Web Directions hover 2021

Global, OnlineApril 23 & 30, 2021

The conference CSS deserves

Hover '21 is now over

But that doesn't mean you can't benefit from this and other of our events. The videos will soon be available on Conffab, our platform for conference presentations. Sign up and you'll get access to them as soon as they arrive.

And why not check out all the front end focussed events we have planned for 2021, covering performance, JavaScript, web platform APIs, Accessibility, security, and more, from the perspective of front end development.

Don't want to miss the next Hover?

If you don't want to miss the next Hover, let us know below and we'll email you when the next event is announced. Meanwhile why not follow us on Twitter?

About hover

CSS is the often unsung hero of Web development. For nearly quarter of a century it's added color, typography, layout, and more to the web. In that time it's gone from a straightforward language, to a complex set of capabilities, quite a few of which are little understood.

Many web development conferences cover CSS as part of a mix. But few are really dedicated to the langage alone. Hover will be exclusively focused on CSS–the conference CSS deserves.

Who's it for?

If you build front ends, hover is for you.

In depth knowledge

All Web Directions conferences feature in-depth knowledge from real world experts. Some you'll know, many you won't, but all bring a world of experience and knowledge.

speakers and audience
  • 12+ Transformational speakers
  • 8+ Hours of content
  • 2 Deep sessions
  • 1 Extraordinary Conference

Your Convenor

We've invited Hui Jin Chen, CSS Working Group member, and well known author, and speaker on all things front end to help curate and MC Hover. Hui Jing brings her up to date knowledge of CSS to help shape the program.

But we're no CSS slouches either–Web Direction's founder John Allsopp was one of the original CSS Samurai. He developed one of the earliest CSS editors, Style Master, has written countless articles, tutorials, courses and even books on CSS going back almost the entire history of CSS.

huijing-chen

Extraordinary speakers

We're assembling a world–class lineup of experts for you, going in-depth on CSS.

Covering

container queries logical properties aspect-ratio custom properties variable fonts typography grid flexbox display media queries Typed CSS Object Model Houdini CSS-in-JS css variables comparison functions min() max() clamp() accessibility accessibility inset-block-start border-inline-end accessibility and more…

Featuring

Elad Schecter Rachel Andrew Ananya Neogi Miriam Suzanne Ahmad Shadeed Mark Dalgleish Facundo Corradini Matt Colman Anton Ball Rhiana Heath Kilian Valkhof Michal Porag Heydon Pickering

Elad Shechter

Elad Shechter CSS/HTML Architect Independent

The New CSS Logical Properties

Most of us developers used to think in terms of left and right, top and bottom. This is because, in the early days of the internet, it was meant mostly for uploading documents, and not for the complex website structures we know today.

This is the reason that no one considered the needs of multiple language websites.

But now the new logical properties give us a lot more power to control our websites, no matter which type of language we are using, for example, English, Arabic, Japanese, etc.). All this with minimal styles changing.

Read More

Facundo Corradini

Facundo Corradini Front-end Developer Independent

Neurodiversity (and why you hate CSS)

Let's face it: you hate CSS, and it seems to hate you too. But what if this was not caused by the quirks of the language, but the very structure of our brains?

In this talk, I'll dive into how the process of “thinking” works differently among individuals, how the Multiple Intelligences Theory can explain why CSS seems alien to both designers and developers, and what can we do to make it "click" in place

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Miriam Suzanne

Miriam Suzanne Co-founder Oddbird

Container Queries & The Future of CSS

Over the last decade Object-Oriented & Responsive design have become the norm – with tools like Flexbox, Grid, intrinsic sizing, and aspect-ratio giving us even more layout control. CSS has always been designed for a responsive web, but that goalpost can shift over time. Now several new CSS proposals like Container Queries, Cascade Layers, Scoped Styles, and Nesting are all aimed at improving the way we write responsive components and design systems.

Read More

Ananya Neogi

Ananya Neogi Frontend developer Shopify

Typography superpower with variable fonts and CSS

Over the years, there has been a lot of effort in getting typography on the web right. With the advent of variable fonts, we're already witnessing how it improves the experience and even web performance.

We'll explore how adding modern CSS capabilities such as layout grids and custom properties in the mix truly gives us superpowers to create practical dynamic type systems that are accessible, performant and works across various screen dimensions.

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Rachel Andrew

Rachel Andrew

Understanding display

CSS Layout is all about boxes. We know that some boxes are blocks, and others are inline, and we can change the display type of elements by changing the value of the display property. That property holds the key to much more than this, however. It is the foundation on which all layout is built; the core of the inbuilt CSS layout system. Learning Grid Layout, or Flexbox, without understanding Display, leaves you with a wobbly foundation and more questions than answers.

