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Archive for January, 2016

CSS Specificity is Base-Infinite

January 21st, 2016 No comments

There is a good amount of information on this site about specificity. The seminal one is Specifics on CSS Specificity, which has been updated a few times over the years. When it was originally published in 2008, it presented the information in a bit of a misleading way. It has long since been fixed, but the mistake is still interesting.

The original article showed specificity as an integer, so a selector like #main article.news p:first-child would have been listed as 0122 for the 1 ID, 2 classes, and 2 elements. The mistake? That makes it seem like a base-10 system. Say the specificity value was 0129 – if it was a base-10 system, adding one more element selector would make that 0130 which is definitely not what happens.

Jonathan Snook originally corrected me:

… if you had an element with 11 classes applied to it, it would not outrank an element with a single ID selector.

And Eric Meyer corroborated:

Specificity is not base-10. It’s not base-anything-familiar: in fact, specificity values have an infinite base.

(You can even find a broodling Harry Roberts in that comment thread!)

The trick with writing about specificity is to use commas so it doesn’t look like a single number. 0122 is better served as 0, 1, 2, 2. The diagrams in subsequent updated posts were better:

You’d probably never actually write a selector like this, as it’s way too obnoxiously specific, but it’s a good demo.

The first digit represents whether an element has an inline style or not, so that’s really just a 0 or a 1, but the rest are theoretically infinite. I guess it would be like this:

[0 or 1], ∞, ∞, ∞

A number in a higher column can beat any number below. 0, 1, 0, 0 beats 0, 0, 312, 54659392. That right there is why it’s so popular to just never use ID’s and keep specificity flat.

CSS Specificity is Base-Infinite is a post from CSS-Tricks

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Web Inspector Turns 10

January 20th, 2016 No comments
web-inspector-2

Web Inspector, the popular open source web development tool for Safari web browser, is now ten years old.

For a decade now, Web Inspector has helped developers prototype, inspect and debug their code on iOS and Mac devices.

It began as a simple tool, lacking even a basic console, and capable of only offering the DOM tree and style rules. However, over the course of ten years, Web Inspector has evolved into a big project, and today, it is an integral part of every web developer’s workflow who needs to work with the Safari web browser.

The most interesting part is that Web Inspector, in itself, has been open source ever since its birth back in 2006. With each major update of Safari, Web Inspector too got an overhaul, such as the major UI redesign in 2008.

web-inspector-2

Last year, Web Inspector added many new changes and updates to its core, such as enhanced JavaScript support, better queries and styling, better frame rendering and many new interesting additions.

As of now, Web Inspector does not seem to have any decent alternative and as such, this open source web development tool built within the Safari web browser is going strong.

Are you a user of Web Inspector? If not, and if you do code often for iOS or Mac devices, you should give it a spin. And if you are an existing user, how has your experience been? Share your views in the comments below.

Read More at Web Inspector Turns 10

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Is Google Rolling Out The Penguin Update?

January 20th, 2016 No comments
google-logo-2

Recently, we reported that Google made some surprise changes to its algorithm that had left many SEO experts puzzled.

In continuation from last week, this week too, Google made more changes to its search algorithm. However, this time, Google was quick to clarify that these changes were not a new addition per se, but instead, were in continuation of last week’s algorithm updates.

Once again, as clarified by Google employees, these core algorithm changes are not in any way related to the Penguin update.

@AdilAdilrehman core algorithm. Not penguin

— Gary Illyes (@methode) January 18, 2016

However, the rumor mill is already on its way. Since many webmasters and SEO experts have been expecting Penguin updates to be visible sometime in early 2016, these core algorithm updates are being mistaken to be Penguin updates.

Many automated tools have noticed that the recent core updates to the Google search algorithm have been pretty volatile and detailed in nature. This further adds to the speculations that Google is rolling out the Penguin update in phases, and these core updates are just hints or parts of the bigger Penguin update.

Well, as of now, Google has insisted that the recent changes to the core algorithm are not related to Penguin, and personally, I see no reason to believe otherwise.

What do you think of these updates to Google’s core search algorithm? Share your views in the comments below.

Read More at Is Google Rolling Out The Penguin Update?

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Prevent UX fails with smart design

January 20th, 2016 No comments

One thing that not enough designers focus on when designing websites is cutting down on user errors. That’s a pity because user errors have a direct impact on a site’s user experience…which has a direct impact on a site’s conversions…which has a direct impact on how much money your client stands to lose.

Put another way: If there’s one thing you can do immediately to ensure your client stays happy and keeps throwing design work your way, it’s to preemptively prevent user errors right from the get go. Designing with this proactive philosophy won’t just drastically improve the user experience, but it’ll also make you look really good to your clients.

Preventing user errors comes down to one principle that should always be first in every designer’s value system: designing for the end user at all costs.

