Tag: apps

Recommended

A nice example of a single-page Web app

This is as good as it gets: NPR’s annual roundup of the best books of the past year is an ideal one-page app.

NPR’s Book Concierge

npr_books_mobile

Above: Mobile screens. Below: Desktop, with one book selected (third from left). Fully responsive design, using Bootstrap.

npr_books_desktop.jpgnpr_books_desktop_modal

Above: Click any book and get this modal overlay, which you can also use to simply browse all titles. In a single-page app, you never leave the original Web page.

They have merged all their JavaScript into one minified file. Separately, they have merged all their CSS into another single minified file (plus two separate font-handling files).

At the bottom of the HTML source, you can see the entire dataset for all the books in the form of a minified JSON object.

The HTML is super-clean and readable. If you have used Bootstrap, you can understand it completely.

General Info

Code for journalism students

There’s a movement afoot that says everyone should learn to code. Programming should be taught in the elementary schools and high schools as a regular required subject. Why do people think this? Because learning to code is a process that makes you a better problem-solver in all kinds of situations.

Learning to code does not mean you want to become a computer programmer. I know you signed up for a major in the College of Journalism and Communications because you were good at writing, or maybe good at visual storytelling, and probably you did not like your math classes. Guess what? Neither did I.

Check out the About page and the Course Schedule and see whether you think you’re up to the challenge. Learn to code.