1,379 articles from Smashing Magazine.
In this article, we take a look at the topic of context and variables in Hugo, a popular static site generator. You’ll understand concepts such as the global context, flow control, and variables in Hugo templates, as well as data flow from content files through templates to partials and base templates.
DevTools is very advanced and helpful, but can also be very intimidating and overwhelming. Let’s fix that. In this article, Vitaly reviews useful features and shortcuts for debugging in Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari.
Adding video to your application can increase customer engagement and satisfaction. But the exact opposite can occur when there are issues with the video playback: video stalls are frustrating and drive customers away. In this article, Doug Sillars will walk you through the steps to optimize the video on your website to ensure fast playback and reduce stalls.
A couple of weeks ago, we organized a [Form Design Masterclass](https://smashingconf.com/online-workshops/workshops/adam-silver), an online workshop with Adam Silver alongside 81 friendly and smart people. Today, Adam Silver shares his experience and details by highlighting what you as an attendee can expect from a Smashing Workshop, and things to keep in mind when running one.
Saul Bass is a graphic design legend. Responsible for title sequences in films like North by Northwest and Anatomy of a Murder, as well as a number of iconic posters and brand logos over the years. His work, in the words of Martin Scorsese, “distilled the poetry of the modern, industrialized world.” Film credits, brand logos, posters… Saul did it all, and the principles that informed his work are
Headless CMS is a powerful and easy way to manage content and access API. Built on React, Sanity.io is a seamless tool for flexible content management. It can be used to build simple to complex applications from the ground up. In this article, Ifeanyi Dike explains how to build a simple listing app with Sanity.io and React. The global states will be managed with Redux and the application will be s
Git has so many powerful features under the hood! From Interactive Rebase to Submodules and from the Reflog to File History, these advanced features help you become more productive and make fewer mistakes. In this article, Tobias explores some of the less known but very useful features in Git. You’ll learn how to recover deleted commits, clean up your commit history, use submodules to manage third
In this episode, we’re talking about HTML controls. Why are they so hard to style, and how might that change in the future? Drew McLellan talks to Microsoft’s Stephanie Stimac and Melanie Richards to find out.
We use abstractions and conventions to hide away the tricky and error-prone parts, which in turn makes it easier for everyone who needs to do the same task. The ideas Steven Frieson shares here should be actionable in most applications depending on your styling solution and browser support. Migrating to use this system is not very risky since stacking contexts are already scoped individually; you
Remote work is taking over the world, and the biggest obstacle remote teams face is emulating the natural communication that happens at the office. In this article, Obed Parlapiano shares his advice and tips on how to improve your team’s communication and productivity by creating habits and processes focused on improving collaboration.
Tooltips are powerful design patterns implemented to enhance the design experience by providing additional information precisely when users need it. The key to designing tooltips that fit seamlessly into the overall design is to plan for them early in the design process. Specifically, designing useful tooltips requires proper timing and proper implementation. In this article, Eric Olive will show
On your list of places where people might access your web app, Teams is probably number “not-on-the-list”. But it turns out that making your app accessible where your users are already working has some profound benefits. In this article, Tomomi Imura and Daisy Chaussee will take a look at how Teams makes web apps a first-class citizen, and how it enables you to interact with those apps in complete
The present and future of CSS are very bright indeed and if you take a pragmatic, progressive approach to your CSS, then things will continue to get better and better on your projects, too. Some of the really handy powers CSS gives you might have slipped you by, so in this article, Andy Bell will take a look into masonry layout, :is selector, clamp(), ch and ex units, updated text decoration, and
Let’s make this February more colorful! Apart from a new collection of wallpapers, we also have a little creativity challenge waiting for you this month. It’s the perfect occasion to share your ideas with the world — and win a smashing prize along the way. The wallpapers in this post come with and without a calendar for February 2021, and, as a little bonus goodie, you’ll also discover some famili
In this article, we look at some of the more advanced features of TypeScript, like union types, conditional types, template literal types, and generics. We want to formalize the most dynamic JavaScript behavior in a way that we can catch most bugs before they happen. We apply several learnings from all chapters of TypeScript in 50 Lessons, a book we’ve published here on Smashing Magazine late 2020
What makes a good chatbot experience? Most people think of witty responses and machine learning, but the basis of a chatbot UX is actually rooted in content strategy. In this article Marli Mesibov will answer those questions and identify what you as a content designer can do to make your chatbot successful. A poor chatbot simply says “I’m sorry, I don’t understand” on repeat (or worse “error”.) A
The promise of seamless design to code translation goes back to the early WYSIWYG page builders. Despite the admirable goal, their biggest flaw was the code that they generated. Skepticism remains to this day and whenever this idea reappears, the biggest concerns are always related to the quality and maintainability of the code. In this article, Miroslav Bekyarov will show you how to turn our stat
In this episode, we’re talking about Web Performance. What does the performance landscape look like in 2021? Drew McLellan talks to expert Harry Roberts to find out.
