Articles by Smashing Magazine from April 2020

For the most part, we tend to underestimate things that are familiar to us. It is also very likely that we will underestimate those things that though new, seem very simple to process. And that is cor...

One of the most commonly requested software features is dark mode (or night mode, as others call it). We see dark mode in the apps that we use every day. From mobile to web apps, dark mode has become ...

Web developers build a lot of Single Page Applications using JavaScript frameworks (Angular, React, Vue). SPAs dynamically populate the contents of their pages on load which means by the time google c...

It has been a month since we launched our first online workshop and, to be honest, we really didnt know whether people would enjoy them — or if we would enjoy running them. It was an experiment,...

Taking your first steps in programming is like picking up a foreign language. At first, the syntax makes no sense, the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and everything looks and sounds unintelligible. If your...

Since the introduction of Node.js by Ryan Dahl at the European JSConf on 8 November 2009, it has seen wide usage across the tech industry. Companies such as Netflix, Uber, and LinkedIn give credibilit...

This tutorial is not an introduction to Flutter itself. There are plenty of articles, videos and several books available online with simple introductions that will help you learn the basics of Flutter...

If you want more leads or increased sales, you need compelling landing pages. According to Hubspot, those companies with over 30 landing pages, will generate seven times more leads than those with few...

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, were talking about running online workshops. How can a traditional event adapt when participants cant attend in person? Drew McLellan talks to Rachel Andrew to...

Spinners and loaders have traditionally been the way to tell users that content is going to take a while to load. While this approach is great, its quickly becoming obsolete in modern development. Ske...

Digital space obviously has its challenges, but it also provides incredible opportunities for us to connect and learn in ways we just wouldnt be able to do otherwise. The situation with COVID-19 has c...

Before we get started, I want to note that Djangos built-in administrative capabilities, even after customization, are not meant for end-users. The admin panel exists as a developer, operator, and adm...

React Hooks are a new addition in React 16.8 that let you use state and other React features without writing a class component. In other words, Hooks are functions that let you hook into React state a...

Have you ever thought about distracting visitors of your website with a fancy, glittering particle animation for a few moments, while some data is loaded in the background? Fortunately, its not necess...

While good use of type helps people to read, great typography can do so much more. Typography can eloquently articulate an idea and colourfully communicate a message in ways which are as powerful as a...

When React 16.8 was released officially in early February 2019, it shipped with an additional API that lets you use state and other features in React without writing a class. This additional API is ca...

Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for almost every kind of website, but its finer points remain something of a specialty. Even today SEO is often treated as something that can be tacked on...

We will take a Test-Driven Development (TDD) approach and the set up Continuous Integration (CI) job to automatically run our tests on Travis CI and AppVeyor, complete with code quality and coverage r...

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, were talking about online privacy. What should web developers be doing to make sure the privacy of our users is maintained? I spoke to Laura Kalbag to find out...

In this tutorial, Ill demonstrate how to create your own blog using Hugo and deploy it on Firebase for free. Hugo is an open-source static site generator and Firebase is a Google platform that offers ...

Ethics is a timely subject for all of us who work on digital products, so it was no surprise The Ethical Design Handbook was well received. There is a real need for practical solutions beyond just com...

Some no-frills approaches to building websites require a developer to write every line of HTML by hand. On the other extreme, commercial no-code site builders create all of the HTML for the user autom...

In this tutorial, youll learn what Headless CMS is, and the pros and cons of Headless CMS. In the end, youll have built a shopping cart using GraphCMS (a (backend-only content management system). Afte...

I read an interesting article on Forbes recently about language saturation. Heres the problem:Consumers dont always understand the technicalities of what businesses do or the solutions theyve created ...

In times like these where our everyday life is pausing and were trying to find strategies to cope with this situation we all find ourselves in at the moment, little routines can help give us a sense o...

In times like these where our everyday life is pausing and were trying to find strategies to cope with this situation we all find ourselves in at the moment, little routines can help give us a sense o...