This article is a peek behind the curtain of how content is managed here at Smashing Magazine. In it, you’ll get a tour of an article’s full lifecycle, from a basic outline to the sort of thing you’re reading right this second.

Let’s play with images and experiment with CSS masks. The idea is fairly simple: take a single <img> tag and harness the power of CSS to accomplish complex hover transitions. Through different demos, you will see how CSS masks combined with gradients allow us to create fancy effects — with efficient, reusable code.

Running a workshop can be an effective alternative to traditional, long-standing meetings. To help ensure its success, Ben Shih introduces the concept of an inclusive workshop. In Part 1 of the series, you discover the fundamentals of inclusivity and get some solid guidance on how to plan an inclusive remote workshop.

Gradients are a powerful CSS feature. We use them for texture, depth, and even to hide parts of elements with CSS masking. This article covers another interesting way to use gradients — as a hover effect that affects the appearance of other elements around the hovered element.

Pratik Joglekar takes a philosophical approach to remind designers about the lost joy within themselves by effectively placing massive importance on mindfulness, introspection, and forward-looking. Without joy, the work we do would feel meaningless. To prevent it from happening, check out a few ideas that would help rediscover that spark of joy.

Is the Test Pyramid really dead? Discover the more contemporary testing strategies and evaluate the Test Pyramid’s relevance in today’s software development practices.

In this article, Joas Pambou builds the tool to provide a sentiment score in real-time with enhanced user experience by providing multilingual support. You will use an OpenAI library called Whisper that transcribes audio files into text and detects the language, and Gradio, a UI framework, to establish the interface.

Let’s get ready for September with some fresh wallpaper designs! Created with love by artists and designers from across the globe, the wallpapers in this collection come in versions with and without a calendar. Enjoy!