Matthias Ott

Where is #CSS subflex when you need it? 😁

Best Free Synthesizer Plugins in 2025 · Matthias Ott Matthias Ott is an independent user experience designer and developer from Stuttgart, Germany. Besides design practice he teaches Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design...

Edit: Even More Synths! 🥳

matthiasott.com/notes/best-f...

But you’re on a roll, Andy

SmashingConf 2025, September 8–11 — Friendly, inclusive, practical event for web designers and developers. — Freiburg in Germany, September 8–11. The 12th SmashingConf Freiburg — in our lovely hometown in Germany — will be taking place in the Historic Merchants’ Hall on September 8–11. With one track, two days, 12 speakers and 300 attendees, ex...

Just a little reminder that – if you want to join us for @smashingconf.com in Freiburg – you need to be quick. Only 7 tickets left for this year. 👉 smashingconf.com/freiburg-2025

Oh wow, now I want a weird monitor, too 😁

So amazing… It really pays off that you just post *a lot* in all sections. Such a cool archive – a real Memex 😍

on this day Adactio is the website of Jeremy Keith, a web developer living in Brighton in southern England.

My favourite page on my website is adactio.com/archive/onth... (even though it’s of no interest to anyone but me)

Great! 👏
The problem with “on this day” on my site would be that my post frequency hasn’t been high enough to make that a useful feature. It would probably not show anything at all most of the time… 😅

Streamlining HTML web components Some handy tips courtesy of Chris Ferdinandi.

Scroll down to the very bottom of a journal post, like this one: adactio.com/journal/22038

……although that means that you can’t paint colourful circles on the page 😁

So it already seems like most of you prefer……

D – Titles with a short summary

kottke.org home of fine hypertext products

Yes, I guess the only situation where it might work are blogs with rather short and frequent posts, where the home becomes more of a timeline of microblogging posts, e.g. Kottke.org

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking as well! Showing only the headings feels a bit too dry, but if I show the whole posts, people might have to scroooooooll a lot to get to the next entry. 🤔

Previously on this day 3 years ago I wrote Subscribing to newsletters But not like that. 4 years ago I wrote Hope Hyperlinks are the things with feathers. 8 years ago I wrote Container queries Houdini to the rescue? … and so on

I just love this section at the end of your journal entries, @adactio.com! 🤩

When you are visiting a personal #website or #blog: do you enjoy reading all the latest blog posts / journal entries *in full* on the home page or do you prefer a list of headings for the latest entries?

A – Show me all the content!
B – I love clicking on links in lists!
C – I don’t really mind…

Maybe I should write a few blog posts about the best free and paid plugins 🤔

And, of course, try out all the fantastic free plugins out there first! You might not need to spend any (or at least very little) money on plugins at all… 😉

If you’re thinking about buying #audio #plugins to improve the sound of your voice recordings or music, don’t make the same mistake I made – don’t buy Waves. Buy Toneboosters, Kiive, Klanghelm, Tokyo Dawn Labs, Fuse Audio Labs, Kazrog, NoiseAsh, et al.

A prominent hero section on the other hand is part of the content of the site. It regularly even contains the most important messages, so I’d say it belongs in <main>. Just my two cents, hope it helps! 🤗

The site header should not be in <main> IMHO, also because it probably contains the main nav which often includes a lot of links and therefore can be skipped with a skip (“to main content”) link.

Hey Jeff! I’d say it depends on whether you’re talking about the site header or a hero/stage section that’s the first of a bunch of content sections, like on a classic home page.

Branch issue 9 magazine cover - Summer 2025 - Attunement: Designing in an era of constraint. Illustration by Tessa Curran.

Issue 9 of Branch magazine (which I worked on as copy editor) is out now! branch.climateaction.tech/issues/issue...

Published by the Green Web Foundation, Branch is an online mag written by and for people who dream of a sustainable and just internet for all.

Highly recommended reading!

Best Free Synthesizer Plugins in 2025 · Matthias Ott Matthias Ott is an independent user experience designer and developer from Stuttgart, Germany. Besides design practice he teaches Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design...

✍️ New post: Best Free Syn­the­siz­er Plu­g­ins in 2025

Not your usual web design or development-related post. But that's what personal websites are for, right? 😉🎶🎹

#synth #plugins #music

matthiasott.com/notes/best-f...

Best Free Synthesizer Plugins in 2025 · Matthias Ott Matthias Ott is an independent user experience designer and developer from Stuttgart, Germany. Besides design practice he teaches Interface Prototyping at the Muthesius Academy of Fine Arts and Design...

✍️ New post: Best Free Syn­the­siz­er Plu­g­ins in 2025

Not your usual web design or development-related post. But that's what personal websites are for, right? 😉🎶🎹

#synth #plugins #music

matthiasott.com/notes/best-f...

It sparkles on my machine. 😁🪄✨

It’s alive! 🧟‍♂️🎉😍 (kinda)

It’s alive! 🧟‍♂️🎉😍 (kinda)

Also 90 Minuten gibt es sicher noch mal. 🎉😁

Dass das so spannend ist, ist inzwischen Ouzo.

The genie is out of the botox ¯\_(ツ)_/¯