Design patterns

Design patterns are layouts and interfaces that will strike a familiar chord with users because they’ve seen them countless times in all their years of surfing the Web. Therefore, it only makes sense to present your users with designs that they’ve already seen before to reduce user errors. After all, when a user has had experience navigating through a certain design, then it’s a good bet that he won’t make errors related to getting lost on your site, failing to understand what the page goal is, or not understanding how to perform a specific action.

Stats say that approximately 40% of the Earth’s population currently enjoys Internet access. These users have seen your basic navigation menu (horizontal, vertical, etc.), know how to scroll below the fold, understand that calls to action should be clickable—and much more. They’re also familiar with various design trends, everything from parallax scrolling and flat design to minimalism and the long-scrolling page. Work within these well-understood patterns to drastically cut down on the possibility of user errors!

Dillard’s department stores exemplifies this basic-yet-familiar approach to web design. On its homepage, you can clearly see how many elements it does right:

  • horizontal navigation menu offering clear and easy access to different departments;
  • single-column design;
  • white space to focus attention on the content;
  • search bar to facilitate good UX that lets shoppers quickly find what they want;
  • big images that show products sharply and attractively.

With this layout, people navigating Dillard’s for the first time will immediately move through the e-commerce conversion funnel due to the familiar interface of the site.

Rely on affordances

Affordances are those indications that tell your users how they can interact with your client’s site. They’re absolutely essential to a great user experience and, therefore, reducing user errors.

Affordances come in all shapes and sizes:

  • physical;
  • language;
  • pattern;
  • symbolic or iconic.

Without clear affordances or any at all, even the most seasoned user will have a putrid user experience on your site.

Take, for instance, language affordances, which are the most explicit ways of communicating to your users how they can interact with your site. One of the most common places where you can find these are in web forms to help guide users on what they should input into the various fields.

While some forms can be relatively short, every user will be lost without language affordances to tell them what they should input into every field.

On Dropbox’s homepage, you can see the sign-up form prominently displayed right in the middle of the screen. The form only has four fields, but to help the user experience, Dropbox has included language affordances in every field, so that all users know that they’re expected to type in their first and last names, email addresses and passwords to sign up.

Now that users are 100% sure on what to enter into these fields, they won’t make any mistakes, and as a result, sign up will be extremely smooth because there won’t be any friction in the process.

Use a deletion failsafe

One of the most common user errors is based on accidental deletions of created works, whether those works are very time-consuming, such as written reports, or just shared media like photographs that take but a second to shoot. It stands to reason, then, that creating effective safeguards against accidental deletions is one of the best ways to cut down on user errors.

Most everyone has, at one point or another, experienced a situation where he accidentally deleted a valuable or necessary piece of content. The cost of such a user error can oftentimes be more than just the frustration of having pressed the wrong button or failed to read the pop up-window messages more carefully. Accidental deletions can permanently erase precious memories and work-related documents that cost real money.

The confirmation dialog box, asking users if they really meant to delete an item, is still a vital failsafe that has to be part of every well-functioning design. The beauty of this failsafe is that, in keeping with the rule about using design conventions, all users will be instantly familiar with it, thereby upping its effectiveness as a loss-prevention system.

Google Drive‘s interface uses confirmation dialog boxes that immediately grab the user’s attention, ensuring they can’t be ignored.

Note how the box features the confirmation question in bigger font than all the other text in the box, almost as if it was its own headline? In addition, action-oriented words like “delete” begin the question, further making it likely that users will take notice. The line containing the warning is in bold as well, contributing to the urgency behind the question. Finally, note how the call to action button of “cancel” is the one that’s highlighted in blue, indicating a desire by the designers to have users err on the side of caution in cases of accidental deletions.

All told, such a use of confirmation dialog boxes acts as a failsafe against rash users who may not have intended to press a certain button.

Conclusion

One thing that we constantly say in web design is how important it is to design with the user in mind at all times. The user experience should be put first and foremost in all design decisions. However, the interesting aspect of design is how designers usually associate the user experience in the context of what they can add to a design to improve the users’ experience. They rarely approach designing with the user in mind first from the standpoint of eliminating potential errors the user can get wrapped up in.

That’s why it’s essential that designers always try to put themselves in the user’s shoes and try to anticipate how he’ll behave as he’s navigating their design. Only then can user errors truly be minimized.

Featured image, confirm image via Shutterstock.

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Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

Designing for Kids Is Not Child’s Play

January 20th, 2016 No comments

Chances are you’ve seen it: a child glued to a tablet or smartphone, swiping fearlessly with small, sticky fingers. From airports and restaurants, to homes and even schools, mobile devices are a ubiquitous part of childhood today. Apple launched a curated ‘Kids’ category in the App Store last year that already has more than 80,000 apps.

