# A List Apart

Published articles for A List Apart.

This is one page of public article previews, not the complete archive. Follow Next page to continue. Summaries are not the original full articles.

## The Day the Focus Died

DevFeed: [The Day the Focus Died](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/the-day-the-focus-died-107317.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://zeldman.com/2026/10/29/the-day-the-focus-died/>)

Author: L. Jeffrey Zeldman

Published: 2026-10-29T16:25:23Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Jeffrey Zeldman](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/jeffrey-zeldman.md>)

Topics: [Business, Industry, Usability, User Experience, User Research, Web Strategy](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/business-industry-usability-user-experience-user-research-web-strategy.md>), [Community, Industry, State of the Web, Web Strategy](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/community-industry-state-of-the-web-web-strategy.md>), [web design](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-design.md>), [Front end](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/frontend.md>), [CSS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/css.md>), [Web Accessibility (a11y)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-accessibility.md>)

Tags: [a-list-apart](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/a-list-apart.md>), [accessibility](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/accessibility.md>), [acclaim](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/acclaim.md>), [advocacy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/advocacy.md>), [applications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/applications.md>), [best-practices](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/best-practices.md>), [blogs](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/blogs.md>), [browser-support](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browser-support.md>), [business](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/business.md>), [career](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/career.md>), [community](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/community.md>), [conference](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conference.md>), [conferences](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/conferences.md>), [content](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/content.md>), [content-first](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/content-first.md>), [content-strategy](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/content-strategy.md>), [covid](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/covid.md>), [creativity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/creativity.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [css-tricks](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css-tricks.md>), [culture](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/culture.md>), [curation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/curation.md>), [customer-research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/customer-research.md>), [design](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/design.md>), [designers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/designers.md>), [developers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developers.md>), [digital-curation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/digital-curation.md>), [editorial](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/editorial.md>), [educational](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/educational.md>), [focus](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/focus.md>), [freelance](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/freelance.md>), [glamorous](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/glamorous.md>), [html](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/html.md>), [industry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/industry.md>), [maturity](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/maturity.md>), [my-back-pages](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/my-back-pages.md>), [off-my-lawn](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/off-my-lawn.md>), [publications](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/publications.md>), [publisher-s-note](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/publisher-s-note.md>), [publishing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/publishing.md>), [standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standards.md>), [state-of-the-web](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/state-of-the-web.md>), [the-essentials](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/the-essentials.md>)

### AI overview

In 2008, A List Apart broadened its editorial mission beyond standards-based front-end design to cover the wider skills of making websites, including user experience, research, content strategy, and inclusive design. The author reasoned that improving browser support reduced the need for CSS workarounds and that web teams and readers were expanding beyond coding. The change kept standards in the mix and attracted new readers, but alienated some contributors and coincided with declining readership; a broken site migration and failed redirects also contributed. The author judges broadening the range educationally right and personally satisfying, but probably a poor business decision, as core CSS readers and writers gravitated toward other publications.

### Source excerpt

If we failed to do this, I feared, we would stop leading the industry and turn into "merely the CSS trick of the week." The post The Day the Focus Died appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.