Michelle Barker is a front-end developer and writer behind CSS { In Real Life }, a blog dedicated to modern CSS and real-world web development. She shares honest, practical insights on evolving CSS features, front-end techniques, and the web community.
227 articles from this blog
A technical deep dive into the CSS overflow property, covering its behavior, practical uses, and common layout pitfalls.
A critique of excessive JavaScript use in web development, advocating for simpler, standards-based approaches like HTML-first and web components.
A web developer discusses the value of personal perspective in tech talks and blog posts, encouraging others to share their unique stories.
A CSS tip for preventing the scroll bounce effect on webpages using the overscroll-behavior property.
A tech sustainability article arguing for extending device lifespans to combat e-waste, discussing right-to-repair and environmental impact.
A list of blog post ideas and prompts for developers and tech writers, especially during challenges like National Blog Posting Month.
Explores how to choose an environmentally sustainable web hosting provider, covering renewable energy, water usage, and energy efficiency.
A technical demo and explanation of creating a parallax scrolling effect using CSS Scroll Timelines and the animation-timeline property.
A series of articles that teach CSS layout by converting real-world Dribbble designs into code, focusing on responsive, accessible, and practical techniques.
A quick demo of a fun CSS text effect using background-clip: text and text-stroke, with notes on browser compatibility.
A technical tutorial on creating realistic animated raindrop effects using CSS gradients, masks, and pseudo-elements.
A personal reflection on the role of a UX Engineer, bridging design and front-end development, and its value in the tech industry.
A developer explains how using flow diagrams in Miro helps plan and refactor complex state management in a Vue.js application for a wind turbine data visualization tool.
A tutorial on creating flower shapes in CSS using layered radial gradients and trigonometric functions like sin() and cos() for precise positioning.
Tips for managing complex state in Vue.js applications by organizing Vuex stores into modular, namespaced files.
The author explores programming as a craft, drawing parallels with weaving, knitting, and lighting design to argue it's an accessible, creative skill.
An opinion piece arguing against using AI-generated images, highlighting ethical concerns and the negative impact on professional illustrators' livelihoods.
Native CSS Nesting is now supported in all major browsers, offering a cleaner way to write CSS without preprocessors like Sass.
Explains JavaScript's NaN (Not a Number), the behavior of isNaN() vs Number.isNaN(), and how to correctly filter numeric data.
Explains how to correctly handle null, undefined, and zero values in JavaScript, covering falsy checks and the nullish coalescing operator.