Sesame Street Touch & Learn TV

With so many apps for kids out there, you may have considered designing one yourself. “How hard could designing for kids be?” you might think. Well, don’t let appearances deceive you. Despite their simple storylines and silly soundtracks, designing for kids is serious business. It’s not just taking grown-up content and dumbing it down. In fact, there are many reasons why designing for kids is actually more difficult than designing for adults.

The post Designing for Kids Is Not Child’s Play appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

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Combining CSS3 Transitions for Complex Animations

January 20th, 2016 No comments

Animated transitions can be done with little effort thanks to CSS3 transitions and are used a lot nowadays. You can alter different characteristics at the same time. There is also the possibility to play with the attributes you want to animate at different times and with different durations.

CSS3 Transitions Using Delays

The „transitions“ attribute knows four different values. The first value determines which attributes should be animated per transition. While „all“ simply animates all attributes (as long as there is something to animate), you can also choose to only animate a specific attribute.

The second value defines the duration of the animation in seconds and the third value is responsible for the easing – „ease“ „ease-out“ or „ease-in“, for example. There is also the option to define a temporal offset. This makes the transition start after a specific period of time.

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div {
  transition: all 2s ease 1s;
  border-radius: 0;
  transform: rotate(45deg);
}
 
div:hover {
  border-radius: 100%;
  transform: rotate(90deg);
}

In the example, the values „border-radius“ and „transform“ are altered on hover. The animation takes two seconds, but it starts with an offset of one second.


Transitions With Attributes Animated at the Same Time

Combining Multiple CSS3 Transitions

Most of you probably know the way presented here. Unfortunately, it has the disadvantage that the transition for all attributes – „border-radius“ and „transform“ in this case – play at the same time. However, a slightly changed markup allows you to assign an individual animation duration as well as an individual delay to each of them.

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div {
  transition: transform 0.5s ease, border-radius 1s ease 0.5s;
  border-radius: 0;
  transform: rotate(45deg);
}

In the second example, custom values are assigned to every attribute that is supposed to be animated via „transition“. The values are separated by commas. Here, the animation of the „border-radius“ attribute starts half a second after the start of the „transform“ attribute’s animation.

kombinierte-transitions2
Transitions With Attributes Animated Independently From Each Other

This way, you can create thoroughly complex hover effects without using JavaScript as well as without nesting HTML elements and equipping every single one with a transition effect.

Additionally, the order of animations stays the same even when the movement is reversed. Here, „transform“ is animated first, followed by „border-radius“.

Advantage over „@keyframes“ and „animation“

Of course it’s also possible to define such complex animations with the CSS3 attribute „animation“ in combination with the „@keyframes“ rule. Transitions, however, have an advantage, as the animated transition adapts automatically, when the class or pseudo class is changed.

This means, that when you leave the hover status before completion of the transition’s animation, the animation is automatically animated back to its original appearance. This doesn’t happen when using „animation“ and „@keyframes“.

All of the presented transitions have their limits, however, for example when you want to animate different „transform“ effects independently from each other, like „scale()“ and „rotate()“. After all, both are defined by the same attribute. If you want independent animations, you will have to use „@keyframes“ and „animation“.

Example on Codepen

(dpe)

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12 Best and Essential WordPress Plugins you should Install

January 20th, 2016 No comments
wordpress-plugins

wordpress-plugins

WordPress itself comes with a lot of functionality and features; however, there are times when the core functionality is not enough for a website. One of the best ways to extend the functionality is through adding the plugins.

Plugins are a great way to add any type of feature to your website without messing with the code. It allows non-technical webmasters to customize their websites. However, with more than 50,000 plugins, it is definitely one heck of a job to figure out which plugin to use. Therefore, we have gathered a list of plugins that can help you improve your website in no time.

  1. WordPress SEO by Yoast

Seo by Yoast

In order to improve your search engine ranking, you need to optimize your website for search engines. SEO includes adding Meta description, Meta tag, title and much more. This is where WordPress SEO by Yoast comes into play. It allows you to easily add all the important and relevant information to your website.

  1. Jetpack

JetPack

Jetpack is an excellent WordPress plugin that comes with a wide variety of features. The plugin is basically used to monitor the number of visitors on the website. However, it is also equipped with other features such as

nt WordPress plugin that comes with a wide variety of features. The plugin is basically used to monitor the number of visitors on the website. However, it is also equipped with other features such as number of content tools, enhanced security, related posts, social sharing, spam-free comments and much more.

  1. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total CacheCaching is one of the most important parts of improved site loading time. In order to speed up the performance and load time of your site, you need to enable caching. It allows you to save the important data on your visitors’ browsers. To make the process simpler, use W3 Total Cache plugin.

