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Yes definitely, this is what I understood by the cultural effect httpsterio was referring to. I still stand by my statement though, I've had far too many meetings discussing this exact topic.

That's strange to hear, in my experience serif fonts are most definitely used more for body text (referring to paragraphs of text) on sites where legibility is a primary concern. Look at the websites of almost any well designed news outlet (Bloomberg, NYT, Guardian, Reuters, etc). I say this as someone who previously worked for a type foundry that has worked with major organisations on corporate type projects and now works as a web (and occasional book) designer/developer.

I've totally mixed the order (in a rush, about to leave the office) but for example...

> Sans-serif fonts are used for body text

Serifs are most commonly used for body (perhaps this is a mistake on the authors part?), but all manner of typefaces can be used for body text dependent on their design and legibility.

> The line-height is 1.5-2.0

I've been building websites, designing books and drawing type for a number of years. I've never used leading/line-height that large.

> body text isn't pure black on white

This is a huge myth imo.

> (backgrounds) Use a pattern or simple image

99% of the time use neither.

> A text shadow is used to make headings readable

I'd recommend this as a last resort generally, adjust the background first.

> Blocks of text are un-justified

Justified text can be fine in many circumstances.

> body text is 16-18px and is scalable

Totally dependent on the design of the rest of the page.

> There's padding between paragraphs

From a pure CSS standpoint, this should really be margins, not padding.

As an actual person employed as a designer and developer, I find articles listing arbitrary design rules very strange indeed. This is like someone enforcing you to use a coding style before you've even learnt the basics of programming.

All these rules will do is ensure you create a website that looks mostly like one designed by the person who has written the article. If you want to create a landing page for genericstarup.io, then maybe that's fine, but it's kind of like building a website by exclusively copy pasting tutorial snippets that you don't understand.

I also disagree quite strongly with the rules laid out in this particular article, but that's another issue...

You should try Sketch out. I also despise making SVGs in Illustrator. I find it much, much easier in Sketch.

I've been using elementaryOS for a while now, and it doesn't really compare to macOS yet unfortunately.

It seems to me there is a disconnect between developers and designers. When I ask devs why there isn't a nice looking Linux distro, they ask me why I care about what the UI looks like. Designers don't use or care about Linux because of the lack of decent design software. As much as I love the concept of GIMP, it is not a realistic alternative to Adobe software (especially things like InDesign and XD) or Sketch, for example.

As a designer-developer, Linux is still not an easy choice for me, as much as I'd like it to be. elementaryOS is a nice start, but I still end up using macOS if given the choice.

> header is metadata about the page and other related resources.

I think you're confusing the head and header elements.

Currently my time is split between JS (node and vue, vuex, webpack for frontend work) and PHP (Laravel), occasionally some Python. Primarily work for clients building single page applications. And yes I use version control and keep up to date with modern specs. Haven't touched WordPress in about 5 years thankfully.

Is this a guideline for startups only? I work as the only dev in a small design company but have no frame of reference for salary expectations as I've never worked with other developers and transitioned into it from a design role. I earn slightly more than the other employees (designers) but that's still under £30k. I would consider myself more experienced than a junior.

The author suggests reducing clutter and then goes on to use four different type styles for a modal dialog. The header is italicised, in a different colour and different point size to the body text. The text in the button is uppercased and tracked out. Why? 90% of the time you only need one level of differentiation to create a sense of typographical heirarchy, otherwise you end up with exactly the opposite of what was intended in the article.

There is a huge disconnect between design thinking in the cultural and arts sector and design thinking in the technology sector. As a developer and designer working in the former, I find it both perplexing and frustrating to see the lack of consideration given to design as something that adds value rather than as something serving a purely functional purpose in the latter. I think the lack of modern design education in other, particularly more traditional formats for those focusing on digital design is partly to blame.

I would think it would be valuable for anyone with an interest in design to look at the work of many of the better graphic design studios practicing today who don't necessarily work in digital formats. There is a lot to be learnt about the subtleties of graphic design from a well typeset book for example. These blanket statements about things like white space are more often than not rehashed guidelines for producing at best mediocre design.

> "If your phone is made by Samsung, HTC, Sony, Motorola, LG, Nexus, Nokia or Google it's definitely an Android phone. If you have an Apple iPhone, it's definitely not an Android"

Just a heads up, my Nokia running WP is definitely not an Android phone.