![Alex Walker](png/1654759884aw-508-120x120.png)
Alex has been doing cruel and unusual things to CSS since 2001. He is the lead front-end design and dev for SitePoint and one-time SitePoint's Design and UX editor with over 150+ newsletter written. Co-author of The Principles of Beautiful Web Design. Now Alex is involved in the planning, development, production, and marketing of a huge range of printed and online products and references. He has designed over 60+ of SitePoint's book covers.
Alex's articles
![Getting Started with Lottie.js](gif/1656484204lottie-opt-300x150.gif)
Lottie.JS is a fantastic animation platform, but what animation tool should you choose? Alex has the ideal Lottie primer.
![Review: Is Editor X a serious option for Web Developers?](jpg/1655702442editorx-feature2-300x150.jpg)
Editor X is an online website builder. It's easy and convenient, but can it offer the power and flexibility that tech-savvy users need?
![UI Design Inspiration: Do You Think About Your Textures?](jpg/1655692417featrue-pattern-300x150.jpg)
Looking for UI design inspiration? Rather than adding a new color or changing a font, have you thought about your textures?
![Web Typography: Establishing a Strong Typographic System](png/1654563914mobile-vs-laptop-300x192.png)
Setting up a new typography system is always a complicated task with literally hundreds of tweakable variables. The best way to save your sanity is a design system that can answers most of those little questions.
![6 Clever SVG Pattern Generators for Your Next UX Design](jpg/1655276258god570m-300x201.jpg)
Though SVG Patterns aren't super widely understood, they offer a lot of really interesting design options – once you get your head around them.
![The Best JavaScript & CSS Animation Libraries for UI Designers](jpg/1570509959j_0238-03-copy-300x141.jpg)
Animation is a part of a UI designer's job. Here are 9 free animation libraries we think deliver the most power for the smallest file size.
![The Cicada Principle and Why It Matters to Web Designers (updated)](jpg/1655947166image-76-300x150.jpg)
How can the lifecycle of the humble cicada help you to make better seamless tile backgrounds? It will all make sense soon...
![Webflow Review: Is It a Serious Option for Developers?](jpg/1651545056webflow-300x158.jpg)
Find out if Webflow is a viable option for tech-savvy users who want to build custom websites.
![SitePoint Origami Rhino NFT Drop #2 – Electric Boogaloo](png/1636440162drop-2sm-300x170.png)
After our first SitePoint NFT release sold out in 4 days, our second drop landed on OpenSea on Monday. What have we learned so far?
![SitePoint NFTs – or how we floated rhinos on the OpenSea](jpg/1634858073291_-_the_rackley_rhino-300x209.jpg)
After 20+ years and over 100 book cover designs, we’re releasing a strictly limited run of our latest design work as purchasable digital art.
![Code Challenge #2: 4 Tips for Higher Scores in CSSBattle.dev](png/1561335291css-borders%402x-245x300.png)
Our CSSBattle Code Challenge requires some 'outside the square' CSS thinking. Here are four tips to get you started on the right track.
![Code Challenge #2: The Test of Characters](png/15604084168rcjg2o-1-300x194.png)
SitePoint's Code Challenge #2 is a battle of CSS wits. We're partnering with CSSBattles.dev and asking you to recreate the SitePoint Logo in HTML and CSS - oh and in the fewest possible characters too.
![So, Do We Have a Winner for Code Challenge #1?](png/1560414839t7ceknt-300x239.png)
We've got CSS, SVG, canvas and JavaScript solutions to Code Challenge #1. Now it's time to pick a winner for the $200 Amazon Voucher.
![UI Code Challenge #1 – Heartbeats](png/1559779957screen-shot-2019-06-06-at-9.15.02-am-300x193.png)
The user interfaces we see in popular culture are often more fun than ones we build at work. Here's a code challenge to show us how you'd build your own.
