Rather than do a round-up of the best deals available this Black Friday, we decided to do a round-up of the best independent products and makers. If you have money to spend, why not send some of this to folk creating great stuff in our community. We asked the Smashing community for their suggestions, and so here, Rachel Andrew brings you a list covering pretty much every kind of product you can imagine. We hope you can find something you need in these, and help support these hard-working folks.
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Many developers get to a point in their careers in which they’ve achieved many of their goals and wonder about the future. Although some are confident continuing down the same road, others might feel the urge to explore different options in which their skills can be used to have a broader impact on the projects we work on and the teams we work with. I explored some of the different directions we can take and the complementary skills that can help us throughout our journey.
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Task switching is a design killer. Find out why switching and interruptions are even more serious than you think and how biology makes it difficult to resist the temptation to just check your email every few minutes. In this article, Eric Olive will show you how to slay the distraction dragon with five practical tips for increasing focus as you tackle challenging design problems.
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Agile has had a long time to infiltrate software development. While the methodology advocates for “co-located, dedicated teams,” in its ubiquity Agile is frequently applied to teams partially or fully composed of part-time workers. While there are lessons to be taken from the practice, Agile must be adapted to support, rather than hinder, part-time teams. In this article, Philip Kiely will consider applying Agile to a team of 5-10 people each working 20 hours per week on a project.
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Data import has historically been a time-consuming and frustrating task, especially for products that depend on ingesting a lot of data from users. That’s why many developers include CSV importers in their apps — to spare users from having to manually copy data from a spreadsheet into their database. But let’s face it: traditional data import solutions haven’t always been great. That’s why, today, Suzanne Scacca is going to look at how Flatfile helps you create a better import experience for your users, team, and product.
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As a frontend developer, I want to apologize to the designers out there for all the misunderstandings that have happened in the past. I think it’s time for us developers to improve our awareness of the designers’ role and show them that we can — and should — look beyond our own screens.
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Design systems can improve usability, but they can also limit creativity or fall out of sync with actual products. In this article, we’ll explore how designers and developers can create more robust design systems by building a culture of collaboration.
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This is a detailed guide for those who are struggling with tables in Figma. Today, Sasha Belichenko will show you how to create a table using components, so that later on you could save a lot of time on scalability and edits. Moreover, you’ll be able to easily integrate the table into your design system. To follow along, you will need to have at least some understanding of the basic Figma concepts, its interface, and how to work with Figma components. So, without further ado, let’s dig in!
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Let’s face it: it’s never easy to deal with client feedback. Requests may be vague (“the form is broken”), too subjective (“the page doesn’t load fast enough”), or difficult to assess without seeing it yourself (“the page still isn’t updated”). You could schedule some time to walk through the issues or bugs with your client, but a better solution to this often disruptive and frustrating process is to create a fool-proof system that’s easy for clients to leave feedback and even easier for you to implement and resolve it. In this article, Suzanne Scacca brings you great suggestions.
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