January 16, 2014 — As a designer, the value you bring to any project isn’t only your ability to execute tasks. Good clients will appreciate the guidance and opinions that come with your experience, and it’s up to you to base your recommendations on more than subjective opinion. In this article, Jonathan Kochis will refer to specific mobile research projects he has conducted and build a case for audience surveys and review of analytics data. Read more…

January 15, 2014 — In this article, Matthew Haworth will use Magento’s shipping-method code abstraction to create a shipping carrier. He will be covering topics such as extending the abstract shipping class and implement the required methods, allowing tracking codes to be set against an order, work with promotions to allow for free shipping, and much more! Read more…

January 14, 2014 — 92,000 new articles are posted online every day. Companies are spending billions on content marketing to enhance credibility and build brand awareness. Google has always tried to reward great content with high rankings, but today, thanks to improvements in its algorithm, Google is better able to actually do it. Read more…

January 13, 2014 — Lately, Maksim Chemerisuk has started to see more and more problems with jQuery’s core and can’t be fixed without breaking backwards compatibility. He, like many others, continued using the library for a while, navigating all of the pesky quirks every day. Then, Daniel Buchner created SelectorListener, and he started to think about creating a set of functions that would enable the possibility of building unobtrusive DOM components using a better approach. Read more…

January 10, 2014 — This is the second in a series of four articles covering four ways to develop mobile applications. Today, Peter Traeg will look at how to build the same sort of application using native Android tools. This simple tip calculator contains two screens: a main view and a settings view. The settings view persists the default tip percentage to local storage using Android’s SDK support. Read more…

January 9, 2014 — Jeremy Girard took a part-time position teaching website design and front-end development at the University of Rhode Island. In this article, he will look at some of the challenges to prepare for if you are considering taking on a teaching position. He will also present some of my personal experiences and insights, to help you consider such a move for your own career. Read more…

January 8, 2014 — Here at Smashing Magazine, our aim is to highlight topics that inspire, challenge, and motivate us to do more and do it better. The design-related content that is published in the Design category of the magazine is dedicated to our cherished community of designers (developers and other are welcome too, of course!) who want to help each other as well as learn from each other. Read more…

January 8, 2014 — Anthony Viviano has been working at incorporating lean UX at the enterprise level. In studying it, he fond that there’s a temptation to lay down rules, and if the rules aren’t followed, you can’t call it lean UX. At the end of the day, though, some lean UX is better than none. Read more…

January 6, 2014 — In this second part, Pete Smart will share what travelling 2517 miles taught him. Every day, he had 24 hours to observe a problem, attempt to solve it and then communicate the solution. For more of an introduction to the adventure, “50 Problems in 50 Days, Part 1: Real Empathy for Innovation” gives an overview of the project. Read more…

January 2, 2014 — Working walls are known by countless names. Underlying them all is a single idea: that physically pinning our sources of inspiration and work in progress can help us to rearrange concepts and unlock breakthrough insights. According to Vyas and his colleagues at the University of Twente, designers integrate these surfaces “artfully” and organize information in such a way that it empowers them to visualize and extend their work in progress. Read more…