  1. iThemes Security

iTheme Security

iThemes Security is one of the most popular WordPress plugin that helps you protect your website from hackers and spammers. A majority of webmasters are usually unaware of the loopholes in their websites and thus make their sites vulnerable to hacks. Installing iThemes Security helps you fill up all the holes and makes your website secure and protected.

  1. Login Lockdown

Login lockDown

WordPress wp-admin is the most common and vulnerable entry point for hackers. A person can try to login into your website through wp-admin with unlimited login attempts. However, using Login Lockdown WordPress plugin, you can limit the number of login attempts. This way you can protect your login area by locking it down.

  1. Duplicator

Duplicator

Internet is a wild world where you can promote your business without spending a fortune. However, it is also extremely vulnerable to threats and hacking attacks. This is why you should backup your website every once in a while in case something wrong happens with your site. Instead of manually backing your website up, you can use Duplicator WordPress plugin and save yourself from all the pain.

  1. Floating Social Bar

Floating Social Bars

Social media sites play an important role in driving traffic to a website today since 90% of web users are using such platforms to communicate and share. A majority of websites have realized the significance of promoting their websites on social media. However, instead of sharing each new post, product or services on different platforms, you can simply integrate Floating Social Bar to your website and connect with your followers easily.

  1. Optinmonster

Optinmonster

Optinmonster is a great premium WordPress plugin that increases generation lead for a website. You can create interactive pop-ups and forms for your site and convert visitors into subscribers. Additional features include exit intent technology, split testing, analytics, page-level targeting and much more.

  1. Akismet

akismet

Akismet is an anti-spam plugin that helps you keep spam comments at bay. It filters out all the spam comments from your website. In addition, Akismet is a free plugin and can be used without even spending a penny. It also offers a premium service with additional features and can be availed at as low as $9 per month.

  1. Contact Form 7

Contact Form7

Contact Form 7 is the most developer friendly contact form plugin that lets you create user-friendly forms. It can manage various contact forms as well as allows you to customize them according to your preferences and requirements. All you have to do is copy and paste a short code where you want to add the form. Contact Form 7 is also enabled with akismet spam filtering features, CAPTCHA, and Ajax-powered submitting.

  1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an amazing plugin to monitor your website. It enables you to track the number of visitors, social media traffic, location and behavior of the traffic and much more. You can see the whole stats in your website dashboard without logging into your Google Analytics account.

  1. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Site Map

Google XML Sitemaps, as the name suggests, helps you generate XML sitemaps for your website. Sitemaps are important for your website to help search engines index your website better. They also help search engine crawlers to understand the structure and show the relevant results.

Read More at 12 Best and Essential WordPress Plugins you should Install

Categories: Designing, Others Tags:

12 Best and Essential WordPress Plugins you should Install

January 20th, 2016 No comments
Seo by Yoast

In order to improve your search engine ranking, you need to optimize your website for search engines. SEO includes adding Meta description, Meta tag, title and much more. This is where WordPress SEO by Yoast comes into play. It allows you to easily add all the important and relevant information to your website.

WordPress itself comes with a lot of functionality and features; however, there are times when the core functionality is not enough for a website. One of the best ways to extend the functionality is through adding the plugins.

Plugins are a great way to add any type of feature to your website without messing with the code. It allows non-technical webmasters to customize their websites. However, with more than 50,000 plugins, it is definitely one heck of a job to figure out which plugin to use. Therefore, we have gathered a list of plugins that can help you improve your website in no time.

  1. WordPress SEO by Yoast

In order to improve your search engine ranking, you need to optimize your website for search engines. SEO includes adding Meta description, Meta tag, title and much more. This is where WordPress SEO by Yoast comes into play. It allows you to easily add all the important and relevant information to your website.

  1. Jetpack

JetPack

Jetpack is an excellent WordPress plugin that comes with a wide variety of features. The plugin is basically used to monitor the number of visitors on the website. However, it is also equipped with other features such as

nt WordPress plugin that comes with a wide variety of features. The plugin is basically used to monitor the number of visitors on the website. However, it is also equipped with other features such as number of content tools, enhanced security, related posts, social sharing, spam-free comments and much more.

  1. W3 Total Cache

W3 Total CacheCaching is one of the most important parts of improved site loading time. In order to speed up the performance and load time of your site, you need to enable caching. It allows you to save the important data on your visitors’ browsers. To make the process simpler, use W3 Total Cache plugin.

  1. iThemes Security

iTheme Security

iThemes Security is one of the most popular WordPress plugin that helps you protect your website from hackers and spammers. A majority of webmasters are usually unaware of the loopholes in their websites and thus make their sites vulnerable to hacks. Installing iThemes Security helps you fill up all the holes and makes your website secure and protected.