![5 Fast Tools For Generating Polished Product Mockups](jpg/1502794251zogx57g-300x175.jpg)
Product mockups are used to showcase web/app designs in a device frame, but can we accomplish this without Photoshop? Yes, and today, Alex shows us how!
![SVG Tip: Create a Bold Vector Halftone Graphic in Under 2 Minutes](jpg/1499848432bowie-feature-1-300x290.jpg)
Read SVG Tip: Create a Bold Vector Halftone Graphic in Under 2 Minutes and learn Design & UX with SitePoint. Our web development and design tutorials, courses, and books will teach you HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, Python, and more.
![Podcast: Google Ventures on When Design Sprints Go Bad](jpg/1498620239true-north-sitepoint-banner-1-300x105.jpg)
Lots of companies talk about 'design sprints', but are we all talking about the same thing? Jake Knapp – the man who documented it – has some ideas on that.
![Podcast: Behind the Facebook Logo – A $100 Million Story](jpg/1496887197bae8bef0-8521-4633-963b-dfafa4f63fd8-300x225.jpg)
Getting paid for your design talents in equity is romantic – but rarely actually pays off. But what if you happened to design the Facebook logo?
![New Podcast: #Ep1 – Designing for Scale: Inside Atlassian’s Design Teams](jpg/1495607600true-north-sitepoint-500-300x169.jpg)
True North Design Podcast: Ben Newton talks to the Atlassian Design Team about how design – and the teams behind it – can successfully scale.
![Finch.io: A Visual Tool for Finding and Fixing Design Bugs](png/1493812191osiadpx-001-300x197.png)
Finch.io is a new visual approach to finding and fixing bugs in your web projects. We take a test-drive of the beta to see what the fuss is about.
![Design Tricks with SVG Filters: A Masked Blur Effect](png/1491378485outdoors-300x92.png)
SVG might be a vector format, but it has some amazingly powerful pixel-based tricks up its sleeve. Follow Alex's journey – if you dare.
![Killer GIFs: How Can an Animated GIF Become a Weapon?](gif/149017647720151104_141937-300x169.gif)
GIFs are the jokers of the web image formats – usually funny and playful. But can they be turned into a dangerous weapon in the right situation?
![Introducing Portfolio WordPress Theme – and the Design Decisions Behind it](jpg/1488944630screenshot-madebyjoel.com-2017-03-08-10-46-05-300x183.jpg)
Good design comes down to 3 or 4 fairly simple decisions at the beginning of a project – and then just carrying them through.
![Web Layout 101: Vertical Rhythm is a Drummer](jpg/1487755065drummer-l-300x166.jpg)
Vertical rhythm is often worshipped or ignored. But perhaps its at its most useful when we treat it as a trusted advisor to our layouts.
![Catching Frontend UI Design Tricks with SnappySnippet](jpg/1486546358et-300x169.jpg)
Often the key to understanding complex things is to understand their simpler parts first. SnappySnippet is a tool that can help you with that.
![The First Rule Of Good Software Design? First, Do No Harm!](jpg/1485352703doc2-300x149.jpg)
We design features with the idea that they are helping our users – but sometimes these same features can be damaging to users with different needs.
![Web Design 2016: Attack of the Chromes!](png/1483402819frame-300x207.png)
Every year your workflow changes. For me, 2016 was the year when the Chrome App arrived as a serious web/UI design option.
![UI Motion : Can You Tell a Story with Movement?](jpg/1481171019bodyrock-300x163.jpg)
We all think carefully about choosing a color, but – as Heider and Simmel show – the way an object moves can have a profound impact on how we feel about it.
![How to Hack Brains with Cinemagraphs](gif/1479885000snow-dome.gif)
Cinemagraphs are like the snow globes of the web – simple yet strangely mesmerizing. Here's how to use them in your web design.
![Type Nugget: Good Typography is About Finding the Right Playground](jpg/1476243093play-300x115.jpg)
While web designers have more typography choice than ever before, arguably our tools haven't caught up.Type Nugget hopes to fill the gap.