As UI designers, we’re always interested in learning, reading user research, understanding best practices and keeping up to date on all the latest approaches and tactics for building websites and applications.
One of the most exciting concepts we’ve started to apply to our thinking is the mobile-first approach, famously pioneered by designer Luke Wroblewski on his blog and then in his subsequent book. Generally, this approach provides a healthy way to gain focus, cut the fat and get to the heart of what’s important — for both content and interaction.
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For most websites, navigation is not particularly challenging. A primary navigation bar, supported by sub-navigation, is often enough. Typically, sub-navigation displays the parent, siblings and children of the current page.
A persistent primary navigation bar shows top-level pages, allowing users to move between sections. However, there is one class of website for which this traditional form of navigation falls short. It is what I refer to as a "mega-site".
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Back in 2009, Sergey Chikuyonok wrote an article to present a new way of writing HTML and CSS code. This revolutionary plugin, called Zen Coding, has helped many developers through the years and has now reached a new level.
Emmet, previously known as Zen Coding, is the most productive and time-saving text-editor plugin you will ever see. By instantly expanding simple abbreviations into complex code snippets, Emmet can turn you into a more productive developer.
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There are 3,997 different Android devices. Your navigation should work with all of them. C-Swipe can help: It is an alternative navigation pattern for tablets and mobile devices that is novel, ergonomic and localized.
This article provides a detailed walk-through of the design and code and provides a downloadable mini-app so that you can try out C-Swipe to see whether it’s right for your app.
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This post should be titled “Getting Ahead of Yourself.” “…By a Few Years,” actually. Here’s the deal: at the time I’m writing this, early 2013, there’s no way to accurately design for the Web using physical units, nor will there be for a very long time. But there is a way to design while knowing the physical characteristics of the device — or, at least, there will be in the very near future.
It’s called the “resolution media query”, and it’s been in the specification for media queries for some time. However, while it has been in the spec, that doesn’t mean anyone has actually implemented it yet. Fortunately, WebKit is leading the way and pushing for this feature to be implemented. So, how will we use this nifty little feature, exactly? Here’s how.
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Recently I shared with you some advice from the WordPress community to beginners. But what about if starting out is already a dim and distant memory? What if you're already so immersed in the world of WordPress that you dream of trac and bore your partner with talk of the latest thing you've achieved with custom post types?
Below are some tips from WordPress Pros from across the community. Many of them cover development, but there's also advice for business, for running your website, and, of course, for getting involved with the community.
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Every app tells a story. Apps like Pandora tell the story of music; apps like Tip N Split tell a story of a calculator; and apps like Temperature tell the story of weather. Then we have storybook apps like Alice for the iPad, which literally tell stories!
The story of the cluttered app market is well known! Biz Report recently reported that the number of app downloads is estimated to reach 56 billion in 2013. And the San Francisco Chronicle has just reported that over 700,000 apps are for sale in the iTunes Store. Getting noticed is a major concern for app developers, and getting noticed sometimes requires not only a breakthrough app, but a compelling story.
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Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, touchscreen mobile devices have exploded in popularity. They have introduced new problems, new solutions, new interactions, new ways of thinking and, of course, new costs to our clients.
The most important question on everyone’s mind — clients and developers alike — is, “How can we provide a great Web experience to our users on mobile?”
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Comics are known to be one of the most powerful communication tools, and are a unique way to communicate — using both image and text to effectively demonstrate time, function, and emotion.
Today's article is an excerpt from Kevin Cheng's "See What I Mean" — a book that walks you step by step through the process of using comics to communicate, and providing examples from industry leaders who have already adopted this method. Enjoy!
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