  1. Login Lockdown

Login lockDown

WordPress wp-admin is the most common and vulnerable entry point for hackers. A person can try to login into your website through wp-admin with unlimited login attempts. However, using Login Lockdown WordPress plugin, you can limit the number of login attempts. This way you can protect your login area by locking it down.

  1. Duplicator

Duplicator

Internet is a wild world where you can promote your business without spending a fortune. However, it is also extremely vulnerable to threats and hacking attacks. This is why you should backup your website every once in a while in case something wrong happens with your site. Instead of manually backing your website up, you can use Duplicator WordPress plugin and save yourself from all the pain.

  1. Floating Social Bar

Floating Social Bars

Social media sites play an important role in driving traffic to a website today since 90% of web users are using such platforms to communicate and share. A majority of websites have realized the significance of promoting their websites on social media. However, instead of sharing each new post, product or services on different platforms, you can simply integrate Floating Social Bar to your website and connect with your followers easily.

  1. Optinmonster

Optinmonster

Optinmonster is a great premium WordPress plugin that increases generation lead for a website. You can create interactive pop-ups and forms for your site and convert visitors into subscribers. Additional features include exit intent technology, split testing, analytics, page-level targeting and much more.

  1. Akismet

akismet

Akismet is an anti-spam plugin that helps you keep spam comments at bay. It filters out all the spam comments from your website. In addition, Akismet is a free plugin and can be used without even spending a penny. It also offers a premium service with additional features and can be availed at as low as $9 per month.

  1. Contact Form 7

Contact Form7

Contact Form 7 is the most developer friendly contact form plugin that lets you create user-friendly forms. It can manage various contact forms as well as allows you to customize them according to your preferences and requirements. All you have to do is copy and paste a short code where you want to add the form. Contact Form 7 is also enabled with akismet spam filtering features, CAPTCHA, and Ajax-powered submitting.

  1. Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is an amazing plugin to monitor your website. It enables you to track the number of visitors, social media traffic, location and behavior of the traffic and much more. You can see the whole stats in your website dashboard without logging into your Google Analytics account.

  1. Google XML Sitemaps

Google XML Site Map

Google XML Sitemaps, as the name suggests, helps you generate XML sitemaps for your website. Sitemaps are important for your website to help search engines index your website better. They also help search engine crawlers to understand the structure and show the relevant results.

Read More at 12 Best and Essential WordPress Plugins you should Install

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WP Engine Review – WordPress Hosting Surpercharged, or a Waste of Money?

January 20th, 2016 No comments
WP Engine Review

With WordPress powering over 25.4% of websites in the world – and more than 76.5 million blogs – there’s a high probability that you’re going to use WordPress for your website at some point.

WP Engine is a managed web host specifically for WordPress; it’s a bit different from traditional shared hosts because it was built and fine-tuned for WordPress – from the ground up.

People have varied opinions about WP Engine: there’s a group that believe that it’s well worth the money, while another group believe it’s a waste of money. Considering that their cheapest plan is $29 per month, and can easily go up to $249 per month, it can be difficult deciding if WP Engine is the web host for you. This review will answer your questions about WP Engine in an unbiased way that makes it easy for you to decide.

A Quick Overview of WP Engine Hosting Plans

At the time of writing this, WP Engine has three main hosting plans. They are:

The Personal Plan: This is the cheapest plan, and it costs $29 per month. This plan limits you to one blog installation and 25,000 monthly visits. With this plan, you also have a limit of 10GB local storage.

The Professional Plan: This plan costs $99 per month and allows you to host 10 sites with a combined maximum of 100,000 monthly visits total. With this plan, you get 20GB local storage.

The Business Plan: This plan allows you to install up to 25 sites with a combined total of 400k monthly visits. It comes with a local storage limit of 30GB.

The “Personal,” “Professional,” and “Business” plans are hosted in a shared environment. For more advanced, dedicated plans you can email or call their support.

PROS OF USING WP ENGINE

Here are some of the advantages to using WP Engine:

Superfast Hosting: Users and critics alike, one thing everybody agrees about with WP Engine is that they are superfast. WP Engine is superfast for so many reasons, including the following:

  • WP Engine prevent users from installing plugins that can be server hogs – plugins that use all server resource, thus preventing your site from loading properly and fast – so speed is usually guaranteed.
  • WP Engine is designed from scratch with WordPress in mind, so they have the best configuration for faster WordPress sites.
  • WP Engine includes CDN with their more expensive plans. If you use their “Personal” plan, it will cost an extra $19.99 monthly to use a CDN.
  • WP Engine uses their own in-house, scalable EverCache technology to ensure your site stays online and fast during traffic spikes.

