Stephane's notes

A new, faster way for starting Carbon Design System projects

2025-11-23T00:00:00Z

Getting a Carbon Design System project off the ground quickly is often a challenge for most teams, so we built a template to solve that.

A couple talented folks (Lee Chase, Michael A., Josip Ledić...) and myself have been working on this for a good part of the year - a ready to use template project with the Carbon Design System. We decided to go with React because that's what most teams use at the moment. We also wanted to demonstrate how Carbon should be best integrated, so the whole UI loads fast (server-side rendering, separation of the CSS bundle), with dark & light theming, a responsive layout, some sample unit tests and more. We estimate it will save at least 1 to 2 weeks of work to every team using it, but this is not counting the optimizations we pulled it to make it fast and robust (and we're probably not yet done with that). The main advantage is to start from a common baseline that contains things that users expect nowadays like a good theming support.

It is also a great demo project for existing teams, to show how to best use the Carbon grid and the design system tokens (instead of fragile, hard-coded values).

Already this project is gaining good traction, with more than 700 clones in the last two weeks.

Go try it! We welcome feedback, issues and pull requests.

https://github.com/carbon-design-system/carbon-react-router-starter

The distortion of social media

2025-01-21T00:00:00Z

Really insightful and easy to read paper on the polarizing and distorting effects of social media. This should be a must-read for every user. Like everyone, I find it myself very hard to escape those behaviors.

Find the PDF here: Inside the Funhouse Mirror Factory: How Social Media Distorts Perceptions of Norms

Thoughts on better housing

2023-03-19T00:00:00Z

Today I stumbled on a fantastic video on YouTube called "How to turn your Neighborhood into a Village".

I found it eye opening how little citizens are, in average, in control of their environment, and how many small and cheap solutions could make life much more enjoyable together.

Instead, we often look for expensive workarounds (listen to the comment about travelling away for the weekend) while neglecting the local environment, but also at high mental health cost for the inhabitants. People are lonely not only because of architecture, but it's hard to think it has no role to play in the story.

This is very refreshing to see new ideas come into urbanism, I can't wait to see more of that applied everywhere.

Qualities of a frontend developer

2022-02-17T00:00:00Z

Very often, I see people confused about the role of a frontend developer. Those persons tend to think that a frontend developer is just a developer, and that you can have a backend developer assume the job of a frontend developer in a matter of days (or weeks). I'd argue that coming to become a real productive frontend developer takes one or more years. I think it is so because a frontend developer requires some acquired capabilities that are just not a part of the tool set of a backend developer.

Good frontend developers make interfaces that are:

Efficient: A good frontend is very lean in code. It doesn't try to be perfect. For example, why using classes when you don't need it? Also, every dependency should be stripped from the delivered code, which called bundlers like Webpack to life. Everything gets reduced to the minimum, because frontend developers know that most of their code will be downloaded by the client. They also know how to monitor the size and impact of the code they write to evaluate not only the time it takes to execute, but also the weight downloaded to client. They know that one byte is not always equal to one byte when considering the impact to the page load time. They optimize the code with asynchronous loading, but in a way that has a minimal impact on the experience - choosing between async and defer, for example.

Frontend developers will also often code quick examples of features in online tools like CodePen or CodeSandbox to test and share things quickly. They will usually delay a full deployment when possible, or when required will use dedicated tools like Netlify, that will simplify the experience away so they can focus on their specialty instead.

Robust: Frontend code, unlike server code, doesn't run in a well-known and defined environment. You can be pretty sure that backend developers are often staffed with frontend work in enterprise products that list the browsers supported. That's not how it works on the web. New browsers have to be accommodated for (that means frontend developers must monitor beta versions as they get released to be ready when they get released to the general public), but also older browsers. New features should fail gracefully. They can also have fallbacks, but we're back to the first point where you can't just ship a full older browser API to each user, so you have to carefully select what you send over and when, possibly using feature detection.

Beautiful: Frontend developers code interfaces that are elegant, beautiful, and have their own visual identity. This is due to two acquired skills as well: understanding of the design rules and learned taste from analyzing and implementing proper designs. After a while, the frontend developer becomes skilled into implementing designs in a pixel-perfect manner, and even to correct small errors from the designs. They implement the layout in a structure that supports the original structural intent of the designer, so it behaves the right way on different sizes. They are also able to engage in informed and qualitative feedback with the designers to show where things could be improved. Such a feedback is usually a mine field to start with for anyone not well trained in the topic.

