With the coming of the Client Hints, Variants and Key specifications, there’s a lot to take in, and while it can be interesting to understand how the browser works under the hood, Andrew Betts shows you some simple things you can distil from it: Browsers ignore Vary for resources pushed using HTTP/2 server push, so don’t vary on anything you push. Vary is not as useful as it could be, and Key paired with Client Hints is starting to change that. Follow along with browser support to find out when you can start using them. And much more! Go forth and be variable.
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SmashingConf 2018 is all about learning new skills and making new connections. Practical sessions, new formats, new lightning talks, evening sessions and genuine, interesting conversations — with a dash of friendly networking! Taking place in London, San Francisco, Toronto. Tickets? Glad you asked!
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All artworks in this collection come in versions with and without a calendar for November 2017, so it’s up to you to decide if you want to have the month always in sight or just some distraction-free inspiration. All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper, and you can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendars series. A big thank-you to everyone who shared their wallpapers this time around! Enjoy!
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Developing for macOS using Swift has a lot more in common with iOS development than you realize. To prove this, Marc Vandehey will walk you through building a simple screen-annotation application. Once completed, you will realize how easy it is to build applications for macOS. This app is pretty short and sweet, but you will learn a few things. By the end of this article, you will become an Apple developer. Congratulations, and happy programming!
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All webmasters should strive for improving the performance of their website, and increasing their website’s security. If you’re looking for ways to increase your website’s performance and security, Jonas Krummenacher brings you five methods that are great options. Not only are they all relatively easy to implement, but they’ll also modernize your overall stack. Some of these technologies are still in the process of being globally adopted; however, as demand increases, so will compatibility. Thankfully, there are ways to implement some of the technologies for browsers that support them, while falling back to older methods for browsers that do not.
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UX designers use a lot of different research techniques, such as interviews and workshops. They summarize research findings into user stories and user flows and communicate their thinking and solutions to the teams. But somewhere in all of this, there are real people for whom the products are being designed for.
In order to create better products, designers must understand what’s going on in the user’s world. And that’s where storyboards come in. In this article, Nick Babich will focus on storyboards as a means to explore solutions to UX issues, as well as to communicate these issues and solutions to others.
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Not too long ago, front-end performance was a mere afterthought. Something that was postponed to the end of a project and that didn’t go much beyond minification, asset optimization, and maybe a few adjustments on the server’s config file. But things have changed.
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It’s time for a change. Smashing Magazine has been the heart of everything we’ve been working on throughout all this time, and with many new Smashing adventures scheduled for 2018, it deserves a stronger focus and support. Today, Vitaly Friedman is more than happy and honored to welcome the one-and-only Rachel Andrew as the new editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine. Rachel will be helping us bring the focus back to the core of this little Smashing universe — this very magazine that you are reading right now. With her, we are happy to have a reliable and extremely knowledgeable editor on our side, the one we could only dream of!
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The visual interface is an obvious place to begin digging into accessibility. In this article, Tom Graham & André Gonçalves will discuss some of the most common visual impairments, focusing on color-blindness to explain how you can make small changes to your workflow and products to ensure you’re not alienating users.
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Our ears are the second-most important sensors we have, and in some situations, voice conversation is a very effective communication channel. But relying just on verbal communication is not enough. For example, would you buy a shoe without seeing it first? Of course not. As long as visual image-processing remains people’s main information source, and we are able to process complex information faster visually, the GUI is here to stay. On the other hand, more traditional GUI patterns cannot survive in their current form either. So, instead of radical predictions, David Pasztor suggests another idea: User interfaces will adapt to our sensors even more.
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