Built and Tweaked for WordPress: Constant site crashes, extremely slow websites, website not functioning properly due to WordPress issues, etc? With WP Engine, you won’t experience these problems. This is because WP Engine has been built and tweaked for WordPress, so an upgrade or tweak to your blog won’t crash your server. It also ensures optimal performance for WordPress sites.

Strict Management, so you can Count on Quality Control: WP Engine is very strict about what happens to sites on their server, even to the extent of disallowing certain plugins that they believe will cause server problems. This policy protects your site from actions you can take that can crash your server and from the actions of other WP Engine users.

Uptime: WP Engine is very reliable when it comes to uptime, and many people testify to having 100% uptime with them.

Staging: One of WP Engine’s biggest advantages is their staging environment; this is basically a replica of your site that is not available to the general public. In WP Engine’s staging environment, you can install plugins, update themes, redesign your site, and tweak your settings to see how things turn out before rolling out the changes to your main site. This can prevent a lot of problems, including server crashes or your site not displaying properly due to changes you make.

Backups: WP Engine Offers instant back up and 1-click restore, making it easy to back up and restore your site without hassles.

Security: WP Engine is very secure, mainly because they take regular backups of your site and do regular scans for malware. WP Engine also uses SFTP — instead of FTP – and they will automatically block any IP that unsuccessfully attempts to login to your site three times in a row. WP Engine also offers to fix your site for free if it is hacked.

Overage Pricing: While WP Engine can be quite costly because they price based on the number of visitors to your site, they remedy the restriction on the number of visits on their plans with their overage pricing system. With WP Engine’s overage pricing, unlike with other hosts, your site won’t be automatically pulled offline if you exceed the traffic limit. Instead, they’ll charge you overage of $1 per extra 1,000 visitors over your limit, and they will add it to your next bill.

Support: WP Engine offers support both via phone and email, as well as via live chat from 6AM – 8PM CT. Their support is managed by WordPress experts, so it is reliable.

CONS OF USING WP ENGINE

Here are some of the downsides to using WP Engine, which you should consider before going with them:

WP Engine Can Be Restrictive: If you’re a traditional WordPress user, a problem you might have with WP Engine is their restrictiveness. A good example of this in action is their “disallowed plugins policy.” Generally, you should be able to install any of the 36,000+ plugins in the WordPress plugin repository on your blog, but it is against WP Engine policy to install plugins that they believe conflict with some of their solutions, that use a lot of server resource, that send emails through WordPress, or that they believe could make your blog more vulnerable. Here’s a full list of their disallowed plugins.

How Visitors are Tracked: A major complaint that users have with WP Engine is how visits are tracked. This has been a very sensitive topic considering the fact that WP Engine charges users based on the number of visits they get.

WP Engine visit tracking isn’t too reliable, and you’ll often find that it doesn’t correlate with what popular analytics services – Google Analytics, Clicky Analytics, etc. – track. This is because major analytics services track genuine visits to your website, but WP Engine tracks both genuine visits and visits from bots. This was recently remedied when they announced in October 2015 that they’ve stopped tracking visits from bots, but this is still worth noting in case you notice a slight difference between your analytics data and WP Engine’s visitor tracking.

Very Expensive: WP Engine is very expensive compared to other solutions, especially traditional shared hosts. Their cheapest plan allows only 1 blog and 25k visits monthly for $29. For the average blogger, especially someone who blogs as a hobby, this can be a costly.

WP Engine Can Appear a Bit Technical if You’re Used to cPanel: If your experience has mainly been with shared hosts, you’ve most likely operated a website via cPanel. This won’t be the case with WP Engine, as they have their own special control panel.

Lack of Email Hosting/Support: Unlike with shared hosts, WP Engine does not provide you with email support or webmail access. It also places a restriction on how your WordPress site can be used to send emails, but you can use Google Apps as a workaround to this.

Read More at WP Engine Review – WordPress Hosting Surpercharged, or a Waste of Money?

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The Vital Guide to Interviewing Mobile Application Designers

January 19th, 2016 No comments
toptal-blog-image-1444381540553-b41f13eb44ee20f50a8e43bc462ca663.jpg

This guide deals with mobile application design and its goal is to provide clients with information on mobile design, and help them recognize a top notch mobile designer. It touches on multiple aspects of mobile application development, some or all of which will be relevant to the specific context in which you are looking to hire.

Before we proceed to define what makes a top-notch designer, we need to be aware of the definition.

Mobile application designers focus on native mobile apps and work closely with UX and UI designers to apply their design to mobile interfaces.

Mobile application designers focus on native mobile apps and work closely with UX and UI designers to apply their design to mobile interfaces.

Mobile designers have many names and some of them are app designers, iOS designers, Android designers, and so on. They usually work closely with user-experience (UX) designers and user-interface (UI) designers to apply their design to mobile interfaces. Their main focus is on native mobile applications, but they should also be able to create designs for mobile and hybrid apps.

