A roundup of Advent Calendar sites of interest to web designers and developers. From accessibility to UX, coding challenges to Perl, there really is something for everyone this December.
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Agile has had a long time to infiltrate software development. While the methodology advocates for “co-located, dedicated teams,” in its ubiquity Agile is frequently applied to teams partially or fully composed of part-time workers. While there are lessons to be taken from the practice, Agile must be adapted to support, rather than hinder, part-time teams. In this article, Philip Kiely will consider applying Agile to a team of 5-10 people each working 20 hours per week on a project.
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As a frontend developer, I want to apologize to the designers out there for all the misunderstandings that have happened in the past. I think it’s time for us developers to improve our awareness of the designers’ role and show them that we can — and should — look beyond our own screens.
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Every job comes with its own set of “things I wish I’d known before I started working here.” What kinds of questions can you ask during an interview to spot red flags before the company stabs the whole flagpole into your sacred UX heart? For this piece, veteran UX leader and author Robert Hoekman Jr looks back on 20 years in the profession to craft a counter-punch: a set of “things we should ask every company before going to work for them.”
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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 is going to go through the process for pitching, heavily based on her own experience as a writer and as Editor in Chief of Smashing. However, She’s also taken a look at the guidelines for other publications in order to help you find the right places to pitch your article ideas.
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The distributed team structure is known to offer many benefits for a company and its employees; however, this sort of work model also comes with its own unique set of obstacles. In 2018, Owl Labs found that 56% of the participating companies in their study adopted or allowed for some form of remote arrangement for its employees. While this organizational approach has revolutionized the way we perform our job functions, it’s also paved the way for new patterns to emerge in the way we interact with each other across the distance. In this article, Randy Tolentino will review how “remote soft-skills” can help with the challenge of building authentic connections with your distributed co-workers.
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While building a strong customer culture takes a multi-prong approach, workshops are fun and easy — perfect for jumpstarting a sluggish culture and giving participants the thinking tools necessary to filter decisions through the customer lens. In this article, Claire Mason has documented the process around four types of workshops that you can use to drive customer-centricity in your own companies. The workshops are divided into two categories: “general” and “project-specific”. General refers to workshops that are designed for anyone to participate. Project-specific workshops are best run with a particular, actionable outcome in mind.
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Developers are known to usually be the last ones who leave their fingerprints before a website or any sort of web product gets shipped. Obviously, a lot of responsibility is involved and the quality of their work can either make a project excel or go down the drain. In this article, Stefan Kaltenegger gives suggestions about what frontend developers can do on their end to better bridge the gap between designers and developers.
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Brainstorming seems to be just a fancy name for a usual discussion, but when organized right, it becomes a source of innovation. In this article, Slava Shestopalov brings you a step-by-step guide with tips and tricks, examples of slides, and preparation checklists. Brainstorming has a bright side: It’s a civilized process of generating ideas together. At least this is how it appears in the books on creativity. So, can we make it real? After reaching the end of this article, we hope that you’ll be able to organize brainstorming sessions with your colleagues and clients, and co-create something valuable.
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People who read Smashing Magazine, come to our conferences, and sign up as members. Given that we don’t ever get to meet or interact with the majority of folks who visit the site, this can make it quite difficult for us to better understand our readers and subscribers. Today, Rachel Andrew brings you a Smashing Survey. We want to find out about you, our readers, so that we can better bring you the tutorials, articles and resources that you need.
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