You do excellent work, but you’re always looking for ways to take your game a higher level, and we’re here to help you do just that. Since there are roughly 55,000 WordPress tools services on the market, you would think finding solutions to some of your everyday problems, concerns, or issues that make improvement easier would be a piece of cake. The problem is, plowing through that vast array of potential solutions to find what will work...
Welcome to our first Creative Essentials post, a new series that focuses on the tools and resources used by different creative professionals, and the workflow they enable. My name is Suzanne Scacca and I am a tool snob. Before I became a writer, and before I entered the world of marketing and web design, I was a long-time project manager. And although I could’ve stepped into any of my project management jobs and simply executed the tasks employers...
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News[1] site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past...
It seems like magic: you talk to the phone, and it talks back. And if you’re lucky, it says something useful. You type into the chat box, and if the bot is good, you find out what you need to know. [Cue: shocked-looking stock photo models.] The current marketing term for it is “conversational design”, and it’s gaining more and more traction beyond big companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon. Conversational design is actually old, in technological...
One of the things you must do as a freelancer is take charge of your professional (and financial) destiny. You have to be successful in finding and convincing clients to work with you because no one is going to do it for you. Thankfully, you no longer have to rely on a resume to try to communicate how talented you are to others. Your skills as a freelancer should be shared with others through visual media. It makes...
Welcome to the August edition of our monthly roundup of the freshest web design, released (or re-released with significant updates) in the last four weeks. This month we leap back to the culture of America circa 1969, dive into the oceans with whales, discover multiple approaches to pitching a design agency, get invited to festivals, and shop online the right way. Enjoy! Kilotype Kilotype’s awesome new site[1] shows off its variable fonts with a clever mouse-track — move your...
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News[1] site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past...
2019 is half over, but don’t let that stop you from trying something new… specifically, a new CMS. “But Ezequiel, good buddy, I don’t have time to check out a whole new content management system. I have websites to make!”, you say, in those exact words. That’s fair, but you should be keeping an eye on the up-and comers anyway. These are the people who have the sheer brass walnuts (which are a real thing[1], unisex, and...
Web designers and agencies should always be exploring new ways to improve their workflows and, in turn, make it easier to guarantee positive results for clients. Many have touted the benefits of design sprints…but does their argument hold any weight? Truth be told, there’s a lot of value that comes from doing design sprints. However, it’s not as simple as adopting Google Vision’s original system[1] and instantly being able to create better digital products or getting greater...
Every month we publish a roundup of the awesome new tools that have been launched in the previous four weeks. Some of the new tools in this month’s roundup are designed for productivity and getting ahead, from a tool that converts text to speech to a font that’s made for the winter holidays. That’s the whole point of new tools – to make our design lives that much easier. Here’s what’s new for designers this month. Paaatterns Paaatterns[1] is...
Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers. The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News[1] site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past...
What happened in the web dev world in the past four weeks? In his monthly reading list, Anselm summarized everything you need to know to stay on top of things — from browser news to handy tips and thought-provoking ideas. What’s more powerful than a star who knows everything? Well, a team not made of stars but of people who love what they do, stand behind their company’s vision and can work together, support each other. Like...
About The Author Leonardo Losoviz is the creator of PoP, a framework for building modular websites based on PHP and Handlebars, and powered by WordPress. He lives in Kuala … More about Leonardo Leonardo …[1][2] Since its release 8 months ago, Gutenberg has been greatly improved, offering a user experience much richer than anything that was possible in WordPress. Let’s take a look at its latest developments, and where it is heading to. It has been 8 months since...
About The Author Leonardo Losoviz is the creator of PoP, a framework for building modular websites based on PHP and Handlebars, and powered by WordPress. He lives in Kuala … More about Leonardo Leonardo …[1][2] Since its release 8 months ago, Gutenberg has been greatly improved, offering a user experience much richer than anything that was possible in WordPress. Let’s take a look at its latest developments, and where it is heading to. It has been 8 months since...
