1,379 articles from Smashing Magazine.
Accessibility is often overlooked or bolted on to the end of a project from the experiences in Todd’s career in web development and design. The case for accessibility is something we as people who create and build things for the web should be implementing and advocating for from the inception of a project to the release or handoff and beyond.
Even though Vue.js claims to have an approachable minimalist framework that can be incrementally adaptable, it can be a little bit overwhelming when starting as a Vue.js newbie. In this tutorial, Uma Victor will take a look at some tips and tools to help you become a better Vue developer. You will start with some helpful insights on organizing your projects for scale and other great points to note
In this article, Emiliano explains why Figma Interactive Components (now in beta) will improve how we create prototypes. The new feature reduces the time and effort needed to create interactions by bringing down the cost of design exploration. There’s no need for previous Figma knowledge and experience — all you’ll need is a free Figma account if you’d like to try it out for yourself.
There is an array of Headless CMSes out there. In this article, we delve into headless CMS features to satisfy your content editors, marketers and yourself as a developer. For the experience headless practitioner, this could be a checklist to see what’s new out there. For those starting out on their headless journey, this could be a guide on what to look for.
HSL colors are very powerful when we use them the right way. They can save us time and effort and even help us to explore options for how to apply color to design. In this article, Ahmad Shadeed explains what HSL is, how to use it, and shares some of the useful use-cases and examples that you can use right away in your current projects.
Email sending functionality is an integral part of every digital product that involves communication with its users (read: any online service). With so many tools and approaches, email still has quite a few pain points, both for developers and email marketers. Email is difficult because it has too many aspects to set and a few instances with no common rules to follow.
When writing front-end tests, you’ll find a lot of pitfalls along the way. In sum, they can lead to lousy maintainability, slow execution time, and — in the worst case — tests you cannot trust. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this article, I will talk about common mistakes developers make, at least in my experience, and, of course, how to avoid them. Testing doesn’t need to be painful, afte
The web is single-threaded. This makes it increasingly hard to write smooth and responsive apps. Workers have a bad rep, but can be an important and useful tool in any web developer
Let’s welcome July with some fresh desktop wallpapers. Designed by artists and designers from around the world, they are available with and without a calendar. Enjoy!
Static Generation is great for performance — until the app gets too big and build-times go through the roof. Today, we’ll have a look at how Netlify’s fresh On-Demand Builders can fix that. Additionally, we pair it up with Next.js’ Incremental Static Regeneration for the best user and developer experience. And, of course, benchmark those results!
In this episode, we’re talking about Chakra UI. What is it and how can it help with your React projects? Drew McLellan talks to expert Mike Cavaliere to find out.
In this article, Manuel explains why Emmet is one of his favorite productivity tools for writing HTML and CSS, and how you can create custom Emmet snippets in Visual Studio Code to help you improve your front-end workflows even more. It takes some time to create these snippets, but it’s worth the effort because you can customize Emmet to your personal preferences, automate repetitive tasks and sav
This article explains how we can connect different types of content in a Next.js application. With this technique, we can add any kind of one-to-one, one-to-many, or even many-to-many relationship to our projects. Today, Dom Habersack is going to build a blog with Next.js that supports two or more authors. You will attribute each post to an author and show their name and picture with their posts.
A UX audit is a simple and efficient way to check whether design elements are performing their function. It’s also a good way to look at an existing design from a fresh perspective. This article is a case study of how a UX audit affects a UI. It explains how a famous educational platform can be analyzed edX against Jakob Nielsen’s usability guidelines. To get started, Mark Lankmiller shares all of
In the dynamic and unpredictable environments in which we work, even the most carefully crafted solutions can have a short shelf life. When we accept that our work is impermanent and our problem-solving abilities are limited, our goal can shift from delivering full solutions to developing tools that empower our users to adaptively design for themselves.
What’s the state of HTML Email? How do we build and establish a successful design system? Frontend and design are remarkably complex these days. That’s why we invite kind, smart folks from the community to run [online workshops](https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/) for all of us to learn together. And we have new ones coming up, and we’d like to kindly welcome you to join in.
Automated testing is an important part of any software project, including testing for accessibility. There are already tools for linting and integration testing accessibility, but what about end-to-end testing with real assistive technology? Since I hadn’t seen this before, I set out to build Auto VO, a driver for the VoiceOver screen reader.
After years of innovation in both tools and processes, the struggle between design and development is still real. This article focuses on the best practices for improving the design to development processes and how cutting-edge solutions, such as UXPin powered by Merge technology, can help in facilitating the change.
Do you have to process data manually because it is served through images or scanned documents? An image-to-text conversion makes it possible to extract text from images to automate the processing of texts on images, videos, and scanned documents. In this article, we look at how to convert an image to text with React and Tesseract.js(OCR), preprocess images, and deal with the limitations of Tessera
Voice assistants are currently the most popular use case for voice user interfaces. However, because voice assistants give feedback by talking to the user, assistants can only solve simple user tasks such as setting an alarm or playing music. In order for voice user interfaces to really break through, feedback to the user must be visual instead of auditive.
