Snippets

  • I don’t want you f***ing app

    I get it. We don’t like the “door slams”, urging us to download an app before we can actually use the website. Unfortunately, they seem to be effective or they wouldn’t be doing it. Sometimes, “business” decisions come first, no matter how much they affect immediate usability.

    It would be great if they just used Apple’s “Smart App Banner” (or a similar display on other mobile devices), which displays details of a specified app on the App Store at the top of the page and doesn’t block access to the website.

    smartappbanner

  • ClearLeft literally calls out design agency who stole their website design

    It’s a bit shameful of Kent Web Host to be stealing a design like this but the situation is expertly handled by Jeremy Keith who calls up Kent Web Host and basically ridicules the owner. He does apologise at the end but it really shouldn’t have come to this.

    It seems like Kent Web Host have made some changes as they said the would in the phone call. I still don’t think it’s enough but at least they’re doing something about it, even if it’s a shame they had to be called out about it to prompt them to do something. The good thing I suppose now, is that it looks like a poor rip off of ClearLeft which may actually make them end up looking more pathetic.

    Lesson of the day is don’t rip of other designs. Obviously.

  • The Kern and Burn Book

    kernandburn

    Kern and Burn: Conversations With Design Entrepreneurs is a beautiful two-color book that features candid conversations with 30 leading designers who have founded startups, channeled personal passions into self-made careers and taken risks to do what they love. In this book they share their failures, successes, and perspectives. Our hope is that you can learn from them—not to follow in their footsteps, but to chart your own course in parallel, one that allows you to thrive, add value to the world and love what you do.

    You can read a sample chapter here.

  • The CSS Zen Garden is Coming Back

    The CSS Zen Garden was created by Dave Shea as a way to promote and showcase the use of CSS. You aren’t allowed to alter the HTML but you can do whatever you like with the CSS. Now it’s 10 years old and it’s coming back.

    The requirements are, of course, quite different this time around:

    • CSS3 is in. Transitions, gradients, shadows, whatever. Just make sure to properly prefix it for all browsers. Webkit-only designs will be discarded with prejudice.
    • Responsive is so in. You don’t have to build a responsive version of your design, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea. It might even be a great idea.
    • Web fonts? Sure. Though I’m not quite sure how you’re gonna pull it off. TypeKit and other hosted services that require tag insertion are out, and licensing probably means you shouldn’t submit your purchased font files. If you can work out some other way to make it work legally, go nuts, but it’s looking like free fonts are your best friend here.
    • Your new browser testing list: IE9+, recent Chrome/Firefox/Safari, and iOS/Android. That should be your baseline. Graceful degradation is acceptable, and in fact highly encouraged.
    • Only the best will be published. High quality design, well coded execution. Same as it has ever been.
    • Please, no garden-themed / Zen pun / self-referential designs. Let’s see some originality.

  • Packery

    packery

    David DeSandro’s latest incarnation of his original Masonry layout engine is out and it is very impressive. I’ve been using it to create a concept prototype recently which really helped for me to quickly demonstrate an idea directly to my team.

    It even supports multi-touch dragging:

    QL6ggTH

  • The Death of Adobe Fireworks

    We all knew it was coming. Not much of a loss to me as I didn’t use it. I did try to use it once a few years ago because it did seem better suited for web design but I just couldn’t make the switch from Photoshop.

    I’ve been told a good alternative is Sketch by Bohemian Coding. I’ve used it briefly and it feels nice and fast and easy to use. It’s also much cheaper than any of Adobe’s apps at only £34.99 ($49.99).

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