How to stay creative, focused, and organized when working remotely? In this article, Cosima Mielke has compiled some useful tools and resources to help you tackle some of the challenges of working remotely. The collection is by no means complete, but rather a selection of things that we found useful and that we hope will make your day-to-day work more productive and efficient, too.
Saying no is a skill. Saying yes to the wrong freelance opportunities can lead you toward misery and burnout, and we could all probably improve how mindful we are about our work, partners, and clients. For hungry freelancers, it can be hard to turn work away. But in the long run, saying no to a project that’s a bad fit will make you a better freelancer. This article will help freelancers and consu
In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of the changes we made on this very site — running on JAMStack with React — to optimize the web performance and improve the Core Web Vitals metrics. With some of the mistakes we’ve made, and some of the unexpected changes that helped boost all the metrics across the board. Hopefully, this little case-study will be useful to you, and perhaps there ar
why do we need blockchain? Blockchain is a safe way to record activities and keep data fresh while maintaining a record of its history compared to the traditional records or databases where hacks, errors, and downtimes are very possible. In this article, John Agbanusi explains how you can build a Node.js API from scratch by building and deploying an Ethereum Blockchain for decentralization. He als
In this tutorial, Fortune Ikechi is going to show you how to use Grommet as a UI library for React applications. He’ll use Grommet as a UI library of choice to create a pricing component, this would help you have a better understanding of how to use Grommet. This tutorial will be beneficial to readers who are interested in developing responsive components in their React application using Grommet.
Catch up on what’s been cookin’ at Smashing and explore some of the most popular community resources featured in our newsletter over the past few weeks. Spoiler: there are also new workshops, front-end & UX audits and truly smashing podcast episodes. This article covers pretty much everything you need to build fast experiences on the web today — from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques and
2020 was anything but normal. The world has changed, and so has our role as designers. We never know what the future will bring, but ultimately we shape it, and we can contribute more positive change to the world than we often think we can. Consumers had their lives shaken up and many businesses experienced new challenges as well as opportunities thanks to the novel events of the year.
When it comes to building a conversational chat assistant that could be used at a small or enterprise level, Dialogflow would most likely be one of the first options that would show up in your search list — and why wouldn’t it? It offers several features such as the ability to process audio and text inputs, provide dynamic responses using custom webhooks, connect to millions of Google-enabled devi
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and front-end techniques. Updated since 2016.
Let’s make 2021... fast! An annual front-end performance checklist, with everything you need to know to create fast experiences on the web today, from metrics to tooling and CSS/JavaScript techniques.
In this episode, we’re talking about Machine Learning. What sort of tasks can we put it to within a web development context? Drew McLellan talks to expert Charlie Gerard to find out.
GetX is an extra lightweight solution for state, navigation, and dependencies management for Flutter applications. Flutter is one of the fastest ways to build truly cross-platform native applications. It provides features allowing the developer to build a truly beautiful UI experience for their users, and in this article, Kelvin Omereshone will be looking at GetX’s benefits, features, and how to s
Developing a Shopify app and being able to sell it are two different things. While you might be a very skilled app developer, that’s not always enough for Shopify merchants to decide to install a newly released and unreviewed app on their sites. If you want to give merchants a reason to install and use your Shopify app, there are four things you need to do.
This article is a response to the Platform Adjacency Theory by Alex Russell, with specific takes on WebUSB and some alternative proposals for a way forward.
The founding principles of the World Wide Web have been warped by years of over-reliance on advertising. Fixing that imbalance and moving toward a more ethical, open web means relaying the foundations, with sites showing other ways are possible. Incorporate sustainability into your designs. Communicate what you do and how you survive and what people can do to help. Progress does not happen on its
What better way could there be to start the new year than with some fresh inspiration? Our collection of wallpapers for January 2021 is bound to put a smile on your face — and maybe spark new ideas, too.
