Hello, I’m Ste Grainer.
I’m a designer and developer from Richmond, VA. I design, code, and write with a focus on clarity, usefulness, and delight.
Work
Here are a few of my favorite projects
Writing
About design, development, and other whims
On UXcellence …
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Jul 27, 2019
Make Time to Play: How Breaks, Hobbies, and Boredom Can Improve Creativity
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Jun 27, 2019
Automation for Designers: Starting with Email, Photoshop, and Sketch
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Jun 12, 2019
How to Build a Handy Portfolio Filter
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May 29, 2019
Automation for Designers: An Introduction
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May 22, 2019
Nice Touch: Sharing Podcast Clips in Overcast
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Mar 11, 2019
Organizing Design Work for Your Team (and Your Future Self)
& on my journal
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Inspiring XOXO Videos.
Even if you missed XOXO, the videos are amazing.
Oct 22, 2024
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The Firsts and the Lasts.
On the precarious, bittersweet nature of fleeting moments..
Aug 31, 2024
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A Banner Moment.
For a brief instant, something I created appeared in an Apple keynote.
Jul 3, 2024
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The Wax and the Wane of the Web.
I wrote a little something about the web on A List Apart..
Feb 29, 2024
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A Whole New Vision.
On how the Vision Pro could let us see the world through others’ eyes.
Feb 10, 2024
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2024 Theme: Rekindle.
Or how to go from burnout to burning again.
Jan 5, 2024
Sweet Links
Helpful tools, techniques, & things made by others
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Hacking with Swift.
Tons of tutorials to learn app development with UIKit and SwiftUI
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Learn to Build Components That Work Anywhere.
A free roadmap for learning web components
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Custom Top and Bottom CSS Container Masks.
The handy CSS technique to use custom SVG shapes for containers
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SVG Shape Dividers.
A variety of SVG angles, curves and waves to make transitions between page sections less blocky
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Robust Client-Side JavaScript.
A free online book and ebook on writing better Javascript
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Science Gothic.
A lovely, blocky variable font in the style of Bank Gothic with several different variables to adjust
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Web Performance Guide.
Great intro to web performance metrics, techniques, and tools
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Awesome Standalones.
A curated list from Dave Rupert of awesome framework-agnostic standalone web components
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Archives.design.
A digital archive of graphic design related items available on the Internet Archive
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The Magic of Clip Path.
A great deep dive into clip-path and some of the cool things you can do with it
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Emoji Picker Element.
A lightweight emoji picker web component for the modern web
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Public Works.
A visual search engine for public domain content
Recent diversions
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5 stars. A fascinating sci-fi epic on evolution and interspecies interactions, with amazing world building.
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5 stars. A great sequel to the first half of the story, beautifully executed.
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5 stars. Season 4 explores the complexities of nations, corporations, and gathering resources in space.
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5 stars. Season 3 ramps up the tension as humanity expands beyond the moon to Mars.
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5 stars. Season 2 continues to explore an alternate history space race as humanity establishes moon bases.
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5 stars. A tense, fascinating alternate history of the space race told as if Russia reached the moon first.
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4 stars. Really enjoyed Maya in the Hawkeye series, so I was happy to see more development of her in this series.
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4 stars. This was much better than I expected it to be. Great story, fun music, and a good cast.
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5 stars. A great finale to a very fun trilogy.
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5 stars. I'm a couple years behind everyone, but holy cow was this movie amazing. Lovely, thoughtful, weird. Just the best.
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5 stars. This show is still so much fun, and the music in particular this season was great. Hope they stick the landing.
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4 stars. I adore these mini-documentaries focused on individual Disney park attractions, and I'm glad they're making more.