Can you improve your user experience with real-time features such as in-app notifications, geo-location tracking, collaboration and data visualisation? Real-time technology is fast becoming an integral part of our everyday lives; it’s in many of our favourite apps and it’ll soon be a big part of the smart homes of the future. Remember: expect today’s attractive feature to be tomorrow’s must-be. Should you be using real-time features in your product? In this article, Lauren Plews will look at the reasons why you should consider real-time.
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Laura Elizabeth never found color theory useful when trying to use color in her projects. Somewhat ironically, she’s been finding that the better she got at choosing and using color, the better she became in the theory behind it. In this article, Laura shares a simple color workflow that you can use in your next web project.
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In this article, Ani Kostova will explore the first browser-based app to be viable in the vector illustration and UI design space: Gravit. Why Gravit? Mainly because Sketch and Affinity Designer are not options for Ani. She decided to give it a try and test it seriously. After a few months of using it, she feels ready to review its features and offer some practical tips and tricks she’s learned along the way.
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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.
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It’s time to get your desktop ready for spring! Designers and artists from across the globe shared their creations with us for April 2016. The result is a collection of desktop wallpapers with a unique mix of ideas and styles, eye candy that is bound to cater for new idea sparks. We are very thankful to everyone who has contributed to this challenge and who keeps the steady stream of wallpapers flowing by sharing their artworks each month anew. The wallpapers all come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free.
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A great conference fuels your ideas and polishes up your skills. Luckily, a lot of conferences provide videos of their talks after the event has ended. In this article, Cosima Mielke collected videos that revive the spirit of the conferences they were recorded at and cater for a lot of fresh insights and light-bulb moments to make the learning never stop. As a very special goodie, we’re very pleased to also feature the live stream of this year’s Build 2016 Conference, taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA, right here on Smashing.
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In this article, Ksenia Sternina decided to analyze the physiology of using the interface of Mail.Ru’s Email app; for example, how comfortable is it to use an iPad app in typical positions? The behaviors we studied included tapping buttons while lying down, browsing photos while sitting, swiping, and writing text. Her results revealed a number of purely ergonomic problems that should be taken into account when developing any iPad app. The results are shown here on an iPad layout using a three-color schema. Controls located in the green zone are easily reachable by the average person; the yellow zone is still reachable but not as easily; and the red zone is the most inconvenient location for controls.
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In this article, Carlo Daniele will show you how to provide your WordPress installation with an advanced search system allowing the user to search and retrieve content from a specific custom post type, filtering results by custom taxonomy terms and multiple custom field values. He will cover both a theoretical introduction to handling user requests and a concrete application of that theory, particularly, building an advanced search system.
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Deviating from the traditional infographic form means that you tread into more complex media territory, but such experimentation with technology and narrative will be key in shaping the future of infographic design. In compiling this list, Babar Suleman received some great recommendations from friends and peers in the design world, and picking just 23 was not easy. Check out the list below to see if your favorite infographic made the list, and let us know about any others that should have been included!
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Procedural content generation has been in use for the last 40 years in video games, and it’s a key characteristic of rogue-like games. Instead of manually writing different levels, defining where walls are or where monsters are hidden, you could use an algorithm to generate that for you. While there are many different situations in which procedural content generation is possible to use, it’s more evident in well-known video games. There is one example which is less well known but highly respected by passionate geeks: Dwarf Fortress. In this game an entire world is simulated with its history.
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