July 9, 2024 Smashing Newsletter: Issue #464
This newsletter issue was sent out to 199,129 subscribers on Tuesday, July 9, 2024.
Editorial
Sometimes, we all need just a simple little tool that does just one thing — but does it really well. Maybe we’re looking for a friendly, human way to say “No” to somebody, or maybe we have only a couple of food ingredients available and are looking for the best recipe that requires only them.
In today’s newsletter, we’ll take a look at a few of these little helpers — tiny websites that are useful references and helpful tools to make your life just a little bit easier.
On the Smashing side of things, we’ll be running a few friendly online workshops in July:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces with yours truly, Vitaly Friedman (starts today!)
- Fast and Budget-Friendly UX Research with Paul Boag (July 11–25)
- Jump to all online workshops
We sincerely wish you a wonderful week ahead, and we’d be absolutely honored and happy to welcome you online and offline this year!
— Vitaly
1. Microaggressions Explained
Language matters. When we design inclusively, we need to be aware of the implications of the words we use and how we use them. But sometimes, it’s difficult to know which words work best in specific situations.
The Micropedia highlights comments and actions that are based on stereotypes, assumptions, and lack of empathy across age, disabilities, class, ethnicity, gender, Indigenous people, race, religion, and 2SLGBTQ+. With plenty of practical examples. (vf)
2. Reverse Dictionary
Have you ever had difficulty finding the right words to use? How helpful would it be if all you had to do was to try to explain what you’re trying to say, and a tool finds the words that best fit your description?
Well, good news. There’s a tool that does exactly that: Reverse Dictionary. It lets you type a phrase, definition, or description you have in mind, and the app simply does the rest. Victor Ahuwanya created this tool as an Android application that makes use of a database constructed from the Online Plain Text English Dictionary so it doesn’t even need an internet connection. Nifty! (il)
3. Understanding Drawings Through Dimensions
Putting things in perspective can be quite difficult. You might want to design a specific illustration, but you need to get the dimensions right and consider standard measurements and sizes for objects to look realistic.
Meet Dimensions, an ongoing reference database to help designers better communicate standard measurements and sizes of everyday objects. It contains plenty of references for everything from animals and transport to pop culture, furniture, and plants. Neat little helper! (vf)
4. Plant Guides
Every office — and that includes the home office as well — is better off with a lovely selection of beautiful plants. But which plants are easier to deal with for some of us who tend to be forgetful? Which ones require more care, and if so, what does it usually involve?
How Many Plants is a wonderful resource that covers all these questions well. It provides a thorough overview of all popular plants, sorted alphabetically and by care difficulty. You can even filter out plants based on their features (size, format, placement), plant type (traits, origins, pet-friendly), and leaf look (shape and surface). A great reference site to keep nearby. (vf)
5. Upcoming Workshops and Conferences
That’s right! We run online workshops on frontend and design, be it accessibility, performance, or design patterns. In fact, we have a couple of workshops coming up soon, and we thought that, you know, you might want to join in as well.
As always, here’s a quick overview:
- Design Patterns For AI Interfaces ux
with Vitaly Friedman. July 9–23 - Fast and Budget-Friendly User Research and Testing workflow
with Paul Boag. Jul 11–25 - Behavioral Design Workshop UX
with Susan and Guthrie Weinschenk. Aug 22 – Sept 5 - Successful Design Systems workflow
with Brad Frost. Aug 27 – Sept 10 - Smart Interface Design Patterns UX
with Vitaly Friedman. Video course + UX training - Jump to all workshops →
6. Fuss-Free Cooking Inspiration
It’s been a long day at work. You’re hungry, but you don’t have any idea what to make for dinner? SuperCook has got your back — with popular recipe websites to match whatever you currently have in the fridge!
All you need to do is enter the ingredients you have at home (or choose them from the list with just a few clicks), and SuperCook will do its magic. How about some roasted onion and tomato spaghetti with a poached egg? Or a five-ingredient falafel, maybe? Perfect to get some new cooking inspiration. Bon appétit! (vf)
7. The Musical Time Machine
It’s still quie difficult to travel back in time, but fortunately, we can do so online. What if you wanted to listen to the pop charts extravaganza from the US back in 1955 or Uzbekistan in 1932? Well, Radiooooo has got your back (well, you might need to sign up for a free basic plan first).
The website is a collection of songs collected over decades and now searchable, with filters by genre, speed, country, and time period. In fact, you can search by slow for chilling, fast for dancing, and weird music for bugging out — indeed, there is something for everyone! And if you want to go fancy, there is a shuffle mode, with songs picked by the curators. (vf)
8. Saying “No” And “Goodbye” With Grace
Do you often find yourself signing off your emails with the usual “kind regards”? Well, it doesn’t have to be that way. If you’re not sure how else to finish off your emails, you’ll be sure to find ideas on how to improve your sign-offs. Sometimes, it’s easier to start with a template and modify it rather than create it from scratch, so feel free to borrow the templates or adapt them to your circumstances.
Also, who says a signature has to be just a signature? It can be any kind of boilerplate text. Good folks like Michael Hyatt have been asked whether there were email templates for saying “no,” and he went straight to work and identified eleven different kinds of requests. There are also other ways to say no — you can choose a category here — from nicely declining pushy people to respectfully rejecting salespeople — you’ll find plenty of templates to help you out in any situation. Almost life-saving! (il)
9. Recently Published Books 📚
Promoting best practices and providing you with practical tips to master your daily coding and design challenges has always been at the core of everything we do at Smashing.
In the past few years, we were very lucky to have worked together with some talented, caring people from the web community to publish their wealth of experience as printed books. Have you checked them out already?
- Success at Scale by Addy Osmani
- Understanding Privacy by Heather Burns
- Touch Design for Mobile Interfaces by Steven Hoober
- Check out all books →
That’s All, Folks!
Thank you so much for reading and for your support in helping us keep the web dev and design community strong with our newsletter. See you next time!
This newsletter issue was written and edited by Geoff Graham (gg), Cosima Mielke (cm), Vitaly Friedman (vf), and Iris Lješnjanin (il).
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