April 10, 2014 — If you are building a product, you should always speak with customers and test your idea before. But you probably don’t know that *you *might be making some of the most common mistakes when running your experiments. Mistakes include testing the wrong aspect of your business, asking the wrong questions and neglecting to define a criterion for success. In this article, Grace Ng will show you a guide to designing quick, effective, low-cost experiments. Read more…

April 9, 2014 — As mobile browsers continue to improve, offering new features and enhancing performance, new opportunities like this will arise. It’s always important to question whether you should build a native app or a Web app, and keep in mind the pros and cons of each, especially because the differences in their capabilities are narrowing rapidly. In this article, Nick Jonas and Francis Villanueva Will discuss a few of the biggest challenges here: detecting user activity, achieving performant animations, and building an API integrated with Google Analytics. Read more…

April 8, 2014 — In this article Mark McDonnell will go through all of the steps he took to write an open-source gem named Sinderella (available on GitHub) and how he prepared it for release as a gem via RubyGems. He’ll also show you how to set up your tests to run through a continuous integration (CI) server using the popular Travis CI service, and how to use Coveralls to measure the code coverage of your tests and to obtain a statistical history of your commits. Read more…

April 7, 2014 — A lot of mobile-minded talented folks often mention feeling isolated and not truly understanding what the client really needed. While involving clients in your mobile workflow can be challenging, really working together will make a big difference. In this article, Thomas Joos will share some important things he has learned about involving clients in his mobile workflow. Let’s dive into some tips and tricks that he uses every day. Read more…

April 4, 2014 — Khajag Apelian not only is a talented type and graphic designer, unsurprisingly, but also counts Disney as a client, as well as a number of local and not-for-profit organizations throughout the Middle East. Designing a quality typeface is a daunting task when it’s only in the Latin alphabet. Khajag goes deeper still, having designed a Latin-Armenian dual-script typeface in four weights, named “Arek”, as well as an Arabic adaptation of Typotheque’s Fedra Display. Read more…

April 3, 2014 — The way we access the Web has changed a lot in the last couple of years. We no longer rely solely on our desktop computers to navigate the Web. Rather, we use a wide and quickly growing array of devices to get our daily dose of information. With the device landscape going all fuzzy, the time of building fixed width desktop sites has definitely come to an end. ConditionerJS will help you combine all of this contextual information to pinpoint the right moment to load the functionality you need. It tells your JavaScript when to act up and when to tune down a bit, and it will help you combine all of this contextual information to pinpoint the right moment to load the functionality you need. Read more…

April 1, 2014 — This freebie contains 60 icons that have been designed in both round and flat styles, and can be used for free without any restrictions and serve various design purposes. Crafted with great attention to detail, today’s icon set is extremely easy to use and will most probably be the next ultimate resource for any of your design projects. Feel free to modify the size, color or shape of the icons, and use the icons in your commercial as well as your personal projects. Read more…

March 31, 2014 — We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork. This post features free desktop wallpapers created by artists across the globe for April 2014. Both versions with a calendar and without a calendar can be downloaded for free. It’s time to freshen up your wallpaper! This creativity mission has been going on for six years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

March 31, 2014 — At SmashingMag, we cherish the idea of lasting traditions—be it monthly desktop wallpapers, editorial newsletters or those weird mystery riddles. So in the spirit of tradition, the riddle had to be based on animated GIFs. During an intensive, unscheduled, battery-recharge brainstorming session, we came up with a number of interesting ideas, all thoroughly written down, tagged and ready for use. Read more…

March 29, 2014 — Gestalt principles are important to understand. They sit at the foundation of everything we do visually as designers. They describe how everyone visually perceives objects. This article is part of a new series about design principles that can serve both as a refresher for seasoned designers and reference for newcomers to the industry. Hopefully, the content covered here isn’t too obvious and self-explanatory, but it’s always great to have a nice quick refresher every now and again, isn’t it? Read more…