About The Author Rachel Andrew is not only Editor in Chief of Smashing Magazine, but also a web developer, writer and speaker. She is the author of a number of books, including … More about Rachel Andrew …[1] A series of interviews between Vitaly Friedman and speakers from the upcoming View Source conference in Amsterdam. Hear from Tejas Kumar, Sharell Bryant, Ali Spittel, Kenji Baheux, Jory Burson, Hui Jing Chen, Henri Helvetica, Elizabeth Sweeney, and Jeremy Keith. Smashing TV...
In this article, let’s take a closer look at what Figma really has to offer. Here are 20 tips on how to work faster and better with this well-known and collaborative interface design tool. I have made the switch to Figma almost two years ago and I have no regrets so far. In one of my previous blog posts on the topic, I made an in-depth review of Figma[1], and I’m glad I could help other designers...
This tutorial will show you how to harness the power of HTML5 web storage by creating a shopping cart step-by-step. What you learn from this tutorial can easily be applied to other site features that may not require database storage such as user preferences, users’ favorite contents, wish list, user settings like username and password and more.Update (27.08.) Editor’s Note: We have updated the examples to address accessibility issues in the HTML samples. With the advent of...
About The Author Christoph Erdmann has been a web developer since 2001 and has specialized in the frontend since 2019. He has implemented numerous projects for numerous national … More about Christoph Erdmann …[1] The Embedded Image Preview (EIP) technique introduced in this article allows us to load preview images during lazy loading using progressive JPEGs, Ajax and HTTP range requests without having to transfer additional data. Low Quality Image Preview (LQIP)[2] and the SVG-based variant SQIP[3] are the...
About The Author Ryan M. Kay is a self-taught mobile Java, Kotlin, and Android developer with a passion for applied software architecture, test driven development, and writing … More about Ryan Kay …[1] As with many other topics in software development, testing and test driven development are often made needlessly complex in theory and implementation by placing too much emphasis on learning a wide array of testing frameworks. In this article, we will revisit what testing means by...
About The Author Eric is the founder of UI UX Training where he leads workshops focused on UX research, design facilitation, and UX copywriting. He has spent the past 18 years … More about Eric …[1][2] Think about your last few software projects. Was there a healthy balance between concrete business goals, meeting users’ needs, and shipping the product in a timely fashion? The key to striking this balance is a design process that accounts for complexity, addresses design...
About The Author PhD in artificial intelligence at UC Berkeley, with a focus on small neural networks in perception, for autonomous vehicles. Big fan of cheesecake, corgis, and … More about Alvin Wan …[1] Virtual reality is a new immersive medium for exploring content, whether that content is a film (Life of Pi), a game (Beat Saber) or a social experience (as depicted in Ready Player One). Despite its novelty, VR doesn’t require a drastically different toolset to...
About The Author Rachel Andrew is not only Editor in Chief of Smashing Magazine, but also a web developer, writer and speaker. She is the author of a number of books, including … More about Rachel Andrew …[1] Writing for a publication such as Smashing Magazine can help to build your reputation as an expert. In this article, Editor in Chief Rachel Andrew explains how to pitch to publications, and how to have the best chance of an...
When looking for the best hosting you want to factor in qualities such as speed, support, security, and cost. At SiteGround you will get the best value across the board. We especially enjoy working with their 24/7 expert support team. Put your trust in web hosting that was engineered for speed, built for security, and crafted with care.
Analyze how you generate leads and you can increase your bottom line easier and quicker than you might think. Successful businesses have relied on outside lead generation for millennia, dating back to the Silk Road and beyond. Do not be hard headed and think that one method will provide all lead generation for your business forever. Use multiple outlets, affiliates, and internet based properties to extend your lead generation far into the future.
The process of building a website is not as easy as people assume. The array of choices to create and build websites on the internet today is truly staggering. It comes as no surprise that with so many choices, suckers traps like Wix.com and similar services have begun to pop up all over the internet. Unfortunately, we have had to help multiple customers realize the dangers involved with companies like these because they did not understand the concept of a website as a whole. A website is a combination of multiple assets to present information in a desired format. When you use a service such as Wix.com, you are giving up your rights to multiple assets involved with your website. This can be harrowing for a business owner to learn after operating minimally for years. An apt comparison would be someone renovating, reconstructing, and modifying their home, only to find out they aren’t the owners and can’t sell the property for any return. This is the situation Wix website owners find themselves.