Smashing Newsletter: Issue #255

Editorial

We had such fun at Smashing Meets last week, with folk from all round the world joining us at throughout the two days! We’re now looking forward to meeting more of you at the SmashingConf Live in June. In addition to interactive sessions with speakers such as Chris Coyier, Sarah Drasner, Brad Frost, and Miriam Suzanne, you’ll also get to tackle challenges and ask questions in friendly discussion zones.

We’ve learned from Meets that many of you really love to spend time with speakers, and ask questions directly. So there will be plenty of time for that, networking, and sharing insights. Jump to more details about the conference.

You can save $100 off the total price by booking a conference ticket along with one of our wonderful online workshops:

Web Performance Masterclass with Harry Roberts,
The CSS Layout Masterclass with Rachel Andrew,
Front-End Accessibility Masterclass with Marcy Sutton,
Building Modern HTML Emails with Rémi Parmentier,
Buy! The eCommerce UX Workshop with Vitaly Friedman,
Design Systems with Brad Frost.

The workshops have been incredibly popular with many becoming sold out. I would, of course, love to see you in my CSS Layout Masterclass — but it is definitely a hard choice to pick between them!

And, that’s not all we’ve been up to! You can now read Click! How To Encourage Clicks Without Shady Tricks by Paul Boag. Get the eBook now, the physical copies will ship in the next few weeks. Of course, for our Smashing Members, the eBook is free. Check your dashboard!

A vibrant book cover with colorful, geometric shapes, pop-ups and push notifications.

A lot is going on here, and plenty happening in our community! I hope you’ll enjoy the links and resources included this week.

Until next time!
— Rachel Andrew

Modern CSS Solutions For Old CSS Problems
Learn Flexbox With Code Tidbits
SVG Path Data Syntax Explored
Global Website Speed Profiler
Sleek Browser Frames For Your Screenshots
Illustrations For Everyone
Online Design Archives From Around The World
Upcoming In Smashing Membership
Our Next Smashing Workshops

1. Modern CSS Solutions For Old CSS Problems

We all know that CSS can sometimes be tricky to master. Just think of the classic question of how to center a div. In “Modern CSS Solutions for Old CSS Problems”, Stephanie Eckles explores solutions to those big and small CSS problems she has been solving in the last 13 years of being a front-end developer.

Apart from the old centering issue, the series explores challenges like creating elements of equal height, making dropdown menus accessible, styling buttons, and much more. Be sure to check back regularly as Stephanie keeps adding new topics. Brilliant! (cm)

2. Learn Flexbox With Code Tidbits

You’ve always wanted to learn Flexbox but the whole undertaking seemed a bit, well, daunting? It doesn’t have to be. In fact, it might only take 30 code tidbits to get you on the path to mastering some Flexbox magic. Samantha Ming has got your back.

In her free course Flexbox30, Samantha takes you through 30 short and crisp Flexbox lessons. After learning the core concepts of Flexbox, you will explore the ins and outs of parent and child properties. Each lesson comes with a cheat sheet that you can download which makes the course also a great refresher if you already know your way around Flexbox but struggle with some of the properties. (cm)

3. SVG Path Data Syntax Explored

Do you know what the SVG path data syntax actually means? If not, you’re not alone. Mathieu Dutour has been working with SVGs for quite some time but always struggled to understand the path data structure. That’s why he built a visualizer for it.

The SVG Path Visualizer visualizes the SVG path data you enter and lets you discover all its different commands. There are also several examples you can explore to get more familiar with the syntax. An insightful look into the skeleton of an SVG. (cm)

4. Global Website Speed Profiler

Performance benchmarking tools usually measure performance form a single location. But how does your site perform for real-world users who aren’t based in that one location? To get more precise results for their own market, the folks behind the WordPress security plugin Wordfence built Fast or Slow, a tool that measures real-world performance from different locations around the world.

