February 7, 2017 — In this article, Lea Verou explains what an HTML API is, why they’re useful, and which important lesson developers can learn from them. Keep reading to find out how to design a good one. You might be wondering, “All HTML and CSS authors know JavaScript, right?” Wrong. Take a look at the results of following poll. Read more…

February 6, 2017 — Taking your first steps into VR as a UX or UI designer can be daunting. VR experiences range from the mundane to the wondrous, their complexity and utility varying greatly. In this article, Sam Applebee & Alex Deruette will share a process for designing VR apps that they hope you’ll use to start designing for VR yourself. You don’t need to be an expert in VR; you just need to be willing to apply your skills to a new domain. They’re building a rocketship, a joint effort by designers around the globe to boldly go where no designer has gone before. The sooner that producing VR apps make sense for companies, the sooner the whole ecosystem will blow up. Read more…

February 3, 2017 — What’s going on in the industry? What new techniques have emerged recently? What insights, tools, tips and tricks is the web design community talking about? Anselm Hannemann is collecting everything that popped up over the last week in his web development reading list so that you don’t miss out on anything. The result is a carefully curated list of articles and resources that are worth taking a closer look at. Read more…

February 3, 2017 — Gray days always are a great time we can use to reflect on our work and perhaps better decide what it is that we hope to improve or change in the next months. They are the spark that sets the process of creation in motion. It doesn’t take much; it can be any part of an element that catches my eye, be it a particular color, style, texture, or anything really. You’ll find a bit of everything in today’s selection: Architecture, colors, some of the best photographs from 2016, and more. We hope you’ll like Vitaly Friedman’s playground! ;) Read more…

February 2, 2017 — While the concept of mobile-first began as a philosophy to help prioritize content and ensure positive, device-agnostic experiences, budgetary and scheduling constraints often result in mobile-first meaning mobile-only. According to the analytics data of Marli and Jasons’s healthcare clients, the majority of their users are still on desktop. They want to provide a positive experience for those users and for users on mobile and tablet apps and for those using mobile browsers — and even for users having an in-person experience! It is not accurate to assume that mobile is the primary experience. Read more…

February 1, 2017 — Decorate your desktop with a lovely wallpaper to celebrate Valentine’s Day. These 43 wallpapers are the very best Valentines Day wallpapers from Smashing Magazine’s monthly contest – running from 2008 until 2016 and still counting. Please notice that we respect the ideas and motivation behind artists’ work, which is why we’ve given all designers full freedom to explore her creativity and express her emotions and experience through her work. And this is also why the theme of the wallpaper weren’t anyhow influenced by us, but designed from scratch by the artist herself. Spread the love! Read more…

January 31, 2017 — Don’t you feel like Wonderwoman or Superman when squishing that annoying CSS/JavaScript bug or improving front-end performance, or making the UX workflow smooth at your company? Well, we do! Now, we also love sharing. SmashingConf NYC 2017 won’t solve all complex problems, but once it’s over you’ll know how to conquer yours. With practical front-end and UX techniques, battles, fights, wins and losses, we’d love you to learn and share your special abilities and your experiences! So reserve that plane and meet us in New York City! Read more…

January 31, 2017 — This monthly wallpapers mission has been going on for eight years already and we are very thankful to all the creative minds who challenge their skills and contribute to it each month anew. Today, Cosima Mielke features their desktop artwork for February 2017. All images can be clicked on and lead to the preview of the wallpaper. Remember 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…

January 30, 2017 — In this article, Constantine Konovalov will attempt to describe the principal solutions involved in the development of his own version of the Paris metro map. The entire process that went into the creation of this new map, took him around two and a half years to complete, and an article of that length would bore even the most committed of readers. So, In this light, he will cover only the principal graphical solutions. At the end of the report, Constantine has included a time-lapse video of the entire creation process. Read more…

January 27, 2017 — What’s going on in the industry? What new techniques have emerged recently? What insights, tools, tips and tricks is the web design community talking about? Anselm Hannemann is collecting everything that popped up over the last week in his web development reading list so that you don’t miss out on anything. The result is a carefully curated list of articles and resources that are worth taking a closer look at. Read more…