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Hi, my name is Brecht De Ruyte, Front-end developer

I'm a self-taught front-end developer and Google Developer Expert located in Belgium with a passion for UX and Design. After more than a decade working in tech, I decided to start a little blog for documenting my findings about HTML, CSS and JS with an eye on accessibility and UX.

During the day, you can find me working at iO on a variety of projects. There are a lot of environments I'm working in, the majority of them being Twig or React. But my real niche will always be semantics and CSS, especially now, with the ever fast updates in browser support. It's a great time to be a front-end developer.

Brecht De Ruyte - front-end developer | utilitybend

Latest articles

Articles overview

The customizable select - Part one: history, trickery, and styling the select with CSS

The customizable select has entered Chrome 134, allowing us to style this form element to our hearts' content. I decided to write a series about this feature because there are so many cool things we can do with CSS these days to create some really unique and fun experiences. In this first article of the series, I want to talk a bit about the history, while also giving an in-depth guide on how you can start creating your first customizable select as a progressive enhancement, today.

Read moreabout The customizable select - Part one: history, trickery, and styling the select with CSS

Love at first slide! Creating a carousel purely out of CSS

It’s Valentine's Day! As usual, I want to write about something I love, and this time it’s still highly experimental but something I am extremely excited about. Something new is on the horizon named CSS scroll-markers and it allows you to create a fully functional slider without the need of any JavaScript. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look, shall we? Here is my first impression of creating a carousel with only CSS and some accessibility concerns as well.

Read moreabout Love at first slide! Creating a carousel purely out of CSS

Love for photography

photography hobby corner

Morning mist photography

Photography is something I enjoyed for a long time. It all began with capturing landscapes in Belgium. It truly opened my eyes to the beauty of nature that often lies right on our doorstep. There's a calming effect to using a camera and experimenting with shutter speed and aperture. It's a form of personal therapy for me.

Most of the images are near my hometown Deinze. A small city famous for its cycling near the Lys river. I added some photos on this website as sort of a "hobby corner". I will update them from time to time here, as I kinda gave up on the "instagram thing" for photography.