Every mobile application designer should be aware of the difference between these three platforms.

The Challenge

Native apps live on the device and they are accessed through icons on the device home screen. Native apps are usually installed through an application store (such as Google Play or Apple’s App Store). They are specifically developed for one platform, and can take full advantage of all the device features; they can use the camera, the GPS, various sensors like the accelerometer, compass, and so on. They can also incorporate gestures (either standard operating system gestures or new, app-defined gestures). Also, it’s worth noting that native apps can use the device’s notification system, access local information like the contacts list, and they can work offline.

Responsive web applications are not real applications; they are really websites that, in many ways, look and feel like native applications, but are not implemented as such. They are run by a browser and typically written in HTML5. Users first access them as they would access any web page: They navigate to a special URL and then have the option of “installing” them on their home screen by creating a bookmark to that page. Web apps became popular when HTML5 went mainstream and people realized that they could obtain native-like functionality in the browser.

Today, as more and more sites use HTML5, the distinction between web apps and regular web pages is blurring. For instance, there are no visible browser buttons or bars, although the site runs in Safari (when accessed from an iPhone). Users swipe horizontally to move on to new sections of the app. And, thanks to browser caching, it’s even possible to read the newspaper offline.

HTML5 vs. Native Apps vs. Hybrid Apps

A lot of features are available in HTML5. It possible to access some sensors, implement the tap-to-call feature, and even other functions, such as the device’s camera API. However, few web apps and websites take advantage of these possibilities.

Mobile app developers must be aware of the difference between these native and hybrid apps, as well as HTML5 apps.

Mobile app developers must be aware of the difference between these native and hybrid apps, as well as HTML5 apps.

There are, however, native features that remain inaccessible (at least for now) in the browser:

  • The notification system, running in the background
  • Sensor input such as accelerometer information (other than detecting landscape or portrait orientations)
  • Complex gestures

Of course, one can argue that many apps (native or otherwise) do not take advantage of those extra features, anyhow. But if you really need those native features, you’ll have to create a native app, or at least a hybrid app.

Native mobile apps provide fast performance and a high degree of reliability. It’s important to note that most mobile video games are native applications. We all know that video games are among the most popular mobile applications, and many of them need to utilise the hardware in the most efficient way in order to ensure smooth gameplay and a good user experience.

Hybrid apps are part native apps, part web apps. Because of that, many people incorrectly call them “web apps.” Like native apps, they live in an app store and can take advantage of the many device features available. Like web apps, they rely on HTML being rendered in a browser, with the understanding that the browser is embedded within the app. Often, companies build hybrid apps as wrappers for an existing web page; in that way, they hope to get a presence in the app store without spending resources on app development. Hybrid apps are also popular because they allow cross-platform development and thus significantly reduce development costs: The same HTML code components can be reused on different mobile operating systems.

Tools such as PhoneGap and Sencha Touch allow people to design and code across platforms, using the power of HTML. Doing justice to many of these topics would warrant posts of their own. Nonetheless, this guide is intended to provide, at least, a meaningful overview of key issues and topics relating to mobile application design. Furthermore, every good mobile application designer should be aware of all the terms used in this article.

It’s not unusual for a client to demand native apps rather than responsive web applications. In order to provide a different and unique user-experience on each device, many clients will require a native application.

Q: Native, Web App, or Hybrid: Which Should You Choose?

To summarize, native apps, hybrid apps, or web apps cater to the needs of the mobile user. There is no best solution; each has its strengths and weaknesses. The choice depends on each client’s unique needs.

Q: When designing a new application, what are the most important questions you need to know?

  • What is your app’s main goal?
  • What are the most important sections in your app? How many are there?
  • What kind of actions should be available to the user throughout the app?
  • Who is your direct and indirect competition, if it exists?
  • Which features and functions do you want to include in your app?

With the answers, the designer should be able to start searching for the best design pattern for the new application. Maybe the best question to ask when starting a new design would be: “If you came home angry and stressed out, looking to buy a cinema ticket, how you would like to application to work?”

The same question can be adjusted to any real-life situation and mobile app. If the application design works when the user is frustrated, then the application is probably well designed.

Q: What do you need to consider when designing for iOS, Android or any mobile platform?

When people are about to use something, they have already expectations (we call them mental models). For example, most users will buy a certain smartphone because they like the design principles behind its operating system, the appearance, or how the device works. So, the most important thing to consider when designing for iOS, or other mobile platform, is to consider vendor guidelines. While developers need to stick to vendor guidelines, the basic logic behind each application should be identical, regardless of vendor.

Designers should not try to reinvent the wheel by implementing some unexpected elements within the application. In order to provide an extraordinary experience, designers should experiment with improved user flow and interaction design. In the application industry, this is a standard; Apple does it, Google does it, and Microsoft is no exception.