This article is the first part of an upcoming series that provides a practical introduction to Dependency Injection in a manner that immediately permits you to realize its many benefits without being hampered down by theory. Today, Jamie Corkhill will depict only a very practical example of dependency injection in use and mostly neglect the theoretical attributes. He does it this way in order to m
In this episode, we’re taking a look back at 2020. Who did we speak to in our episodes this year, and what did we learn? Let’s listen back to some clips to find out.
In this article, Maggie Mackenzie investigates the intricate dynamics associated with the relationship between creativity and technology and discussing whether or not creativity still exists. She will explore what creativity looks like and who (or what) is it now coming from. Ultimately, if creativity is truly being impacted by technology, is there a way to find the balance between the human and t
Vuex is the go-to state management library for Vue applications, and the Vue core team has some big plans to make it better than ever. Vuex 5 will work more like a composition API alternative but keeps all the benefits of using an official state management library. In this article, Joseph Zimmerman will take a look at what will be changing.
Progressive web applications are proven to raise user engagement and keep the costs down effectively. Building a modern PWA requires more than just the core setup to keep up with the user’s expectations. Today, Gert Svaiko will take a first-hand look at adding contemporary characteristics to PWAs, from functioning offline to user-friendly permission requests.
When you’re working on a new project, what is more crucial than choosing the right features to develop? However, the exercise often turns into a spectacle of team voting. As a result, decisions change many times down the road. In thi article, Slava Shestopalov will talk about the pitfalls of popular prioritization techniques and approaches to reducing bias and disagreement.
In this article, Ankita Masand will show you how to build an event-based application and send a web-push notification when a particular event is triggered. She’ll set up database tables, events, and scheduled triggers on the Hasura GraphQL engine and wire up the GraphQL endpoint to the front-end application to record the stock price preference of the user.
We know how difficult it can sometimes be to stay on top of things. In this monthly edition, you can read more about what’s cookin’ at Smashing and explore some of the most popular resources featured in our newsletter in the past few weeks.
Implementing best SEO practice can produce immediate results, but long-term performance requires long-term maintenance. Besides, the journey is more important than the destination, isn’t it? The most beautiful, spectacular site in the world won’t do anyone much good if people can’t find it on Google (or Bing, or DuckDuckGo). This is not an exhaustive list, but hopefully there is enough to help you
Today, Suzanne Scacca is going to look at “The Website Dilemma”. In other words, is it possible to build an authoritative, lead generating, high converting website without manipulating visitors into doing what you want? If you follow social media’s lead, they’re one and the same. If you’d prefer not to trade your customers’ well-being for profit, keep reading.
In this episode, we’re talking about GraphQL. What is it, and how does solve some common API problems? Drew McLellan talks to expert Eve Porcello to find out.
If you have used Redux at any point while developing an application to manage `state`, you will most definitely have come across reducers. In this tutorial, Fortune Ikechi will show you the concept of reducers and how they work, specifically in React applications. In order to understand and better use Redux, a solid understanding of reducers is essential. Reducers provide a way to update an applic
Software and apps often solve very complex problems for businesses and consumers in the way of sales, marketing, finances, and so on. But offering a product that solves your users’ problems isn’t enough. If the UI is just as complex as the original problem, user churn is going to be high. Today, we’re going to look at some tips for designing a simple UI regardless of your solution’s complexity.
Modern websites aren’t inseparable from screens any more. Between phone assistants, home speakers, and screen readers, more and more people are using the web without even looking at it. Websites need to evolve in kind. In the article, Frederickk O’Brien will try to break down what that means for websites going forward, what designers can do about it, and why this might finally be a leap forward to
Research is an essential part of creating good UX. We are often in roles where we interact with our users in order to collect data to inform our UX. We need to ensure our UX research is compliant with ethical standards of research conducted with humans. To do this, we need to have an awareness of potential ethical issues in research, training on how to conduct ethical research, and a systematic re
The 2019 [Capgemini research institute](https://www.capgemini.com/research-institute/)’s report published after a research on the use of chat assistants showed a drastic 76% increase in customer satisfaction from organizations where chat assistants where built and incorporated into their services. But how does [Dialogflow](https://cloud.google.com/dialogflow/docs), a product from Google’s ecosyste
MDX gives you the minimalist ergonomics of Markdown with the flexibility of custom components. By combining MDX with Sanity and Next, you can build robust, team-friendly content editing experiences while keeping the pleasant and efficient developer experience of building Jamstack sites with React.
Do you like building relationships and exploring creative options? At Smashing, we are looking for a team member who’ll take good care of advertising and sponsorships across the range of everything we do at Smashing — from the magazine to our conferences. Interested? We’d love you to join us.
