June 2, 2022 — In this tutorial, you will learn how to create a group chat app. You will build a backend app using Node.js that will make group chats, authorize chat participants, and maintain sessions for them. The front-end will be built using Vanilla JS, HTML and CSS. It will allow users to log in, make new groups, invite friends, and trade messages. By the end, you should have a working app where multiple participants can send messages in one group. Read more…

June 1, 2022 — In this article, Ken Harker explains what third-party resource requests really are and which common optimization strategies can help reduce the impact on the user experience. By carefully considering how third-party requests will fit into your website during the design stage, you’ll be able to avoid the most significant negative impacts. Read more…

May 31, 2022 — What could be a better way to welcome June than with some colorful inspiration? Well, we might have something for you: wallpapers created with love by artists and designers from across the globe. The wallpapers in this collection come in versions with and without a calendar and can be downloaded for free. As a little bonus goodie, we also compiled some designs from our wallpapers archives at the end of this post. Read more…

May 31, 2022 — In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we ask why accessibility really matters and why it is so important to get it right. Smashing’s Vitaly Friedman talks in-depth to Sara Soueidan to find out. Read more…

May 30, 2022 — How many browser DevTools panels do you commonly use in your day-to-day web development? One? Three? Probably not that many more. In this article, Patrick Brosset shines the spotlight on a number of tools that people don’t use or even know about. Let’s dive in! Read more…

May 27, 2022 — In this article, Vijay describes his learning experiences during the design stages of creating his 3dicons image library (a free library for product screens, social media posts and marketing campaigns), which you can download and use for free. Read more…

May 26, 2022 — Developing accessible products can be challenging, especially when some of the requirements are beyond the scope of development. It’s one thing to enforce alt text for images and labels for form fields, but another to define an accessible color palette. From working with design handoffs to supporting custom themes in a design system, the CSS color-contrast() function can become a cornerstone for developers in enforcing sufficiently contrasting and accessible UIs. Read more…

May 25, 2022 — One of the most important aspects of software development, are memory and performance management and every software developer should pay attention to them. In this article, Frank Joseph explains both weak and strong references in JavaScript, as well as the concept of reachability. Let’s dig in! Read more…

May 24, 2022 — A well-constructed onboarding process boosts engagement, improves product adoption, increases conversion rates, and educates users about a product. This article is a case study of how the platformOS team has researched, developed, and iteratively adjusted their onboarding processes over more than three years to eventually create the multiple award winning developer experience they provide today. Read more…

May 23, 2022 — CSS is constantly evolving, and some cool and useful properties either go completely unnoticed or are not talked about as much as others for some reason or another. In this article, we’ll cover a fraction of those CSS properties and selectors. Read more…