How much thought have you put into your primary input device? Ever considered how much better your interface with your computer might be? For decades, keyboards have been the primary mechanisms by which we interact with our computers. In this article, Ben Frain is going to dive into the possibilities of mechanical keyboards. The different layouts, switch types and even keycap material. Strap yourself in — this will be a deep dive!
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Whatever stage you’re at in your career, coding collaboratively is one of the best uses of your time. With remote working on the rise, there’s never been a better time to practice pair programming and embrace Agile development.
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You don’t need to know your trees from your dangling blobs. If you use Git every day and feel like it’s a juggling act, then here are some tricks and tips to help make your life a bit easier. There’s been a lot written about getting started with git, understanding how git works under the hood or techniques for better branching strategies. In this article, Shane Hudson will specifically target the stuff that just makes your life better in a small way.
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In Part 1, Paul explained the basics of the terminal, shared a few productivity hacks to get you started, and how to choose a code editor. In this part, he’ll continue with the topics of version control (Git), HTML and CSS, semantic code, and a brief introduction to some key engineering principles.
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For the purpose of this two-part series of articles, we’re going to assume the answer for “Should designers code?” is “It depends.” If you’ve started and never finished courses in some online coding school — or if you’ve finished the courses but found it difficult to apply this style of learning in your day-to-day work, these two articles will provide a few different learning methods and will highlight different opportunities for their everyday application. In this first part of the series, we’ll take a look at getting comfortable with the command line and text editors.
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How do we know if we are truly impactful as a design team? Are we seen as a vehicle to deliver a solution that moves a needle? The business value of design has been proven at scale by the McKinsey Design Index. and the study shows the best design performers increased their revenues and shareholder returns at nearly twice the rate of their industry counterparts. It’s time to empower our design teams and give them one voice to show how and when design really adds value.
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How do you move faster when adding folks to a project supposedly slows it down? Mailchimp’s CPO takes the reader through some considerations for preserving momentum while scaling up. Software is difficult to build with lots of complex interdependencies. And everyone needs to work together to get it done. As you work to manage dependencies and introduce tools to help scale, make sure you clearly communicate the why behind the practices.
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Sprint 0, and its close cousin the design sprint, came about to solve real, everyday challenges. But do they deliver real value or just an illusion? In this article, Shamsi Brinn proposes an alternative first sprint that supports agile teamwork and delivers measurable results.
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Skipping servers and using the JAMstack to build and deliver websites and apps can save time, money, and headache by allowing us to deliver only static assets on a CDN. But the trade-off of ditching traditional server-based deployments means that standard approaches to dynamic, asynchronous interactions in our sites and apps aren’t available anymore.
Does that mean that JAMstack sites can’t handle dynamic interactions? Definitely not!
JAMstack sites are great for creating highly dynamic, asynchronous interactions. With some small adjustments to how we think about our code, we can create fun, immersive interactions using only static assets!
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Having a face-to-face meeting with your client can cause anxiety for those of us that push pixels for a living, but even the simplest kind of sketching can help. The sitemap meeting can be a minefield of multiple stakeholders, multi-dimensional categories, historical analytics, new products and mobile-first demands. Using a live illustration of a customer site journey, you can create a meaningful sitemap with which site visitors will resonate.
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