In this article, Owais Afaq gives you hands-on access to his journey of creating a digital assistant capable of connecting with any system via a RESTful API to perform various tasks. He will create a chatbot using Node.js and Microsoft’s Bot Framework SDK; send the data collected from the user to an API; set up both local and server environments; and deploy it live on dev.botframework.com. In part 2 of this series, you’ll learn how to add natural language processing using LUIS to make our chatbot intelligent enough to understand human language and to extract information from a user’s utterances.
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Mad Libs is a game in which one player prompts others for a list of words to substitute for blanks in a story, before reading the story aloud. In this article, Tom Hudson will use this game to show you how to build your own action for Google Home. He’s detailed steps to build a custom mad lib action, and He’ll explain why certain steps are important and ultimately how they fit into the voice services world. After this exercise, you will better understand voice services and begin your path to programming actions for Google Home.
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Vincent Le Moign spent two years on designing a set that Cosima Mielke is very happy to feature part of it as a freebie today. 100 icons in total that can be resized and customized to your liking (AI, EPS, SVG, Sketch, Iconjar, and PDF versions are available). Black and duo-tone blue versions are already on board when you download the set. The EGO icon collection shines with its well-balanced, geometric style — perfect to make a bold statement without being obtrusive. Please note that this icon set is free for both private and commercial use. No attribution is required, however, reselling of the bundle isn’t allowed.
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Scrolling opens a lot of new doors to designers. The technique of long scrolling allows users to traverse chunks of content without any interruption or additional interaction — information simply appear as the user scrolls down the page. Long scrolling has benefits such as translating well to mobile devices, or having more potential to engage users. In this article, Nick Babich will discuss some of the benefits, things to consider and quick tips for long scrolling.
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It used to be enough for user interface elements to “look professional” or simply to “add polish” to a website. But in the past few years we’ve come to expect more personal interactions and stronger relationships with the apps we use. Our relationship with the web has evolved dramatically over the past few years. It is a much more intimate relationship than it was before we had smartphones and tablets. Physically, the web is in our pockets. It’s on the couch. Custom images are a powerful design tool. They can tell a story and convey a distinct personality. Custom illustrations can be especially impactful. They can make our audience feel personally connected to an app or website, while being an integral part of the design.
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Imagine that you get up to get a glass of water, but the exact reason why you did that at that particular time isn’t easy to explain. It was “too hot” and you were “somewhat thirsty,” but also maybe “a little bored.” Each of these qualities isn’t either/or, but instead fall on a spectrum of values. In contrast, software is usually built on Boolean values. You set isHot to true and if isHot && isThirsty && isBored, then you call getWater(). If you use code like this to control your game characters, then they will appear jerky and less natural. In this article, Lou Franco will show you how to add intelligent behavior to the non-player characters of a game using an alternative to conventional Boolean logic.
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Adam Silver redesigned Boots.com so that each panel became its own page, removing the need for accordions and AJAX. This inconspicuous and humble UX pattern is flexible, performant and inclusive by design. Having a lot on one page might give the illusion of simplicity, but like algebraic equations, they are difficult to deal with unless they are broken down. Adam Silver has not come across another design pattern that has as many benefits as this one. This is one of those times when simple is just that: simple.
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What’s going on in the industry? What new techniques have emerged recently? What insights, tools, tips and tricks is the web design community talking about? Anselm Hannemann is collecting everything that popped up over the last week in his web development reading list so that you don’t miss out on anything. The result is a carefully curated list of articles and resources that are worth taking a closer look at.
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For every application Yury Dymov works on, he needs to decide how to manage the data. The problem can be broken down into the following three subproblems: Fetch data from the back end, store it somewhere locally in the front-end application, retrieve the data from the local store and format it as required by the particular view or screen. In this article, Yury sums up his experience with consuming data from JSON, the JSON API and GraphQL back ends, and it gives practical recommendations on how to manage front-end application data.
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if an app is not useful, it will have no practical value for the user. Even if the app is useful but requires a lot of effort, people won’t bother learning how to use it. Good design has a clear focus on key user goals, and it removes all obstacles from the user’s way by bringing clarity to the interface. In this article, Nick Babich brings you closer to seven UX design tips that are key for creating really great mobile user experiences.
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