May 9, 2017 — Google decided to launch a war against interstitials that ruin the user experience. Any website found guilty of showing intrusive popups, banners or overlays will see its content demoted in Google’s mobile search results. In this article, Myriam Jessier explains what exactly is being penalized, what’s allowed, and some workarounds to help you cope with this new penalty. Read more…

May 8, 2017 — Generally speaking, writing a requirements document is mostly about conveying your vision to the rest of the team. In this article, Eduard Khorkov will outline the most common approaches to writing requirements documents. You will learn the basic steps of writing mobile application requirements and what a good requirements document looks like. Eduard will create two documents: a PDF with user stories and wireframes, and a screen map that complements the PDF. Together, they describe in detail what features the application should have. Read more…

May 5, 2017 — 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. Read more…

May 4, 2017 — If we only looked closer, we would find gems of inspiration in the things around us. For Vitaly Friedman, nature is his personal and biggest gem. May is already here and spring has arrived in Belgium, bringing along its bright colors, the delicate odours of blooming flowers, as well as the cheerful chirping of birds. Read more…

May 3, 2017 — Design workflow changes, and it isn’t easy to keep up with all those changes, and that’s where our community conferences come into place! We are looking forward to seeing you in Barcelona, and perhaps months after the conference is over, you’ll look back at your projects and at this very article realizing that it wasn’t far off after all. Read more…

May 3, 2017 — Recent analysis from VoiceLabs estimates that 24.5 million voice-driven devices will be shipped this year, almost four times as many as last year. As experience designers, we now have the opportunity to design voice experiences and interfaces! In this article, Lyndon Cerejo will look at how a typical genie in a bottle works, discuss the steps involved in designing voice experiences, and illustrate these steps by designing a voice app for Alexa. Read more…

May 2, 2017 — OAuth2 is the protocol that enables anyone to log in with their Facebook account. It powers the “Log in with Facebook” button in apps and on websites everywhere. In this article, Zack Grossbart will show you how “Log in with Facebook” works and will explain the protocol behind it all. He’ll look at two examples: why Spotify uses Facebook to let you log into the Spotify mobile app, and why Quora uses Google and Facebook to let you log into its website. Read more…

April 30, 2017 — Time to freshen up your desktop! Our monthly wallpapers challenge is an opportunity to let your ideas run wild and try something new, to indulge in a little project just for fun. This post features desktop wallpapers for May 2017, created by designers and artists from all across the globe. Each wallpaper comes in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. You can feature your work in our magazine by taking part in our Desktop Wallpaper Calendars series. We are regularly looking for creative designers and artists to be featured on Smashing Magazine. Are you one of them? Read more…

April 28, 2017 — 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. Read more…

April 27, 2017 — Sketch makes the day-to-day life of a user interface designer a lot better. Mundane little things such as measuring distances and sizes are now much easier and quicker. You can automate parts of your workflow and use real data in your Sketch designs. You can also organize your files more optimally, and more. If you’re a UI designer and are still using mostly Photoshop or Illustrator, Lachezar Petkov highly recommends you try Sketch. You might never want to look back! Read more…