Next.js has a file-based routing system in which each page automatically becomes a route based on its file name. Each page is a default exported React component from the pages directory that can be used to define the most common route patterns. This article will guide you through almost everything you need to know about Routing in Next.js and point you in the direction of related topics and concep
Image placement on the modern web is highly intentional, helping to communicate the overall purpose of a page or view. This means that nearly every image you declare needs to have an alternate description. Nulling an image indicates that it is for decorative purposes only. In this context, decorative means that the image does not visually communicate information that is important to understanding
In a new short series of posts, we highlight some of the useful tools and techniques for developers and designers. Recently we’ve covered HTML Emails and SVG Generators. This time we look into different kinds of tools to help you streamline your accessibility testing process. Don’t miss the next one.
When developing themes and plugins for WordPress, we need to test them in different environments. How can we create multiple testing sites on our computer, quickly and easily, without having to become a sysadmin? If our themes and plugins contain custom blocks, testing them for all different versions is imperative. At the very minimum, we need to worry about two versions of Gutenberg: the one ship
In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about image optimization. What steps should we follow for performant images in 2021? We talk to expert Addy Osmani to find out.
Spoiler alert: tooltips, modals, tabs, carousels, and dropdown menus are some of the user interface components that require more than CSS. To ensure accessibility of your interface, JavaScript is a necessary addition to accomplish focus management, respond to keyboard events, and toggle ARIA attributes.
Design often revolves around visuals, but the other senses deserve love too. In this article, we tune in to audio features that are making sites sing. Most of us have had the misfortune of crossing bad examples (auto-playing videos being a particularly egregious example) but audio can give web experiences a whole new dimension when applied well. What follows are some astounding sounds from the Wor
We don’t need to write everything from scratch every single time. With boilerplates and starter kits, we can set up our projects faster, and get to work immediately. We’ve also just recently covered CSS auditing tools, CSS generators, accessible front-end components and VS code extensions — you might find them useful, too. This collection is by no means complete, but rather a selection of things t
Building a faster website can be a rocket task these days. There are so many things to consider, so it’s challenging to get everything right. Here are some less-known tools that might help you get there.
What makes relational selector one of the most requested features and how are we, as developers, working around not having it? In this article, we’re going to check the early spec of the :has selector, and see how it should improve the CSS workflow once it’s released.
It’s here! For the last year, we’ve been working with Addy Osmani on a new Smashing Book all around image optimization. And now it’s here. Meet “Image Optimization”, our deep-dive guide to understand how to deliver high-quality images on the web fast. 528 pages. From formats and compression to delivery and maintenance. Get the book right away!
In this guide, Prince Chukwudire will show you how to build a simple geocoding app from scratch, using Vue.js and Mapbox. He’ll cover the process from building the front-end scaffolding up to building a geocoder to handle forward geocoding and reverse geocoding. To get the most out of this guide, you’ll need a basic understanding of JavaScript and Vue.js and how to make API calls.
Modern browsers provide good support for JavaScript modules, but module bundlers such as webpack stay a critical part of the JavaScript toolchain. Module bundlers such as webpack, Parcel, Rollup and also Google’s Closure Compiler were written to create optimized bundles of your code for your end-user’s browser to download and execute. In this article, Nwani Victory will take a deep dive into what
Writing large-scale Vue applications can be a challenge. Using shared state in your Vue 3 applications can be a solution to reducing this complexity. There are a number common solutions to solving state. In this article, I will dive into the pros and cons of approaches like factories, shared objects, and using Vuex. I’ll also show you what is coming in Vuex 5 that might change how we all use share
Google’s Core Web Vitals initiative has taken the SEO and Web Performance worlds by storm and many sites are busy optimizing their Page Experience to maximize the ranking factor. The Cumulative Layout Shift metric is causing trouble to a lot of sites, so let’s have a look at ways of addressing any issues for that metric.
Getting a good performance score from Google is hard for any website — but doing so for an online store is even harder. We achieved green scores — even several for mobile. Every front-end developer is chasing the same holy grail of performance: green scores in Google Page Speed. In this article, Jennifer Brehm is going to highlight some of the work she did and how her team was able to achieve thei
In this episode, we’re talking about React performance. What factors slow our React apps down, and how can we fix it? Drew McLellan talks to expert Ivan Akulov to find out.
Amazon allows visitors to display prices in their own currency. Thanks to *ExchangeRatesApi.io*, we can do the same for our online shops, providing a better experience to our customers. Let’s find out how.
What could be a better way to welcome June than with some colorful inspiration? Well, we might have something for you: wallpapers created with love by artists and designers from across the globe.
In this article, we’ll be re-using the foundational WYSIWYG Editor built in the first article to build a commenting system for a WYSIWYG Editor that enables users to select text inside a document and share their comments on it. Let’s dig in!
Meet useful Visual Studio Code extensions for web developers: little helpers to minimize slow-downs and frustrations, and boost developer’s workflow along the way. Recently, we’ve also covered CSS auditing tools, CSS generators and accessible front-end components — you might find them useful, too. In this post, we look into useful VS Code extensions for front-end development, from fine productivit
While web builders have been around for a long time, it wasn’t until recently that they became practical for professional use. Closing the gap between design and code has become the north star for many companies and we are seeing a wave of tools that deliver on this promise. One such product is Editor X, which we’ll review in this article.
