revolutionary.

Hey, here’s a thing that’s fun to say: Happy tenth birthday, responsive web design!

A few months back, Justin Avery invited me to do an interview for his Responsive Web Design (RWD) Newsletter.

I’ve read two pieces recently that I’d recommend to you.

Thought I’d share a little layout technique I’m using in this latest version of my site.

Halfway through a morning run yesterday, I realized I’d neglected to add something to my website.

I restarted my design practice back in January.

The early discussion around design systems often focused on them as a solution to a problem of inconsistency: that due to a lack of documentation, standards, and governance, a product’s interfaces were often built and designed in inconsistent, confusing w…

Among the many (many, many) points Ursula Franklin makes in The Real World of Technology, she suggests that technology is best understood not as software or gadgets, but as a practice: as a way of doing something.