Fast or Slow gets its data from a network of 13 servers in 13 cities around the world. Each server was calibrated to have the same performance so that the speed measurements give a true indication of what the site feels like to a real user. The performance test provides you with an overall score of a site’s performance and breaks the results further down by geographic location, while audits on CSS minification, image optimization, caching, and more help reveal specific performance bottlenecks. Fast Or Slow is free to use. (cm)

5. Sleek Browser Frames For Your Screenshots

With screenshots, there are usually two options: You take a screenshot of the entire browser window with browser extensions and maybe even bookmarks visible or, if you want something less distracting, you decide to only take a screenshot of the site without any border at all. If you’re looking for a more sophisticated solution, Browserframe might be for you.

Just drag and drop your screenshot into the tool, and it wraps it into a neat browser frame. There are multiple browsers, operating systems, and themes to choose from, and you can adjust the background color, shadow, padding, and some other details before you download the image. Perfect for blog posts, social media, slides, or wherever else you might want to use a screenshot. (cm)

6. Illustrations For Everyone

Illustrations are a great way to add a personal touch to a design. However, not everyone is a born illustrator and not every project has the budget to hire someone who masters the craft. During the lockdown, Pablo Stanley and a few of his friends decided to change that and created a tool that makes art more accessible and gives everyone the ability to use illustrations in their creations. Meet Blush.

Blush is a collection of 13 mix-and-match illustration libraries created by artists from around the world. Whether it’s characters, cityscapes, plants, food, or a piece of abstract art, you can pick your favorite illustration from one of the packs and customize every little detail until you have the combination you need to tell your story. As Pablo puts it, it’s “like playing legos made of vectors”. The illustrations can be downloaded for free as high-quality PNGs. If you are an illustrator yourself and would like to make your work available to other makers, too, you can apply to get featured in Blush. A fantastic example of sharing and caring. (cm)

7. Online Design Archives From Around The World

We’re living in times where the design community is interconnected. We learn from each other and inspire each other, and social media enables us to do so almost instantly, across country borders and time zones. The way designers worked decades before us was an entirely different one, and yet their works are still a great inspiration today.

To take us on a journey through the world of design — and, literally, across the globe — the folks at Present & Correct collected links to online design archives from all over the world. From Italy to Bulgaria, Canada to Singapore, Australia to Cuba, 13 design archives are waiting to be explored. The exhibition pieces include posters, packaging, and print design, just like product design and architecture. Most pieces are vintage, but, depending on the collection, you’ll find some contemporary works there, too. Inspiration guaranteed. (cm)

8. Upcoming In Smashing Membership

Two weeks ago, we pre-released Click! How to Encourage Clicks Without Shady Tricks, our new practical guide on how to build trust, increase conversion, and boost business KPIs effectively — without alienating people along the way. The eBook (PDF, ePUB, Kindle) is, and always will be, available to Smashing Members for free.️

“Inspired Design Decisions With Giovanni Pintori” with Andrew Clarke— June 4 at 15:00 London time

Dear friends, thank you for your kind support. It allows us to bring you great content, pay all our contributors fairly, and reduce advertising on the site. Join us in Smashingland where everyone is beautiful and you never get merge conflicts. 😉

9. Our Next Smashing Workshops

In our workshops, we explore best practices and interesting techniques in front-end and interface design, always focusing on actual solutions to real-life problems.

We also have online workshops that are designed to give you the same experience and access to experts as in an in-person workshop, but without needing to leave your desk.

Web Performance Masterclass with Harry Roberts (May 28-June 12)
The CSS Layout Masterclass with Rachel Andrew (June 11–12)
Front-End Accessibility Masterclass with Marcy Sutton (June 16-30)
Building Modern HTML Emails with Rémi Parmentier (June 18-26)
Buy! The eCommerce UX Workshop with Vitaly Friedman (July 2-17)
Design Systems with Brad Frost (July 7-21)

Meet Smashing Online Workshops on front-end & UX, with Miriam Suzanne, Marcy Sutton, Harry Roberts and many others.

Or, if you’d like to run an online workshop with your team, please get in touch with Vitaly at vitaly@smashingconf.com and briefly describe what problems you’re facing and would like to solve. Get in touch — it’s that easy! (vf)

May 26, 2020 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #255

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