Cascading Style Systems

A workshop on resilient & maintainable CSS

November 29th 9am–5pm, UTS Sydney

New CSS features are shipping at an unprecedented rate – cascade layers, container queries, the :has() selector, subgrid, nesting, and so much more. It’s an exciting time, but the list can also feel overwhelming. Do I really need grids if I already know flexbox? What problem do layers actually solve? Should I rewrite my styles with each feature release, or stick with the tools that I know?

If you ever feel lost in the CSS weeds, wrestling with the cascade, or you just want to improve your workflow with modern, efficient, and maintainable stylesheets, then this workshop is for you! We’ll approach the language as a cohesive system, learn new features along the way, and then put it all in practice with a resilient approach to CSS architecture.

Join Miriam for a deep dive into what makes the language work, and how we can harness its power to develop resilient and delightful experiences that hold up across browsers, languages, and device interfaces.

What Will Attendees Learn In This Workshop?

• Building maintainable CSS systems with progressive enhancement
• The entire cascade, why it exists, and what all is involved (much more than specificity!)
• Managing style conflicts with cascade layers, scope, and nesting
• Modern selectors like :is(), :where(), and :has()
• Value resolution and validation, beyond cascading and inheritance
• Using custom properties to build adaptive systems
• The advantages of logical vs physical dimensions
• The layout flow with intrinsic and extrinsic sizing
• Size comparison functions like min(), max(), and clamp()
• When to use flexbox vs grid for layout and alignment
• Fast and dynamic layouts using subgrid and container queries

Who Is This For?

This workshop is intended for designers & developers with at least a basic understanding in HTML and CSS. You don’t need to be an expert to keep up, but even the experts are likely to learn something new.