Alan Shortis

I'm Alan Shortis—a front end developer based in ~~London~~ ~~Nottingham~~ Leicester.

I like building scalable, accessible, and performant design systems and websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The combination of code, design, and empathy for end users is what makes me want to do my best work.

This website was built using TypeScript, Next.js, and Styled Components for developer experience but leans heavily on platform features and progressive enhancement. There is no bundle; the only JavaScript being a single optional web component.

Find me on Are.na, CodePen, GitHub, and Twitter.

Latest writing

Marking external links with CSS

Adding some kind of indicator to links to third party websites is good practice, hinting to the user that they're about to leave the site they're reading. By combining a few CSS tricks and techniques it's possible to add these automatically.