Open Source Tools and Plugins for Website Polls
In the past I have spent days constructing my own polls with JavaScript and PHP. It takes a lot of time developing the database and internal functions without any reference guide. But thankfully we...
View ArticleCollaborating With Adobe Fireworks On Large Design Teams
Working with people can be hard. But get it right, and you’ll be able to produce stunning work more smartly and quickly than ever before. With methodologies such as agile and lean influencing how...
View ArticleFostering Healthy Non-Professional Relationships
As Web designers and developers, we invest a lot of time and effort in nurturing professional relationships, including those with clients, prospective clients, coworkers, peers and others in the...
View ArticleScripts and Plugins for Analyzing Website Traffic Stats
Most webmasters agree that Google Analytics provides high-quality traffic analysis without much competition. But you can’t host their scripts on your own server and must rely on Google’s servers for...
View ArticlePicturefill 2.0: Responsive Images And The Perfect Polyfill
Not since the early days of web standards have I seen our community rally around a seemingly small issue: responsive images. Over the last four years (yeah, it’s been about four years), we’ve seen...
View ArticleCarrying out Successful Research for a Web Project
Conducting research for your web project is really simple and it doesn't have to take up much of your time. By planning and breaking down it into a few smaller steps you can save time and get the most...
View ArticleNext-Generation Responsive Web Design Tools: Webflow, Edge Reflow, Macaw
To prepare for a talk about the changing roles of designers and developers, given at HOW Interactive a few months back, I interviewed 20+ web shops. Validated by my own experience, I found that many...
View ArticleCreate a Single Page “About Me” Site With Prepros, Jade & Stylus
What You'll Be Creating Today we'll be learning how to create a static one page "About Me" website using the awesome free app Prepros from Alpha Pixels. Prepros is an interface tool which handles...
View ArticleThe Mystery Of The jQuery Object: A Basic Introduction
Have you ever come across a bit of JavaScript like $(".cta").click(function(){}) and thought, “What the $('#x') is that” If it looks like gibberish to you, then please read on. If you think that...
View ArticleIntroduction To Developing Fireworks Extensions (They’re Just JavaScript!)
One of the most powerful features of Adobe Fireworks is that you can extend its functionality. Almost anything you can do through Fireworks’ interface — and even some things that you can’t — can also...
View ArticleImproving Web Typography for Visually Impaired Users
We in the web industry often create for the majority, making our work tolerable for those in the minority. That isn't good enough. In this article we're going to examine ways to improve the...
View ArticleImproving Web Typography for Visually Impaired Users
We in the web industry often create for the majority, making our work tolerable for those in the minority. That isn't good enough. In this article we're going to examine ways to improve the...
View ArticleA Thorough Introduction To Backbone.Marionette (Part 3)
To help you tap the full potential of Marionette, we’ve prepared an entire eBook full of useful hands-on examples which is also available in the Smashing Library . — Ed. In this series on...
View ArticleBuilding With Gulp
Optimizing your website assets and testing your design across different browsers is certainly not the most fun part of the design process. Luckily, it consists of repetitive tasks that can be...
View ArticleCareer Advice For Graduating Web Design Students
It’s that time of year again: graduation, when students transition away from the classroom to what will hopefully be a long and successful career in their chosen industry. I recently said goodbye to...
View ArticleA User In Total Control Is A Designer’s Nightmare
How do you balance the creative control you give to the users, the usability of the product they make with your tool and the flexibility of that tool? We designers have always had a problem of handing...
View Article7 Dropbox-Powered Site Creation Platforms
Over the past couple of years Dropbox has grown into more than just a file storage and sharing service. Thanks to their generous storage and bandwidth allowances, ultra fast CDN, their various APIs,...
View ArticleCSS-Driven Internationalization In JavaScript
Writing front-end code often requires developers to address the problem of internationalization at some level. Despite the current standard 1 , which introduces a bunch of new tags, simply adding...
View Article6 Beginner “Safety First” Color Guidelines for the Web
I still vividly remember one of my earliest art classes when, as a small, eager child, I was presented with a range of bright colored paints. I recall the delight of seeing primary colors mix into...
View ArticleHow to Check for Dependencies in Sass Libraries
So far, I have written seven Sass libraries. Most of them are just a superset of functions which can be included then used in your projects to give you more power over the code. For instance,...
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