Conclusion → As you can see, those aptitudes require a mindset change for multiple years to bring fruits and be applicable in business projects. Being a frontend developer is a specialty of its own, and tools that pretend to solve that in a few hours are just not telling the truth. They can help with consistency, some tricky use cases, and other limited aspects, but they won't solve all the points above.

HCD and design thinking

2021-10-18T00:00:00Z

Human centered design and design thinking - ever wondered how those two framework relate to each other? As I am building a presentation on HCD and artificial intelligence, I was wondering well and found this by IDEO: What’s the difference between human-centered design and design thinking?

Numerous articles then go more in detail on that. In the end, HCD and design thinking work hand in hand to provide great outcomes that are doable, innovative, benefit the users and minimize the negative side effects to society.

Article "The Winners of Remote Work"

2021-09-23T00:00:00Z

This article gives a new point of view on the pros and cons of remote work from an economic perspective. Interesting because it steps away from the repeated "opinions" and go more into the "what if?". Make up your own mind.

Manage the dot files with git

2021-06-22T00:00:00Z

Managing the unix configuration files in one's home directory can be tricky. It turns out it's not as simple as creating a git repository, because it usually needs to be empty on creation (is that even possible with all this software that creates rogue directories?), and will track all the files not expressively added to .gitignore. Today I found a good solution in this tutorial.

Zen YouTube

2021-06-06T00:00:00Z

I have to admit, I watch YouTube quite a lot those days. I mean, what else can you do? OK, joking a bit here, but still lockdown has its toll. It's important to admit that almost no one can be expected to read about philosophy or complex topics every evening (especially when you have small kids).

What I found is that YouTube is a never-ending source of excellent calming videos that can help me get my head free or better focus. How? Let's see:

Lo-fi hip hop

The first time I got to hear lo-fi, I didn't like it. Can't remember why, but I think this was also because of the rather low playlist quality.

After getting tired of hearing song lyrics while working, I gave it another try and found the channel Chillhop which to these days is my favorite one. They provide super beautiful artwork and even sell their music in physical form. Even our toddler likes those videos, it sometimes help to get him asleep when he's nervous.

There is hours and hours of lo-fi available, and not only on YouTube but also on your favorite music streaming platform.

Train videos

Those days it's very hard to travel. But thanks to 4K and user-generated content, travel videos have changed a lot. Away with the "best of" travel tour with historic context and monument tours, and instead welcome a "first person view" of travel.

It all started with a recommendation of a 1 hour walk in rainy New-York. As I missed being there for a long time, I clicked on it and there I was hooked

Turns out there are lots of variations of that. There are videos from the head of people walking or biking through cities, but also dashcams from cars, and from trains or boats. You can even find some from gondola in Venice. Crazy!

One that I found the most addictive is looking at a train travel from the eyes of a driver cabin. The ones through Switzerland are the best. They are usually taken on sunny days with either snow or a beautiful green landscape. Looking at those allows one to see the roads, the homes, the landscape. It is just a very meditative exercise. Even our small kid loves to watch those too. In fact, he's becoming a real train fan (he prefers steam trains though!).

One thing is for sure: when everything reopens, we'll probably make a big train tour through Switzerland!

Speaking at OpenJS World tomorrow

2021-06-01T00:00:00Z

I'm incredibly excited and humbled to speak at OpenJS World 2021 with my colleague Lucile about responsible coding, especially on sustainability. Check the event page and subscribe! The talk will be published on June 2 on the OpenJS Foundation YouTube channel - of course you can check it later on as well.

See you there, and looking forward the impulses and ideas!

Recommendations for the week

2021-03-19T00:00:00Z

It's that time again! So let's go to the meat:

📥 Workflow and productivity

I recently stumbled on a podcast interview by Cal Newport (yes, him, again). The subtitle is "Cal Newport explains how Slack and Gmail are making us miserable – and what to do about it", and that tells it all. I wouldn't say Gmail though, the podcast speaks rather about email in general. It's full of great insights and questions, and presents Agile and Extreme Programming as alternative workflows for knowledge workers, not just developers. A good way to reflect during the weekend.

