Patrick Fulton

Comparing Visual Regression Testing Tools

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 04:08:14 +0000

In my opinion, visual regression testing is an invaluable part of any design system or component library. But, how do you choose the right tool for your project? I took a look at some popular open source and SaaS tools and wrote about my findings over at the Sparkbox Foundry.

Version Management for Design Systems

Wed, 26 Aug 2020 04:08:14 +0000

How does your design system team notify subscribers that new features are being released, bugs are being fixed, or security holes are being patched? I wrote about all of this and more over at the Sparkbox Foundry.

Visual Regression Testing in Design Systems

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 04:08:00 +0000

I wrote down some thoughts about visual regression testing, and why I think it’s an important part of a design system’s testing suite.

Better Pull Requests & Merge Requests With Templates

Mon, 23 Sep 2019 04:08:00 +0000

I wrote up some thoughts about a newer GitHub and Gitlab feature that my team has benefitted from.

Building Design Systems in React with Storybook

Mon, 03 Jul 2017 04:08:00 +0000

I recently used Storybook to build out a component library for a client, and shared some of my findings.

On Web Education

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This month’s #startYourShift topic is “Web Education”.

During my junior year in college, in October 2001, I was hired as a sales associate at a mini Staples located in the Pittsburgh International Airport. Yes, at one point, there was a Staples inside the Pittsburgh International Airport. The airport was a very quiet place in October 2001. People were avoiding flying, and the major airlines had gone through rounds of layoffs as a response. Additionally, nearly all of the airport’s stores were inaccessible to the general public. If you weren’t flying or if you weren’t an airport employee, you weren’t reaching our store. So, I had a lot of time on my hands during shifts.

During those shifts at work, and when I wasn’t in class, I was pouring over two resources: Designing with Web Standards and later, in 2003, CSS Zen Garden. (Business didn’t pick up much during my time at the airport)

I would literally PRINT out the source code from CSS Zen Garden designs and try to match the markup with the CSS, and then I’d try to reverse engineer the designs and rebuild them on my own in an old, pirated copy of Dreamweaver. But: I was learning by doing. None of my friends or family were doing the things I was doing, so I had to teach myself, and seek out my own answers.

Learning in this way made me want to understand every part of the things I was building. I wanted to know the whys and the hows behind the markup and CSS that I was putting on the page. Learning in this way also taught me about patience and persistence: I could spend hours or days not fully understanding something, only to have things click suddenly, and then cause me to want to go over it again to understand the whys and the hows.

As the years have gone by, our tools have become much better. For me, browser developer tools are a Godsend (far better than printing out HTML and CSS, no?). Our resources have become much better (and maybe a little overwhelming), too. But, for the self-learner, there has probably been no better time than now to start learning about building for the Web.

To those self-learners, I urge the following: be PATIENT. Become comfortable with the feeling of not knowing everything. But, always be curious, and strive for continual improvement. When you figure things out: see if others need help! That’s what this community really is all about. Also: go to meetups, read blog posts and forums, read other folks’ code, get lost in web design inspiration galleries, follow inspiring people on Twitter. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take a breath and go back to the basics.

You’ll be amazed at what you can learn.

Cognitive Biases

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Last week, at ConvergeSE 2016, my friend Ben Callahan gave a talk about cognitive biases.

Coincidentally, on Monday of this week, Lifehacker posted a graphic of 10 cognitive biases that shape our thinking, which was really interesting to me. Since I heard Ben’s talk, I’ve been thinking deeply about several of the biases that this graphic points out.

My never-ending quest for deeper self-awareness and understanding continues!

A List of Browser Tabs I Currently Have Open (Week of 4/17-4/23)

Sat, 23 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My workflow for creating reading lists is kind of weird, but it works for me. Basically, it goes like this: throughout the week, I click-through to plenty of articles, blog posts, videos, etc. that even mildly interest me. Usually, this stuff comes from Twitter, but sometimes it comes from the small list of “blogs” and news sites that I keep up with (Smashing Magazine, Lifehacker, whatever sites I’ve clicked through to from Google News).

I’ll click through, let that piece hang out in its own browser tab, and then go back to whatever I was working on or doing or setting out to do.

Then, usually on Saturday or Sunday, I go back through the tabs that I have open and read over the things I’ve amassed for myself.

Again, it’s not perfect, but it works for me.

Here’s what I’ve collected for myself this week:

From Zero to 45 Days in a Row: How I Built a Habit of Daily Exercise
Why Self Care Is So Important
Input Add-ons - I go back to Solved By Flexbox from time-to-time because it’s a great resource for solving problems that are otherwise a pain to solve with older CSS approaches.
Frend - A collection of accessible, modern front-end components. I caught this a few weeks ago, but I’m still loving it.
Practical ARIA Examples
Clarity Conf - Baking Accessibility In
Starter Kit - Alex Carpenter’s Gulp-based starter kit. I love looking at other people’s code and approaches to things.
There Goes the Neighborhood - This is a podcast that I want to start listening to.
Introducing React Storybook - This is several weeks old, but I keep meaning to read this Medium post.
Getting Started with CSS Modules
The Easy Way to Learn Hard Stuff - I also love seeing how other people approach learning.
Flexbox Patterns - more practical flexbox usage stuff.
React to the Future - Elijah Manor’s slides from a talk he recently gave.
When It Comes to Age Bias, Tech Companies Don’t Even Bother to Lie - Been thinking a lot about age and the tech industry.

Real Challenges

Sat, 09 Apr 2016 18:49:14 +0000

“If you’re going to face a real challenge, it has to be a real challenge. You can’t accomplish anything without the possibility of failure.”

Gary “Lazarus Lake” Cantrell

Last night, I watched the awesome documentary, The Barkley Marathons. If you’re into running or endurance sports, I highly recommend it. After watching it, it’s hard to not be inspired and excited.