It's always great to have a little toolbox with just the right tools waiting for you when you need them. What if you are about to start working on a new project which should apply the material design language introduced by Google last year? What if you had just a good starter kit with everything you need to dive into the creative process without being distracted by routine tasks?
We're... Read More
As I was flying back from the Smashing Conference in New York, I wondered whether it was a success. This wasn’t an original thought. We are always wondering what makes a conference good and what elements will make industry workers stay away.
Good and bad are such subjective terms, though, with almost as many expectations as there are attendees. We decided that just looking at the numbers... Read More
Take any new interface design or display technology, and chances are that someone somewhere has already compared it to Minority Report. The 2002 dystopian film, with its see-through screens and gesture-driven interfaces, is remembered more for its futuristic tech than for the insidiousness of the technology — pre-crime prediction — that was its actual focus. It continues to be the standard by... Read More
I’m going to let you in on a little secret: the best writers, be it your favorite authors or those that write for Smashing Magazine, don’t do it alone. Often, they work with an editor (or two), who will help them coalesce their words into something more compelling or easier to understand.
Having worked with several editors — and having been a technical editor myself — I’ve really come... Read More
Fortunately, learning is not limited to only a small minority of people anymore; it is not even limited to visiting a school or a university. The Internet makes it possible for us to distribute knowledge at a small price, and is full of resources to expand everyone's knowledge on an enormous variety of topics.
Since learning is a lifelong task that doesn't stop after pursuing a certain... Read More
In this article, we’ll go over the concepts and techniques required to build a command line tool using Node.js and PhantomJS. Building a command line tool enables you to automate a process that would otherwise take a lot longer.
Command line tools are built in a myriad of languages, but the one we’ll focus on is Node.js. For those short on time, I’ve condensed the core process into... Read More
Designing and developing can be time-consuming, especially when the project involves a new challenge, putting the team or freelancer into unknown territory. Moreover, time is a key factor in productivity. Working efficiently enables us to deliver better value at a competitive price.
However, some steps can be repeated for every project. These are steps we know and should make as quick... Read More
Few applications feel as complete as Adobe’s InDesign. First released in 1999 as a direct attack against the then-industry standard, Quark, the page-layout application has been made faster and more feature-rich with each iteration. But even the best applications lack some features.
Luckily, Adobe realized this some years ago and opened the doors to allow designers to expand this beloved... Read More
Nearly half a year ago, we introduced our eBook subscription model, also known as the Smashing Library. We knew we were onto something good, realizing that the Smashing Library was the next step in offering quality content — at a price you’ll still be able to afford all of the coffee you need to stay up long enough to read the entire library and, of course, the free eBooks.
To give you a... Read More
