December 10, 2019 — Today, Rachel Andrew spoke about how to build a CSS layout. Follow along and learn how to use Grid and Flexbox, as well as why Rachel makes certain decisions as she builds out the layout. In this session, Rachel will be building a component of a layout, talking through her thinking as she does so. Is Flexbox or Grid the right method to use? How will the component respond to different screen sizes? And, what about those old browsers? Read more…

December 10, 2019 — “If you build it, they will come.” That’s certainly true when you put a lot of time and effort into building websites and PWAs for clients. But what happens when “they will come” becomes “too many of them came all at once and now the site’s gone down”? Traffic surges do happen. But rather than let your website become victim to them, Suzanne Scacca will show you how you can set it up to be the victor, with this guide. Read more…

December 9, 2019 — Brand illustrations are an adaptable and effective way to build a company’s visual brand. In this article, Yihui Liu outlines her process for developing a strong brand illustration system. Her approach has been refined over 10 years of study and professional experience in China and Europe, and draws examples from her latest work as Lead Designer at Spacebase. Read more…

December 6, 2019 — Every website or PWA you build should automate as much prospecting and selling as possible. The only thing is that visitors enter websites with various mindsets, depending on which part of the buying stage they’re at. This means that you can’t just take every person who enters the site through the same path. You have to design a custom sales funnel (or pathway) for each kind of buyer. In this article, Suzanna Scacca will tell you what you need to keep in mind. Read more…

December 5, 2019 — In this tutorial, Alvin wan will show you how to write the game mechanics for a virtual reality game, which is closely coupled with the real-time multiplayer elements of the game. The goal is to “turn on” all orbs, where an orb is “on” if it’s elevated and bright. An orb is “off” if it’s lower and dim. However, certain “dominant” orbs affect their neighbors. This forces both players to collaborate to solve the puzzle. Read more…

December 4, 2019 — Today, Tom Čakloš will show you how to create limits and rules to follow throughout the entire design process. There is an unlimited number of ways in which you can combine elements in a user interface. You may be struggling with all of the possibilities and trying to pick the best option among many “correct” options. This article is intended for beginner UI designers who want to learn how to make their designs more consistent and user-friendly. You don’t need a lot of experience in order to be able to follow the tips and tricks shared in it, so let’s dig in right away! Read more…

December 3, 2019 — Heydon Pickering’s new book “Inclusive Components” is here, and it’s shipping worldwide. The book explores accessible, robust solutions for the interface patterns we use every day. Jump to table of contents or get your book right away. Read more…

December 3, 2019 — Today, we broadcasted a live session on privacy UX, highlighting privacy UX patterns and strategies to consider when designing and building privacy-aware websites and apps. As the webinars have always been about sharing lessons learned with the community, we’d like to open them up to everybody, with Members having a chance to ask questions right after the session. Read more…

December 3, 2019 — In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about inclusive components. What does it mean to be inclusive, or let alone a component? And what has that got to do with accessibility? Drew McLellan talks to Smashing author Heydon Pickering to find out. Read more…

December 2, 2019 — Development workflows can easily get out of hand and start causing confusion and friction within teams — especially as they get bigger in size. There have been too many times when our code review was just about noticing that missing comma or the failing tests that never run before pushing to a remote repository. Thankfully, there are tools that can take this friction away, make developers’ workflows more straightforward and help us concentrate on the things that actually matter the most. Thanks to git and the hooks it provides, we have a great variety of automation with which we can set our development workflow and make our lives easier. Read more…