Q: When designing for a diverse set of users who will engage with your products, what do you need to consider?

Along with device platform guidelines, the designer should consider accessibility guidelines for a range of users. Design for people who are young, old, power users, casual users, and those who just enjoy a quality experience. Embrace these accessibility guidelines as you would any set of design constraints. They are part of the challenge of creating amazing products.

Q: Why are application icons so important for an application and what should be considered when designing the icon?

Beautiful, compelling icons are a fundamental part of a good user experience. Far from being merely decorative, icons play an essential role in communicating with users. Focus on a unique shape; some icons have many colors or they feature gradients, but they all start with a simple shape. That allows them to be recognizable at a distance and at a glance. Icons are seen in a range of different sizes. They are large in the App store, get small on the home screen and even smaller in the notification centre and in groups. Make sure your design scales well and is clear at any size.

The designer should also test the icon on different wallpapers; while it might look great against a traditional backdrop, iOS raindrops for example, there’s no guarantee it looks great on all wallpapers. And try grouping your designs into folders to evaluate how they look.

Q: How to design an intuitive user-interface and still achieve the “Wow!” effect.

Intuitive means easy to understand or operate without explicit instruction. The designer should always use different visual treatment for icons that are “tappable” and icons that are used as indicators and are “non-tappable.” Once a coherent system for distinguishing tappable from non-tappable icons is in place, the designer needs to follow it throughout the mobile app. In order to achieve the “WOW effect,” the designer should play around with unique shapes (for example custom made icons), animations, and then present them in a whole new way.

For example, the paper plane is now widely recognized as the “Send” icon. When it was first introduced, it was probably a little bit confusing for a user. “What is this paper plane? What does it have to do with email?” In many applications, the “Save” icon is an image of the extinct floppy disk. A life buoy icon could be used, instead. Once users understand or discover the meaning of a new UI element, it becomes “intuitive” the next time.

Three Components of the “Wow!” Factor

If the designer is limited by brand guidelines, the “Wow!” effect can be achieved in other areas.

Let’s imagine that we have a beautiful and expensive pen. But if it doesn’t write well, we will probably abandon it and go for an ordinary pen that suits our purpose. Fancy, eye-catching design cannot always help an ineffective product, so we must always think about designing an experience that pleasantly surprises the user by helping him to achieve the intended task faster and efficiently.

It is important to note that “Wow!” factors depend on the concept from the UX/visual designer being well executed by the programmer.

Q: Should we use gestures in our mobile application and how will they affect User Experience?

With the integration of gyroscopes and motion sensors, smart devices are able to detect movement. With this, the interaction between the user and the device extends beyond the click and tap, bringing real-life gestures to the screen.

Users are intuitive about gestures. When asked how to delete an item, users tried to move the item out of the screen regardless of age, sex and gender. Enhancing the user experience with fewer taps or scrolling allows applications to become more interactive.

Q: How will 3D Touch technology from Apple change the interface?

Force Touch technology does not enable truly new gestures, it is simply an extension of gestures we are already familiar with. It will help designers and developers to add a Z-axis in order to provide more depth of information on a top layer without touching or overcomplicating the Information Architecture underneath.

Q: How many fonts are recommended and what is the best practice with typography while designing mobile applications?

Reducing the number of fonts on a screen can reveal the power of typography. Instead of using different typefaces and leveraging different characteristics (e.g. italics, bold, semi-bold), different font sizes can better differentiate discrete areas of content. Embracing a singular typeface across an entire app drives consistency not only for branding but also across channels — e.g. app, mobile site, website — thus optimizing the mobile elements across the omnichannel experience. Also, users prefer the simplicity of having one typeface while scrolling for relevant content.

Q: What are micro-interactions and why should we use them?

Micro-interactions are small, visual enhancements (for example, an animation or a sound) occurring around a use case. These scenarios may include completing a transaction, flagging an item, or prompting a pop-up message. Such interactions are subtle, but they differentiate the product by pointing the user’s attention to the right element.

Micro-interactions may be leveraged as a signal to prompt the user while accomplishing a task (adjusting a setting, for instance), thus creating a small piece of content such as a pop-up message. Apps with well designed micro-interactions are considered easier to use, more fun, and more engaging by their users.

Final words

Before designers choose to create something, they must conduct market research in order to learn what’s out there and what they have to do to create a unique and successful design.

The biggest difference between developing a mobile application and a desktop application, or even a website, is context. This is what makes mobile apps so powerful. Each app is used for its own purpose, at a specific time and place. There are several ways to accomplish the same action for mobile, and it’s up to you, the designer, to design and choose the most effective way.

Read More at The Vital Guide to Interviewing Mobile Application Designers

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