📘 Tools

Never know what protocol to use while interacting with a GitHub Enterprise repo (git, ssh, git??) ? I found a great trick to make my life with GitHub Enterprise easier. Usually in enterprise IT, authentication is often tricky, and allows only a certain worfklow. If you find yourself hitting often the wrong protocol, you might consider this configuration setting.

🎶 Music

Dua Lipa's latest album "Future Nostalgia" (oh well, it's from 2020 already) is a big refresher in those times. A mix of funk, EDM and pop, offering a both modern and retro vibes and grooving all the time. Not only I but the whole family likes to listen to it. If you want to judge yourself, take a look at her Tiny Desk performance.

Online tools the better way

2021-02-28T00:00:00Z

Tomorrow I'll be giving our new hires an introduction into the online tools most used at IBM. Like all companies that switched to remote for the pandemic, we are heavy users of messaging and video/audio conference - this should come with no surprise to anyone.

Well so of course, it is important to be proficient with those tools and to use them well. Developing a strategy to find the right content in Slack is not completely simple (I might write about that later).

One of the key messages from my presentation will be that those tools should not be only used for productivity. They should also be used for fun, creativity, and just connecting with each others.

I often hear many complain that this remote way of working is too "transactional", but really it is because we make it so actively. Being aware of that is important. For example, I've now decided that I'll get in touch with one person every week to stay connected and have a casual discussion over some random topic that is currently relevant.

Recently, I've been approached by a former intern of the studio to help on some technical topics. This never happened before to me that someone working at another company asked me for technical mentoring. So it looks like the remote work is enabling new networks, different from the previous ones that were very much wall-constrained. You had to be at the right conference, the right employer, the right university. Walled garden, that is.

But if you're not working in the same room as your colleagues, why not find experts and contacts elsewhere and get better or more diversified information?

Remote might be breaking those walls, for those who use it right.

Carbon impact of the website

2021-02-22T00:00:00Z

As I was pushing out the week recommendations, I thought it would be good to know the updated carbon usage now that I've moved to Netlify.

I ran the website through Website Carbon Calculator and the following results came up. Not too shady isn't it 😉

Recommendations for the week

2021-02-21T00:00:00Z

Weeks are passing fast! Lockdown could be boring, but our kid is learning so fast at the moment and keeping us very busy, so we don't really see time fly by.

Many colleagues of mine around Texas have been suffering from the winter storm. I really hope that all of them can find their home in a working state again and get access to drinkable water soon. Tough times.

🌳 Sustainability

IBM, my employer, recently announced to be bringing greenhouse gas emissions to a net zero by 2030 - so not by buying certificates but by really avoiding almost all greenhouse gas emissions, and capturing the remainder. I'd been waiting such an announcement for a while, and I'm very happy this is happening. Jim Whitehurst is also very committed to the topic, so hopefully nice side projects will emerge from that to help sustainability in all kinds of context.

📘 Tools

After I submitted a blog post originally written in Markdown that had all kinds of typos, I decided to look if I could fix this in some way. As the VSCode ecosystem seems to be growing to the infinity, of course there was a tool to help! It's called Code Spell Checker, and the nice thing is that it also checks variables and comments. But as a side feature, that means it also can check stuff like HTML content, Markdown or even - surprise! - text files. So yeah, what a useful project. Only 2M downloads 😏

🎶 Music

Already quite a few years ago, I was singing in a university choir. A friend there got us tickets for a concert of Bach's Matthäus Passion in Stuttgart. The concert was incredible. We had sang this piece just around a year earlier, but this was really another level. The conductor was Frieder Bernius, and he is internationally one of the most acknowledged conductors for Bach.

Anyway, recently I was looking for his recordings on Spotify, and they have tons of it. Lockdown will not be long enough to hear all of that. If you are looking for some top quality choir music (there are often bad quality recordings out there), check this.

