Articles by Smashing Magazine from December 2016

We have all encountered names that are difficult to pronounce. Having a challenging name myself, I get different pronunciations of my first name, Atif, all the time. In order to solve my own naming pr...

  We have all encountered names that are difficult to pronounce. Having a challenging name myself, I get different pronunciations of my first name, Atif, all the time. In order to solve my o...

With a couple of days left until New Year’s Eve, it’s just about time to set aside 60 minutes to clean up, sort out and back up your digital footprint, to ensure a good smooth start to 201...

  With a couple of days left until New Year's Eve, it's just about time to set aside 60 minutes to clean up, sort out and back up your digital footprint, to ensure a good smooth start to 201...

When designing a landing page to promote a product or service online, you’re ultimately pointing users toward one goal. That goal most often relates to generating business via sales or leads. Yo...

  When designing a landing page to promote a product or service online, you're ultimately pointing users toward one goal. That goal most often relates to generating business via sales or lea...

Welcome to the last reading list of the year. I’m happy to still have you as a reader and very grateful to all the people who value and support my work. I hope you’ll be on vacation for th...

  Welcome to the last reading list of the year. I'm happy to still have you as a reader and very grateful to all the people who value and support my work. I hope you'll be on vacation for th...

Human interactions are incredibly fascinating if you take a close look at them the social awkwardness, the communication styles, the way knowledge is transferred, the way stories are told and trust i...

  Human interactions are incredibly fascinating if you take a close look at them — the social awkwardness, the communication styles, the way knowledge is transferred, the way stories a...

Are you using progressive booting already? What about tree-shaking and code-splitting in React and Angular? Have you set up Brotli or Zopfli compression, OCSP stapling and HPACK compression? Also, how...

  Are you using progressive booting already? What about tree-shaking and code-splitting in React and Angular? Have you set up Brotli or Zopfli compression, OCSP stapling and HPACK compressio...

Back in 2007, the world met the iPhone for the very first time. After Apple’s product debut, it took less than six months for work to begin on PhoneGap, which would become one of the first and m...

  Back in 2007, the world met the iPhone for the very first time. After Apples product debut, it took less than six months for work to begin on PhoneGap, which would become one of the first ...

Apple taught us, “There’s an app for that.” And we believed it. Why wouldn’t we? But time has passed since 2009. Our mobile users have gotten more mature and are starting to we...

  Apple taught us, "There's an app for that." And we believed it. Why wouldn't we? But time has past since 2009. Our mobile users have gotten more mature and are starting to weigh having spa...

Only one week left until Christmas, and people already start freaking out again. No gifts purchased yet, work isnt finished either, and suddenly some budget has to be spent until the end of the year. ...

The blank Photoshop document glows in front of you. You’ve been trying to design a website for an hour but it’s going nowhere. You feel defeated. You were in this same predicament last mon...

  Only one week left until Christmas, and people already start freaking out again. No gifts purchased yet, work isnt finished either, and suddenly some budget has to be spent until the end o...

  The blank Photoshop document glows in front of you. You've been trying to design a website for an hour but it's going nowhere. You feel defeated. You were in this same predicament last mon...

With the holidays almost here and the new year already in sight, December is a time to slow down, an occasion to reflect and plan ahead. To help us escape the everyday hectic for a bit and sweeten our...

Web components are an amazing new feature of the web, allowing developers to define their own custom HTML elements. When combined with a style guide, web components can create a component API, which a...

  With the holidays almost here and the new year already in sight, December is a time to slow down, an occasion to reflect and plan ahead. To help us escape the everyday hectic for a bit and...

  Web components are an amazing new feature of the web, allowing developers to define their own custom HTML elements. When combined with a style guide, web components can create a component ...

Recently, I decided to rebuild my personal website, because it was six years old and looked politely speaking a little bit “outdated.” The goal was to include some information about myse...

  Recently, I decided to rebuild my personal website, because it was six years old and looked — politely speaking — a little bit "outdated." The goal was to include some informat...

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a SpriteKit game? Do buttons seem like a bigger task than they should be? Ever wonder how to persist settings in a game? Game-making has never been easie...

  Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a SpriteKit game? Do buttons seem like a bigger task than they should be? Ever wonder how to persist settings in a game? Game-making has neve...

Around a year ago, while working at a digital agency, I was given the objective of streamlining our UX design process. Twelve months later, this article shares my thoughts and experiences on how lean ...

  Around a year ago, while working at a digital agency, I was given the objective of streamlining our UX design process. Twelve months later, this article shares my thoughts and experiences ...

We shouldnt let ourselves get distracted by people who work on different projects than we do. If a developer advocate works on a web-based QR code application, for example, their way of tackling thing...

Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with some free goodies? We sifted through the web (and our archives) to find holiday-themed icon sets for you thatll give you...

  We shouldnt let ourselves get distracted by people who work on different projects than we do. If a developer advocate works on a web-based QR code application, for example, their way of ta...

  Christmas is just around the corner, and what better way to celebrate than with some free goodies? We sifted through the web (and our archives) to find holiday-themed icon sets for you tha...

Most people now know that modern web browsers use the GPU to render parts of web pages, especially ones with animation. For example, a CSS animation using the transform property looks much smoother th...

If youve been following the web development community these last few months, chances are youve read about progressive web apps (PWAs). Its an umbrella term used to describe web experiences so advanced...

  Most people now know that modern web browsers use the GPU to render parts of web pages, especially ones with animation. For example, a CSS animation using the transform property looks much...

  If youve been following the web development community these last few months, chances are youve read about progressive web apps (PWAs). Its an umbrella term used to describe web experiences...

Visibility of system status is one of the most important principles in user interface design. Users want to feel in control of the system theyre using, which means they want to know and understand the...

  Visibility of system status is one of the most important principles in user interface design. Users want to feel in control of the system theyre using, which means they want to know and un...

Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a SpriteKit game? Does collision detection seem like a daunting task? Do you want to know how to properly handle sound effects and background music? Game...

  Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a SpriteKit game? Does collision detection seem like a daunting task? Do you want to know how to properly handle sound effects and background...

  Have you ever wondered what it takes to create a SpriteKit game? Does collision detection seem like a daunting task? Do you want to know how to properly handle sound effects and background...

Time moves pretty fast. A new year will be upon us soon, and most of us probably haven’t even realized it. So while we’re almost ready to leave the autumn season (and 2016!) behind, let&rs...

  Time moves pretty fast. A new year will be upon us soon, and most of us probably haven't even realized it. So while we're almost ready to leave the autumn season (and 2016!) behind, let's ...

Are you afraid of refactoring code? I love refactoring code. Its nice to see a code base growing, but this also means that new quirks and suboptimal changes are introduced along the way. At some point...

  Are you afraid of refactoring code? I love refactoring code. Its nice to see a code base growing, but this also means that new quirks and suboptimal changes are introduced along the way. A...

In the first part of this article, we discussed the resurgence of lettering, we defined the differences between lettering, calligraphy, and typeface design, and we also discussed pens, papers, and oth...

Are you ready for the countdown to Christmas? Today, we’re merrily releasing a brand new Christmas Advent Icon Set, a set of 25 icons that are all available in AI, EPS, SVG, PNG and PDF formats....

  In the first part of this article, we discussed the resurgence of lettering, we defined the differences between lettering, calligraphy, and typeface design, and we also discussed pens, pap...

  Are you ready for the countdown to Christmas? Today, we're merrily releasing a brand new Christmas Advent Icon Set, a set of 25 icons that are all available in AI, EPS, SVG, PNG and PDF fo...

New month, new wallpapers! To get you in the right mood for December, designers and artists from across the globe got their ideas bubbling and created unique and inspiring Christmas wallpaper calendar...

Almost five years ago, I had the honor of writing a post on Smashing Magazine about my Photoshop panel GuideGuide. Since thenit has seen wild success asthe most installed third-party Photoshop extensi...

  New month, new wallpapers! To get you in the right mood for December, designers and artists from across the globe got their ideas bubbling and created unique and inspiring Christmas wallpa...

  Almost five years ago, I had the honor of writing a post on Smashing Magazine about my Photoshop panel GuideGuide. Since then it has seen wild success as the most installed third-party Pho...