July 17, 2020 — What’s new at Smashing? When’s the next event? Did you miss out on anything? Don’t worry, you’ll find everything gathered here in one place so you don’t need to have a hundred tabs open. (Yes, it has been that busy!) Unfortunately, the effects of COVID-19 are still so wide-reaching throughout the world, so that the Smashing team has had to make big changes to our plans this year. Read more…

July 17, 2020 — With so much pressure to be our best selves and use every waking moment to develop skills, it’s easy to lose track of our own wellbeing. Self-improvement and commitment to your craft are great — but only if you find the right balance. Read more…

July 16, 2020 — Since React was introduced, it has transformed the way front-end developers build web applications, and its virtual DOM is famous for effectively rendering components. In this tutorial, Shedrack Akintayo will discuss various methods of optimizing performance in React applications, and also the features of React that we can use to improve performance. Read more…

July 15, 2020 — In this article, Mike Rogers will introduce you to Stimulus, a modest JavaScript framework that complements your existing HTML. It allowed him to build applications in a way that feels reusable and approachable. While he doesn’t think Stimulus will take over the web like React and Vue have, he thinks it is a worthwhile tool to learn. By the end, you’ll have an understanding of the premise of Stimulus and why it’s a useful tool to have in your backpack. Read more…

July 14, 2020 — We’re moving all of the 2020 conferences online. We hope this means that more of you can join us for these great line-ups! All of our online conference events will take place on the Hopin platform. We roadtested this platform for our Smashing Meets, and we love the way it allows for social chat and side events alongside the main conference. It’s as close as we can get to an in-person experience. Read more…

July 14, 2020 — The Scrabble GO, Instacart and YouTube mobile apps have recently undergone disruptive redesigns. Were they worth it in the end? Judging by their users’ reactions, the answer to that is “No”. But that doesn’t mean that redesigns or design tweaks are a bad idea after launch. In this article, Suzanne Scacca will take a look at the mistakes made and the lessons we can extract from them. Read more…

July 14, 2020 — We’re talking about Gatsby. What is it and how does it fit into your web development stack? Drew McLellan talks to expert Marcy Sutton to find out. Read more…

July 13, 2020 — In this article, Rachel Andrew takes a look at a new effort to crowdfund the costs of implementing browser features. She encourage developers to use, talk about, and raise implementation bugs with browsers to try to get features implemented, however, what if there was a more direct way to do so? What if web developers could get together and fund the development of these features? This article is based on an interview with Brian Kardell, Developer Advocate at Igalia. Read more…

July 13, 2020 — There is a high possibility that a lot of components in your React application will have to make calls to an API to retrieve data that will be displayed to your users. It’s already possible to do that using the componentDidMount() lifecycle method, but with the introduction of Hooks, you can build a custom hook which will fetch and cache the data for you. That’s what Ademola Adegbuyi will cover with this tutorial. Read more…

July 10, 2020 — We shipped the first copies of Click! How to Encourage Clicks Without Shady Tricks in June, with a little extra something for preorder customers. The book is one of our most creative — beautifully designed and filled with great strategies for increasing conversion without falling into the dead-end routine of dark patterns. It’s a well-timed jolt of inspiration when so many of us are struggling with productivity and creative projects. Read more…