The real question isn’t “Should I use Grid or Flexbox?” but instead, “How do I want these boxes to behave?” Understanding the interaction between layout methods will enable you to easily create fallbacks for older browsers, and be able to make more informed decisions when deciding how to build any part of your design, big or small.

Read More

Mark Dalgleish

Mark Dalgleish Front End Lead SEEK

The State of CSS-in-JS

It’s been six years since Christopher Chedeau’s seminal yet infamous talk on CSS-in-JS. The community has come a long way since then but the experimentation hasn’t stopped. In this talk we’ll look at the current state of CSS-in-JS and examine the trends that are driving the space forwards.

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Ahmad Shadeed

Ahmad Shadeed UX Designer, Front-end Developer Uxable

CSS Comparison Functions

In this talk, Ahmad will dive into the details of CSS comparison functions by explaining how they work, where and why to use them. More importantly, he will explain how you can use them today with a proper fallback for non-supporting browsers.

Read More

Matt Colman

Matt Colman Senior Software Engineer Atlassian

CSS Variables for Real Life

CSS Variables is still a bit of a buzz word. Many of us have googled it, looked at some examples, maybe even done a tutorial, but how many of us have used CSS Variables in production?

I want to show you how and why we used CSS Variables in production in the new deployments view in Jira. More importantly I want to show you how to spot a potential use case for CSS Variables so you're ready for it when it's staring you in the face! Oh, and our use case is not dark mode or theming!

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Rhiana Heath

Rhiana Heath Software Engineer Blake eLearning

Move over TypeScript, here comes TypedCSS!

Have you ever wondered how a browser makes sense of CSS properties and values?

Turns out by parsing strings. Everything is a string: 50%, string. 2px, string. 0.5, string. #FFF, string.

So what happens when the browser can't work out what the string is? Such as "width: 24asd;"

It fails silently, warning us with the generic "invalid property value" message. But what if we could assign types to the values? So the browser knew what it was expecting and what was wrong with the value we entered.

This is where the CSS Typed Object Model comes in. It sits under the umbrella of the CSS Houdini API's and assign types to CSS values. So the browser knows it's expecting a number, colour or keyword. This allows for more control over attributes and for more useful errors.

In this talk I'm going to take you through the CSS Typed OM and examples of how we can start using and benefiting from TypedCSS.

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Anton Ball

Anton Ball Front End Developer Doist

CSS Aspect Ratio

Have you needed to maintain an aspect ratio in a layout? Perhaps 16:9 for a video or a 4:3 photograph. Was it more work than you would have thought? There’s JavaScript solutions or the Padding-Top hack that work, but there are sacrifices to these workarounds.

The frustration of maintaining a consistent width-height ratio is about to be solved with modern browsers supporting the CSS Aspect Ratio property. In this talk we look at what aspect ratio is, how we can use it in our code and the problems it’ll solve.

Read More

Kilian Valkhof

Kilian Valkhof Browser Developer Polypane

Beyond responsive design: new and future media queries

Responsive design turned 10 years old last year. Since then browser capabilities have changed a lot, and they're set to change even more. We'll explore new and upcoming media queries that will let website authors make websites that respond not just to screen sizes, but to many different user preferences and situations. Learn how to implement these in forward compatible ways with practical tips and examples.

Read More

Heydon Pickering

Heydon Pickering Designer, Developer HeydonWorks

A special Webbed Briefs

Heydon Pickering's Webbed Briefs are brief videos about the web, its technologies, and how to make the most of them. They’re packed with information, fun times(TM), and actual goats. Yes, it’s a vlog, but it isn’t on Youtube.

For the very first Hover conference, Heydon is making a very special Webbed Briefs.

Read More

Michal Porag

Michal Porag Frontend Developer Outbrain

How To Draw, With CSS

In this presentation, Michal Porag, frontend developer at Outbrain, looks at amazing, inspirational CSS art and we learn how to look at a non-conditional shapes and recreate them with pure CSS tools.

Read More

Michal Porag

Adam Argyle Developer Advocateer Google

What's New In CSS 2021

From risky and may never be in your browser, to stable and just released yesterday; follow Adam as he strolls through proposals, specs and supporting tools for all the this new CSS hotness.

Read More

Don't want to miss the next Hover?

If you don't want to miss the next Hover, let us know below and we'll email you when the next event is announced. Meanwhile why not follow us on Twitter?

Hover '21 is now over

But that doesn't mean you can't benefit from this and other of our events. The videos will soon be available on Conffab, our platform for conference presentations. Sign up and you'll get access to them as soon as they arrive.

And why not check out all the front end focussed events we have planned for 2021, covering performance, JavaScript, web platform APIs, Accessibility, security, and more, from the perspective of front end development.

Re-imagined as remote-only

In response to the unique challenges of COVID-19 we transformed our conferences into remote only events. But we wanted to go way beyond what most online events delvier.

