We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. And as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one—desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd.
This creativity mission has been going on for over five years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for May 2013. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper!
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“Content matters!” “Comp with real copy!” “Have a plan!” By now, you’ve probably heard the refrain: making mobile work is hard if you don’t consider your content. But content knowledge isn’t just about ditching lorem ipsum in a couple of comps.
Countless organizations now have a decade or two’s worth of Web content — content that’s shoved somewhere underneath their redesigned-nine-times home page. Content that’s stuck in the crannies of some sub-sub-subnavigation. Content that’s clogging up a CMS with WYSIWYG-generated markup.
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The beauty of typography has no borders. While most of us work with the familiar Latin alphabet, international projects usually require quite extensive knowledge of less familiar writing systems from around the world.
The aesthetics and structure of such designs can be strongly related to the shape and legibility of the letterforms, so learning about international writing systems will certainly help you to create more attractive and engaging Web designs.
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This article is packed with a number of quirks and issues you should be aware of when working with CSS3 transitions. Please note that I’m not showing any workarounds or giving advice on how to circumvent the issues discussed.
Alex MacCaw has already written a very insightful and thorough article on “All You Need to Know About CSS Transitions.” Whereas Alex wrote about achieving particular effects, I’m going to talk about the technical background, especially the JavaScript-facing side. Pitfalls — this article is all about pitfalls.
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One of the issues we need to be concerned with in responsive design is how to maintain hierarchy as elements on the screen are resized and reflowed. Trent Walton first called attention to the issue with his post “Content Choreography,” which showed how visual hierarchy gets lost when columns are dropped below one another.
While techniques exist to help with part of the problem, the solution also requires conscious thought in how you structure blocks of content in your HTML. You need to think about how you’ll want to rearrange blocks of content as your design moves from single to multiple columns.
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Update (24.04.2013): A standalone eBook Bundle option is now available as well. The bundle contains two eBooks — for iBooks, Kindle, Nook and most other eBook readers and devices.
It’s that time of the year again: We’ve started working on a brand new Smashing Book! The book will be as ambitious as it is beautiful — a unique, extraordinary artefact, filled with valuable insight for Web designers and developers.
The Smashing Book #4: New Perspectives on Web Design will consist of two hardcover books, “Coding” and “Design,” each with approximately eight chapters, both neatly packaged into one slipcase. New Perspectives will have practical tips on current practices and common design problems. We strongly believe in print and in the benefits of tangible books. And this time, we’d like to invite you to join us as we embark on the journey of publishing!
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Like any overzealous teenager aspiring to be a Web designer back in 1999, I found myself in an “Electronic Design” class, behind the wheel of one of those old-school aqua iMacs. If you found yourself in a similar situation, chances are you were given Adobe Photoshop as your vehicle for designing the Web.
For me, it was version 6.0. No matter which version you had, undoubtedly you know someone who can “trump” you by having adopted an earlier version. We designers take much pride in this, in case you hadn’t noticed.
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With a phone or tablet in your pocket, you get instant access to a huge variety of podcasts — both audio and video. They keep you entertained while you’re commuting or on a long plane ride, and they provide useful information that you can integrate into your daily routine as a Web professional.
Keeping track of the ever-changing selection and finding quality podcasts that feature exactly the topics you are interested in can be painful. That’s where we come in. We have put together an extensive list that includes your soon-to-be favorite podcast — whether you are a developer looking for coding advice, a designer seeking inspiration or a startup businessperson. So, tune in, stay informed and learn new skills!
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Static typing is great because it keeps you out of trouble. Dynamic typing is great because it gets out of your way and lets you get your work done faster. The debate between strongly and dynamically typed languages rages on, but understanding the issue starts with weak typing and languages such as C.
C treats everything like a number. A character like a or 7 or % is the number of the ASCII symbol representing it; “true” and “false” are just 1 and 0. C defines variables with types such as int for integer and char for character, but that just defines how much memory to use. To access the variable and print it out, I need to know the type.
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