Jan 30 - Recommendations for the week

2021-01-30T00:00:00Z

In those endless lockdown times, what do you want to do? Probably not travelling much. In my case, beside being very busy with our toddler, I tried to make my days more enjoyable and learn new things. So why not share those? I recently found that the AI recommendations I am submerged with every day are pretty boring. Searching for friends and expert advices though, I found I could get to much better recommendations - so here are mine to share:

Learning

Smart Tips: Wellness: By looking this up, I just realize how expensive it is. IBMers have now access to Udemy for business, which is a pretty nice perk. Nonetheless, I found this course very useful and uncomplicated. It's very practical, while quite American in its tone (Europeans will understand what I mean, but this is hard to describe). If you have access to Udemy, reward yourself by learning about to live better - healthier, with less stress... A lot of the things described there don't involve major changes in your life, but rather small adjustments. Also, the background knowledge given on many topics is very interesting.

Tools

CSS Doodle is what I use to make the banners up here. It's so much fun to code and bring instant results! Thus, I often can start a new one in a few minutes and I get directly in a state of flow. Not that easy with many of the current "popular" web tools.

Music

Purple Noon by Washed Out. This is some very ambient, somewhat electronic pop. A fitting music for those mellow days to dream of the upcoming summer and destress. I actually bought it as CD, as I am getting back to offline medias. It's simpler to use, more reliable. The sound is better, and I can even resell it once I don't want it anymore. And it can also go on my music library. CDs are very cheap nowadays, sometimes cheaper than the corresponding MP3s.

The Wall by Pink Floyd. What an album! While sometimes on the fringe of too much, it shows an immense creativity and uniqueness. It is at the boundary of mad, but I guess this was a fitting mood at the times. It is the remastered version - I'd be curious to compare the original version. I hadn't listened to it for maybe two decades, so it was really a return to the past for me. It was also a great occasion to hear again why this is such a legendary album.

Let me know if you find those useful!

An introduction into WCAG 3

2021-01-26T00:00:00Z

WCAG 3 is slowly getting ready and brings many great improvements. Especially the focus on ease of use and understanding matters I think, as it will help making websites accessible more approachable. Even more exciting is the extended scope of this standard, beyond just the web. How do we make all kind of digital interfaces accessibles - voice assistants, vehicles, natives apps?

Take a peak at the new standard goals here, and go deeper look at the working draft.

PS - 2021-02-01: I just found that great article that summarizes in a more casual, but also contextual way, what this all means and what is upcoming.

RSS enabled

2021-01-23T00:00:00Z

You can now subscribe to all new posts to this website! Let's keep open and distributed technologies alive.

Debunking electric mobility myths

2021-01-16T00:00:00Z

This candid discussion between Tom Raftery and Auke Hoekstra is something I really enjoyed. Behind debunking myths (or just outdated knowledge from like... 2010), this episode brings some good mood and hope in times that need it!

Tech addiction

2021-01-08T00:00:00Z

Another excellent video by Simon Sinek about the damage that tech is doing to our lives, to our childern and our economy.

Book - Together is Better

2021-01-04T00:00:00Z

I just read Together is Better by Simon Sinek. This book was advised to me by my dear colleague and JumpStart co-agitator Sven Stueven. What a brilliant advice. It is a very short book, but full of great statements. It's not that it learned me a lot of new things, but rather put some things in context and allows me to think further about what I should do next. Very thankful for that. Thanks Sven!

That idea is so fantastic. Stop talking about it and do it.

Leadership is an education. And the best leaders think of themselves as the students, not the teachers.

Go read that book, you all ;)

A better way to approach a mentorship

2020-12-28T00:00:00Z

Recently, I stumbled upon this video by Simon Sinek about mentorship. It explains something I wasn't aware consciously, so I think this is really worth sharing - that mentors shouldn't be asked out of the blue, but rather this is something that becomes and evolves with time, like friendship. You don't ask someone to "be your friend". Rather, you meet more or less regularly, make time for each others, get to know each others, etc.

When I was starting work, I asked an executive for mentoring me directly. Of course he declined, and kindly asked my manager for a good fit. That was a bit bold of me, but also too direct. Truth is, I was really interested in his point of view. I then had to wait a few years before being more in contact with executives, which I find very useful because they usually have a deep understanding of the business and the big picture. They are aware of the why and of the compromises necessary.

In any case - get yourself mentors. Not one, multiple, to get a clearer view on your issues and opportunities.