Someone posted a daily logic puzzle in the "What are you working on?" thread yesterday, titled Clues by Sam: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43821457

I enjoyed it! Not too difficult but still required some thinking.

not quite the same, but there's this Trader Joe's price tracker: https://traderjoesprices.com/

I don't understand why all these comments are against web dev. Creating an html file is quick, easy, and most importantly for kids, you instantly get visual results! You don't even need to open ugly terminal consoles, you could just use something like JS Bin (https://jsbin.com/) or JSFiddle or CodePen.

I used to volunteer with CoderDojo, a non-profit that hosted intro to coding workshops for kids of all ages (including 7-year-olds). Maybe you can find something like that local to you? I don't know if the organization still exists, but this is one of the lesson plans we used, which I think still holds up today (except the last part, you don't need jQuery anymore lol):

https://github.com/CoderDojoSV/beginner-web

I also came up with my own workshop as a follow-up, specifically about creating fun shapes with css:

https://github.com/heidid/css-art-workshop

I remember the kids also enjoyed trying out Inspect Element on existing webpages – I joked that you could pretend to change your grades to A+'s (temporarily of course), though hopefully grades are not of concern to a 7-year-old yet :)

I wish I had a proper write-up of this project, but I tried to make something like this in college once. I wanted to make a thing where you could type a word and then letters would move to spell that word. I didn't accomplish that fully, but managed to just get the "moving" functionality sort of working. Let's see what I remember about it...

For the board: I just used a large magnetic whiteboard in a classroom.

For the pieces: I made alphabet letters, kinda like scrabble tiles but ~3x3 inches each, with magnets so that they could stick to the whiteboard.

For moving the pieces: I followed various online tutorials (I forgot which) to make an XY plotter, kinda like this:

https://www.instructables.com/XY-Plotter-Drawing-Robot-Ardui...

I used two stepper motors that were somehow attached to the whiteboard using suction cups.

However, instead of moving around a pen that would draw stuff, my XY plotter moved around an electromagnet. This was all controlled by an Arduino and keyboard. So the user could move the electromagnet, turn on the electromagnet to pick up a letter tile, move the letter, and turn off the electromagnet to disengage.

Of course, none of this worked perfectly, but I still learned a ton, and maybe gives you some inspiration!

Thank you, TIL!

I will admit I was briefly even more confused reading that the "west coast" model includes New Jersey (an east coast state) and the "east coast" model includes Stanford (a west coast university)... but whatever lol.

genuine question because I've never heard this phrase, and search engines did not yield useful results: what do you mean by "east coast school of thought"? and then is there a corresponding "west coast school of thought"?

More details: https://youtu.be/nfM4cjDoo6o

I recommend The Manga Guide to Linear Algebra! I read it the summer before college and their visuals and analogies really helped me grasp basic concepts.

I just learned about this organization, Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online (SUCHO): https://www.sucho.org/

They seem to be using various tools, like Browsertrix: https://github.com/webrecorder/browsertrix-crawler

It sounds promising for interactive sites:

> Support for custom browser behaviors, using Browsertix Behaviors including autoscroll, video autoplay and site-specific behaviors

Browsertrix links to https://replayweb.page/ for a way to view an archived site.

Quill is JS-based and customizable: https://quilljs.com/

I think it helps to read content that's written by people in similar situations, to learn from other recent grads' experiences! For example:

https://medium.com/@maitrishahhhh/adapting-and-excelling-at-...

This thread (started yesterday) has many suggestions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27338008

Not a talk, but Ellen Lupton's book, Thinking with Type, is really good: http://thinkingwithtype.com/

Are you trying to learn to use Figma specifically? I think you can just pick it up and start using it pretty easily. Good design principles are ultimately tool-agnostic though.

- The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman is the classic for learning design.

- Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug is another classic, and very digestible.

- Refactoring UI is a good book for those coming from a developer perspective: https://refactoringui.com/book/

- Mismatch by Kat Holmes talks about the importance of inclusive design for both usability and innovation.

- Not a book, but Apple's Human Interface Guidelines are excellent: https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline...

- Similarly, just try reading the design principles of companies with good design, like Shopify: https://polaris.shopify.com/experiences/crafting-admin

- If you're interested in building a design system, I would start with InVision's Design Systems Handbook: https://www.designbetter.co/design-systems-handbook

Ultimately, good design is informed by research - what is the problem you're trying to solve? What is the user's goal and how can you make that easy for them to achieve? What are you trying to communicate? Start with interviewing 5+ potential users, distilling that data into actionable opportunities, and sketching wireframes on paper before jumping into Figma.