javascript! libraries!

Now now, don’t cry. The sheer mention of javascript shouldn’t cause panic attacks!

Even with a cursory knowledge of javascript, you can add interactivity to your site, thanks to the many javascript libraries available out there.

Slideshows/lightboxes/carousels/galleries

One of the more common presentations for portfolio pieces, the slideshow either advances through images automatically, or lets the user do it through basic controls. Our friends at W3Schools give us a beginner’s guide to slideshows, complete with html, css and javascript snippets.

Lightbox has been around forever, but its creator, Lokesh Dhakar, has kept it up to date, and so it’s still a simple, easy to set up choice.

There’s also this make-your-own lightbox tutorial, based off of jquery, a javascript library that makes building that sort of thing “easier”.

For more options, you can always go with slick.js, another carousel with lots of configuration possibilities.

Yet another great carousel that’s easy to implement is flickity, which supports the gestures of navigation on mobile, like swiping and pulling down.

Masonry.js makes your gallery look pretty by slotting your images together in a visually pleasing way.

If you’re feeling brave, you can try the (slightly) more advanced isotope, which adds sorting and filtering options for your gallery!

Menus

Once again, W3Schools gives us invaluable resources for creating dropdown menus without javascript, but also how to do it with javascript.

Drop.js gives us many more options for displaying menus, including hover menus and “flyouts”.

I’ll add to this list as I keep researching useful, easy-to-implement javascript libraries.