Discover which SVG patterns we should avoid and which patterns are the most inclusive when comparing different combinations of OSs, browsers, and screen readers. Carie will also be running an online workshop on Accessible Front-End Patterns all around front-end accessibility.
Mistakes. These cruel villains do not even stop at the beautiful world of software development. But although we cannot avoid making mistakes, we can learn to undo them! In this article, Tobias Günther will show you the right tools for your daily work with Git. You might want to check the first article of the series as well.
Web fonts are often terrible for web performance and none of the font loading strategies are particularly effective to address that. If you want to use web fonts your choices are basically Flash of Invisible Text (aka FOIT) or Flash of Unstyled Text (FOUT). Neither option has really “won out” because neither is really satisfactory, to be honest. Upcoming font options may finally deliver on the pro
CSS Container queries bring media queries closer to the target elements themselves and enables them to adapt to virtually any given container or layout. In this article, Adrian Bece is going to cover CSS container query basics and how to use them today with progressive enhancement or polyfills.
In this article, Shalabh Vyas will show you how to build a WYSIWYG/Rich-Text Editor that supports rich text, images, links and some nuanced features from word processing apps. We will use SlateJS to build the shell of the editor and then add a toolbar and custom configurations. The code for the application is available on GitHub for reference.
Our workshops bring in knowledgeable, kind folks from the community to explore real-life solutions to real-life problems, live, with you. Front-end and design are remarkably complex these days. That’s why we invite kind, smart folks from the community to run online workshops for all of us to learn together. And we have new ones coming up, and we’d like to kindly welcome you to join in.
At the moment of adding authentication and authorization to our web applications, there are some things that we should evaluate, e.g. whether we need to create our own security platform or whether we can rely on an existing third-party service. Let’s see how we can implement authentication and authorization in Next.js apps, with Auth0.
With such a complex multi-level navigation, showing the breadth of options requires quite a bit of space. Think of large eCommerce retailers and large corporate sites, catering to many audiences and having plenty of entry points. Do we need mega-dropdown hover menus in 2021? Probably not. Let’s explore things to keep in mind when designing and building a mega-dropdown, alternatives to hover menus
Three years ago, we published a comprehensive introduction to the basic use of SVGator. At that time it was an app meant solely for animating SVG files created in other apps. Two years ago, we introduced you to a new version of SVGator and its improved animation capabilities. Today, we are taking a closer look at SVGator 3.0, a new major release of the popular SVG application that lets you create,
In this episode, we’re talking about VisBug. What is it, and how is it different from the array of options already found in Chrome DevTools? Drew McLellan talks to its creator Adam Argyle to find out.
Google’s “Page Experience Update” will start rolling out in June. At first, sites that meet Core Web Vitals thresholds will have a minor ranking advantage in mobile search for all browsers. Search is important to any business, and this is the story of how Beau Hartshorne and his team at Instant Domain Search improved their Core Web Vitals scores. Plus, an open-source tool they’ve built along the w
Since its early days, JavaScript programs have grown in complexity and the number of tasks they perform. The need to compartmentalize such tasks into closed scopes of execution became apparent. “Tree-shaking” is a must-have performance optimization when bundling JavaScript. In this article, we dive deeper on how exactly it works and how specs and practice intertwine to make bundles leaner and more
They are everywhere. Confusing and frustrating design patterns that seem to be chasing you everywhere you go, from one website to another. Perhaps it’s a disabled submit button that never communicates what’s actually wrong, or tooltips that — once opened — cover the input field just when you need to correct a mistake. In this new series of articles on UX, we take a closer look at some frustrating
Over a decade ago, we set out to send a [truly smashing newsletter](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/the-smashing-newsletter/) with useful tips and techniques for designers and developers. The first issue was sent out in early 2009. Today marks the day we sent out our 300th edition of the Smashing Newsletter. This article is a little celebration in which we share little Smashing stories from peopl
In more recent years, design systems and component libraries have gained popularity. There is also a desire to build once, deploy anywhere. Meaning a component developed in isolation is intended to work in any number of contexts to make building complex interfaces more efficient and consistent. CSS container queries have landed and are now available for experimentation. Let’s look at what problem
At the beginning of 2020, the SmashingConf team was ready for a new year. We had so many things that excited us. New speakers, new workshops, new cities, new attendees, new experiences. And as we all know, 2020 had other ideas. With so many people working from home, we thought we would bring our [Smashing workshops](https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/) from our home offices to yours — but h
Want to get started with React but struggling to find a good place to start? This article should have you covered. We’ll focus on some of the main concepts of React and then we’ll be building a game from scratch!
A good management of your product records, i.e. all documents associated with your product — saves time, reduces anxiety, boosts onboarding and makes you ready for vacations or sudden leaves. All product specialists should know the basics. Of course, it would be easier for you to find, say, your July report for investors if everyone on the team named and structured their assets consistently. Let’s
