CategoryCoding

September 17, 2013 — This article scratches the surface of the Three.js library. Once you are comfortable with the API, experimenting with particles, mapping and more complicated meshes can yield incredible results. Three.js is a gold mine for creating beautiful and complex Web experiments. Taking the extremely simple demonstration explained here and turning it into a mind-blowing experiment merely takes experimentation and the willingness to try new things. Read more…

September 3, 2013 — Progressive enhancement has become a bit of a hot topic recently, most recently with Tom Dale [conclusively showing it to be a futile act, but only by misrepresenting what progressive enhancement is and what its benefits are. Read more…

September 2, 2013 — Emotional interaction is an important, but frequently neglected, component that must be considered in Web design. Crafting an element of surprise on Web pages can raise visitor engagement without obfuscating important content, sidelining mobile visitors or disadvantaging users who require accessibility features. Naturally, this must always be balanced with the need to guide users through the website. Read more…

August 27, 2013 — Navigation Timing API provides easy access to accurate page timing information, but it is still insufficient to draw a complete picture. Whether we need to support browsers that do not currently implement the Navigation Timing or get information about resources not included in the current page, be sure to find out more about the user’s network bandwidth or whether their support for IPv6 is better or worse than their support for IPv4. All of the techniques presented here were developed while writing Boomerang though not all of them made it into the code yet. Read more…

August 20, 2013 — In this article, we will explore an alternative approach to styling Web documents. With the use of “intelligent” selectors, we’ll cover how to query the extant, functional nature of semantic HTML in such a way as to reward well-formed markup. If you code it right, you’ll get the design you were hoping for. Heydon Pickering hopes that employing some of these ideas will make your workflow simpler and more transferable between projects. Read more…

August 15, 2013 — Web helps designers and developers find the best inspiration and resources for their projects. Even though there are different tutorials and tips available online, Oleg Solomka feels that HTML5 canvas techniques are missing the most. Good news: he had the chance to fulfill this wide gap. In this article, Oleg would like to share his experience and story of how he brought the “Jelly Navigation Menu” to life! Read more…

August 9, 2013 — Backbone.js provides structure to JavaScript applications, but it leaves a lot of design patterns and decisions up to developers who end up running into common problems when they first begin developing in Backbone.js. In this article, Phillip Whisenhunt will explore different design patterns that you can use in your Backbone.js applications, and he’ll look at many of the common gotchas that trip up developers. Read more…

August 8, 2013 — Tools for live CSS editing aren’t new these days. So, why would someone ever need to create yet another tool and even call it a “live CSS editor of the new generation”? In this article, Sergey Chikuyonok would like to introduce Emmet LiveStyle. This plugin takes a completely different approach on updating CSS. Unlike other live editors, it doesn’t simply replace a whole CSS file in a browser or an editor, but rather maps changes from one CSS file to the other. Read more…

August 2, 2013 — We’re constantly refining two interfaces simultaneously: one for visitors who load the website, the other for developers who have to tackle the code in the future. But we shouldn’t forget that developers are users, too. Therefore, our convention for naming and organizing files is critical if we are to ensure active development in the future. But do we really design the partials, files and directories that make up this interface with a particular set of users in mind? Read more…

July 30, 2013 — Welcome to the second part of the sample chapter from Smashing Book #4. You might want to read the first part of this chapter beforehand — if you haven’t already. In part 1 we explored the infrastructure of the Internet and the make-up of a Web server. We left off at the stage where our Web server software is up and running again, and we’ve just double-checked this by telnetting an HTTP request and received the successful response code. It’s now time for… finding your website! Read more…