Building on the extensive work we've done with our conference presentation platform Conffab, our conferences have been re-imagined from the ground up the conference experience, not just ports of traditional conferences to the Web.

With a focus on highly engaging, expertly filmed and edited, screen-oriented presentations, alongside spaces to connect, communicate and keep in touch with everything around the conference, you'll be immersed as if you were there–maybe even more so.

How is hover held?

Most online conferences run just like in-person conferences–one or two jam-packed days, of live streamed presentation. But with so many folks working remotely, and spending so much of their day in front of a screen we felt it was imperative to rethink this, and do something differently.

hover takes place over 2 consecutive Fridays in April 2021. It will run for 3 and a half hours each session (with a bit of downtime built-in). Plus will run it 3 times so wherever you are in the world, you can participate along with your peers, from the comfort of your own home (or maybe office).

Web Directions Conffab

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Our family of world leading front end developer conferences

Web Directions hover 2022

The conference CSS deserves

Online, globallyApril 2022

Learn More

Web Directions lazy load 2022

a conference on front end performance

Online, globallyMay 2022

Learn More

Web Directions global scope 2022

a conference all about JavaScript

Online, globallyJuly 2022

Learn More

Web Directions Code 2023

a conference on progressive web apps and web platform

Online, globallyearly 2023

Learn More

Web Directions aaa 2023

accessibility engineering for front end developers

Online, globallyearly 2023

Learn More

Web Directions Safe 2023

privacy, security, identity for front end developers

Online, globallyearly 2023

Learn More

Web Directions remixed 2023

The best of 2022, remixed, and free!

Online, globally 2023

Learn More

Diversity Scholarships

We have diversity scholarships available for all our events. These provide full attendance just like any other attendee. We don't draw attention to those who have received a scholarship, but do look to make connections between them, and with our diversity sponsors, to help ensure the most valuable possible experience.

Our Scholarships focus on people who are unemployed, under-employed, self employed or in the early stages (up to 3 years) of their careers who identify as belonging to a group or groups under-represented at events like ours, and who might otherwise find it difficult to afford to attend.

Read more and apply at our diversity page.

Partners

We work closely with our partners and their technologies to deliver world leading online conferences.

Contact us for more on how we work can work with you to help you be even more awesome.

Platform.sh logo
Twilio logo
Lookahead Search logo
w3c logo
REA logo

Community Partners

Our venue

hover 2021 will take place across 2 Fridays in April wherever it's most convenient for you.

Getting there:

Get out of bed, make a coffee, wander to your desk, and start right in. Or just watch from the comfort of your bed. If conditions allow watch in your office, or grab a team pass and watch together as a team.

No expensive flights, or long commutes, be part of it wherever you feel like.

Accommodation:

No need for hotel rooms or airbnbs!

Praise for past Web Directions events

Phil Whitehouse
Web Directions is the must-attend event of the year for anyone serious about web development.

Phil Whitehouse,
Innovation Lead DigitasLBi

Ethan Marcotte
I’ve been admiring the Web Directions events for years, and was honored to be part… What a fantastic event!

Ethan Marcotte,
inventor "responsive Web design"

Dave Greiner
Out of any conference, Web Directions is far and away our favourite

Dave Greiner,
founder Campaign Monitor

About Us

Co-founded and now run by John Allsopp, Web Directions has for nearly 20 years brought together leading developers, engineers, visual, IxD, UX and product designers, Art and Creative Directors, product managers indeed everyone involved in producing web and digital products to learn from one another, and the World's leading experts across this vast field.

We spend our lives thinking about what comes next, keeping up with trends in technology, practices and processes, and filtering the hype, to make sure you don't miss trends that matter, and don't waste time on hype that doesn't.

We promise attending one of our events will leave you significantly better versed in the challenges you face day to day, and in solutions for addressing them.

vignettes from our events, social, speakers and more. Includes Hannah Donovan skylarking.

John Allsopp

John Allsopp has been working on the Web for nearly 30 years. He's been responsible for innovative developer tools such as Style Master, X-Ray and many more. He's spoken at numerous conferences around the World and delivered dozens of workshops in that time as well.

His writing includes two books, including Developing With Web Standards and countless articles and tutorials in print and online publications.

His "A Dao of Web Design" published in 2000 is cited by Ethan Marcotte as a key influence in the development of Responsive Web Design, who's acclaimed article in 2010 begins by quoting John in detail, and by Jeremy Keith as "a manifesto for anyone working on the Web".

Code of Conduct

For over a decade, we've worked hard to create inclusive, fun, inspring and safe events for the Web Industry.

As part of our commitment to these values, we've adopted a code of conduct for all involved: ourselves, our speakers, our partners and our audience.

If you have any concern or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact us.