Author
Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a designer and developer in the Kansas City area. He’s into cats, music, psychology, writing, and cats. He writes about classic movies, Dungeons & Dragons, and mental health, and co-hosts a podcast about movies and mental health.
Also from this author
Quantifying the success of creative work may not be easy for designers and developers, but for many clients, it's a necessity. Through tools like A/B testing and conversion rates, formerly nebulous qualities like user satisfaction can take on clear measures of success. Developer Brandon Gregory provides an overview of these and other tools, and discusses the benefits of designing for conversions, which allows products to reach their targets and serve the right people.
Accessible design is often reduced to adding alt text and avoiding colors imperceptible by colorblindness. While physical differences are an important component of accessible design, cognitive differences are often ignored entirely. Brandon Gregory considers three common types—inattention, anxiety, and depression—and how they impact their users, patterns that trigger those conditions, and how designers can be more conscientious when design for them.
Coding with clarity sets great developers apart from the rest. Brandon Gregory shares some principles for organizing objects and functions in JavaScript that will improve clarity, making your code easier to read, understand, and extend.
Variable scope in JavaScript has always had its problems. ECMAScript 6 has some features to help developers deal with this and give them more control over their variables. Brandon Gregory gives the low-down on these features and when to use them.
Ready to write a professional article? Make sure your submission is the best it can be! ALA editor Brandon Gregory gives some advice on common pitfalls the editorial team sees in article submissions, including advice for picking your topic, writing intros, and adding authority to your ideas.
In the midst of a seemingly endless stream of harassment and discrimination exposés throughout the tech industry, A List Apart thinks we should also be talking about mental health. In this article, we feature the stories of five web professionals who were willing to share their struggles in the workplace.
Always writing the clearest possible code is what helps separate the great developers from the merely good. It cuts confusion, reduces headaches for current and future developers, and saves everybody time in the long run. And though not always as easy as it sounds, with good forward planning, a logical approach to code structure, and adherence to a few guiding principles, coding with greater clarity is something all developers can achieve.
Your knowledge and experience is valuable, no matter where you are in your career; you should share that knowledge with others. The web is what it is today because we shared our code and learned from each other. Be a part of that legacy. Brandon Gregory will show you the way.
Hiring for technical roles can be unnerving. Does your interview plan cover the vital questions? Have you clearly defined the role? Will you recognize the right candidate? Brandon Gregory shares experiences and tips to help you make the right hiring decision.
Any of us can be that irrational colleague who makes for an interesting day at work. All it takes is low confidence and high anxiety—and that comes with the territory. Brandon Gregory shows us how we can bolster and validate our coworkers and strengthen our own emotional resilience so we can avoid unnecessary drama and produce happier relationships.
Technical leadership starts with technical expertise, but also requires a passion for training, an ability to plan out team success, a clear head and constant readiness to help. Brandon Gregory spells out some of the soft skills a tech lead needs in order to show true leadership.
Workplace drama, coworker and client irrationality: these seem like forces of nature that we have no way to prevent or control. Brandon Gregory shows us the emotional calculus at the heart of the tempest. Try this formula on any behavior that makes no sense, and it will help you understand what’s going on and what you can do to help.
