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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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
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2023 in Review.
A quick look back over the last year.
Dec 31, 2023
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Goodbye Izzy.
In which I remember our good girl.
Dec 16, 2023
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Making a Hatbox Ghost Costume.
When the costume doesn't exist, it's time to DIY.
Dec 5, 2023
Sweet Links
Helpful tools, techniques, & things made by others
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iOS Icon Gallery.
Great collection of lovely iOS icons for inspiration
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The 9 Rules of Design Research.
Great insights on design research from Erika Hall
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Readability Analyzer.
A handy tool for analyzing how readable a specific passage is
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Bookmarklets for testing your website.
Just what it says in the title. Very useful
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CSS :has() Interactive Guide.
An extensive guide to CSS :has() selector.
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Eloquent JavaScript.
A book about JavaScript, programming, and the wonders of the digital
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How to Favicon in 2024.
Instead of serving dozens of icons, all you need is just five icons and one JSON file.
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About Ideas Now.
An index of the about, ideas, and now pages of thousands of personal sites
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22 Panels That Always Work.
Wally Wood’s legendary productivity hack for comic artists
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Pure PWA.
Ultra-lean, Web Components enhanced, no-build, no-dependencies boilerplate for PWAs
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Enhance.
The HTML first full stack web framework
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SVG sprites: old-school, modern, unknown, and forgotten.
A look at various techniques for using SVG sprites and best practices
Recent diversions
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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.
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5 stars. Sheer perfection. Improved on everything that made the game amazing, and was a fantastic show on its own.
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4 stars. We missed this when it originally came out over a year ago, but what a delightful way to celebrate the holidays!
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5 stars. Great music, amazing cast, beautiful sets, wonderful cinematography, and a fun homage to musicals of the 60s and 70s.
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5 stars. A great follow-up to The Final Empire. Loved how it explored building things back up rather than tearing them down.
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3 stars. Interesting sci-fi concepts combined with a weirdly "utopian" future Disney World. Fun at parts, but also depressing.
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5 stars. I loved the book, and this really captured the essence of it. Can't wait to see more in this world!
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5 stars. Come for Sanderson's unique take on magic systems in a fantasy world, stay for the great characters and world building.