May 21, 2014 — A 2013 survey of adults with disabilities found that 91% of people with disabilities use a “wireless device such as a cell phone or tablet.” Among these users, screen reader usage is common, even on mobile devices. However, many basic best practices for accessibility are forgotten on mobile websites. Therefore, disabled users are frequently presented with interfaces that are frustrating or impossible to use. In this article, TJ VanToll will show us a few practical measures that address the most common issues disabled users encounter which leads to a better experience for everyone. Read more…

May 20, 2014 — Anyone with an idea could turn out the next Facebook. Technology takes no heed of gender, creed or race, but is reduced down to code and the desire to create. Everyone you meet has an idea for the “next great website or app.” However, there is a harsh reality: many new products fail. But what should you do if your product does fail? How do you close a product with dignity, so that both you and your users leave on good terms? In this article, Kevin Stone will answer this questions. Read more…

May 19, 2014 — In this article, Nik Sumeiko will show you how to migrate a Git repository to a new host quickly and easily. When he had to move a number of Git projects to a new host, it took him quite some time to find an accurate method, but after many attempts he found a solid and effective way. The most important thing is to make sure that your branches and tags and your commit history are all moved. Read more…

May 16, 2014 — Design is an arrangement of both shapes and space. Learn to see the shapes that space forms and how space communicates. This is second part of a series on design principles for beginners. The first part covered an introduction to gestalt; today Steven Bradley will build on those gestalt principles and show you how many of the fundamental principles you work with as designers have their origin there. Make an effort to spend time observing how space is used in design! Read more…

May 15, 2014 — In this article, Biran Krall, will look at how the need of a more involved design and implementation process, due to responsive design complexities, create opportunities to work together better. We have to kill the mentality that there is an assembly line of workers waiting for it to be their turn, and instead embrace more focused collaboration across the project’s entire team. Read more…

May 14, 2014 — A few days ago, we published an article on Picturefill 2.0, a perfect polyfill for responsive images. Today’s article complements Tim Wright’s article and explains exactly how we can use the upcoming <picture> element and srcset, with simple fallbacks for legacy browsers. There is no reason to wait for responsive images; we can actually have them very soon. Read more…

May 13, 2014 — Ajay Revels is always looking for novel ways to present information to the audiences she works for. Her collaborators and clients aren’t limited to UX designers, software developers and UI visual designers. It was only recently that she thought a comic book would make a fine user-research deliverable. Sure, it might seem strange to create a comic book in a staid corporate environment, where they are thought of primarily as light entertainment. But it’s not strange at all. Read more…

May 12, 2014 — We’ve seen many permutations of images in responsive design and spent a lot of time spinning our wheels, banging our heads and screaming at the wall. But our tireless journey is coming to a close. The W3C and browser makers got the hint. We’ve come a long way with responsive images. We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but a lot of work still has to be done. Read more…

May 9, 2014 — The second part of this series addresses the third step into making navigation as simple and predictable as possible, and discusses which type of navigation menu is best suited to which content. A navigation menu is any area of an interface that presents navigation options to enable users to find content on the website. A common distinction in navigation models is between a primary, traditional navigation system and secondary, alternate navigation models. Exactly defining this distinction is difficult. Read more…

May 8, 2014 — Installing security plugins is a good practice and a must for every WordPress website. However, if your file-system permissions aren’t set up correctly, most of your security measures could be easily bypassed by intruders. In this article, Benjamin Intal will teach you all about WordPress filesystem permissions and ownership: what they are, why they are important and how to set them up. He will also cover the two most common WordPress server configurations (how they differ and how to set the proper permissions and ownership for each). Read more…