Thursday Tips and Tools

Thursday Tips & Tools: 25 Free Tools to Test Your Website

Regularly testing your ecommerce website’s performance will ensure it’s running at an optimal level. There are plenty of free resources available to help. Here is a list of free tools to test your website. There are tools to measure download speed, monitor user experience, test accessibility, locate broken links, evaluate search engine and browser compatibility, and check mobile friendliness. All of these tools have free plans, and most offer premium options.

Mobile Monday

Mobile Monday: Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?

Classic mobile-first CSS development is based on the principle of overwriting style declarations: you begin your CSS with default style declarations, and overwrite and/or add new styles as you add breakpoints with min-width media queries for larger viewports (for a good overview see “What is Mobile First CSS and Why Does It Rock?”). But all those exceptions create complexity and inefficiency, which in turn can lead to an increased testing effort and a code base that’s harder to maintain. Admit it—how many of us willingly want that?

Design & Dev Tuesday

Design & Dev Tuesday: Loading Third-Party JavaScript

Third-party scripts provide a wide range of useful functionality, making the web more dynamic, interactive, and interconnected. These scripts may be crucial to your website’s functionality or revenue stream. But third-party scripts also come with many risks that should be taken into consideration to minimize their impact while still providing value. Why do you need to be careful about third-party scripts?