January 16, 2015 — Storytelling is not just a tool to engage users. It is also a powerful way to teach organizations more about their customers. Most organizations are reasonably good at gathering data on their users. But data often fails to communicate the frustrations and experiences of customers. A story can do that, and one of the best storytelling tools in business is the customer journey map. Think of the customer journey map as a poster pinned to the office wall. At a glance, people should be able to see the key touchpoints that a user passes through. It should remind them that the customer’s needs must always be at the forefront of their thinking. Read more…

January 14, 2015 — Professional automated testing software is a solution to a common problem: how to produce high-quality, robust and reliable software with the ever-growing complexity of technology and under massive competitive pressure. Automated software testing is a cost-effective solution to this problem. In this article, Ville-Veikko Helppi will walk you through a sample use case for test automation and will provide a downloadable example to get you started. Also, he’ll focus on different aspects of mobile test automation and explain how this relatively new yet popular topic can help mobile app and game developers to build better, more robust products for consumers. Read more…

January 13, 2015 — AJAX calls do not cover updates from the server, which are needed for the modern real-time and collaborative web. PubSub (as in “publish and subscribe”) is an established messaging pattern that achieves this. In this article, Alexander Gödde will look at precisely how PubSub solves the updating problem, and he’ll look at one particular solution (the WAMP protocol) that integrates both the calling of procedures on the server and PubSub into a single API. Read more…

January 12, 2015 — During the initial design process for your product, answers will come from brainstorming on the product and from execution at the highest level, with all necessary stakeholders (along with their egos). In this article, Chris Bank explains why defining your product matters and how to prepare and conduct creative exercises for kickoff meetings during the initial phase of product development. Read more…

January 9, 2015 — Creative thinkers tend to be balls of energy and productivity machines. Creativity is generally perceived to be something external, out of our control, or an inherent talent for a chosen few. But consider that creativity is fundamentally about ideas. Ideas are generated by thinking, and skills for thinking can be learned. Therefore, creativity, thinking and idea generation are skills that can be learned. Learning a variety of thinking skills will have a dramatic impact on your productivity and output. In this article, Shelley Walsh introduces five books that are bound to stimulate your thinking and reflection on creativity, as well as provide valuable, practical exercises that will improve your thinking and problem-solving skills. Read more…

January 7, 2015 — Print style sheets is the main thing that comes to mind if you mention printing with CSS. But CSS is also being used to format books, catalogs and brochures — content that may never have been designed to be a web page at all. In this article, Rachel Andrew will take a look at the CSS modules that have been created not for use in web browsers, but to deal with printed and paged media. She’ll explain how the selectors, properties and values that they introduce work. She’ll finish up with a working example that you can use as a starting point for your own experiments. Read more…

January 5, 2015 — We are humbled to release a set of 45 free icons available in SVG, PSD and PNG formats, released exclusively for Smashing Magazine and its readers. Designed by Print Express. You can use the icons in your commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is prohibited. Read more…

December 31, 2014 — 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 post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for January 2015. You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendars series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them? Read more…

December 30, 2014 — Web designers usually lose money on a project as a result of the client endlessly iterating on the design. After a few bad experiences, we avoid consulting with them. Unfortunately, this often makes interaction with the client even worse, so they interfere even more, creating a vicious cycle. But there is a way that enables you to produce outstanding design and maintain your profit margin! The answer lies in involving the client in the process, rather than excluding them. It involves collaborating with the client to produce a design. In this article, Paul Boag will show you how. Read more…

December 23, 2014 — Today, we’re honored to present to you a set of flat icons designed by Freepik. This set is completely free to use for commercial as well as your personal projects, including software, online services, templates and themes. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word. Note that this set is licensed under Creative Commons. Feel free to modify the size, color or shape of the icons. Read more…