2016 brings us new conferences, new topics and most of your favorite conferences from past years. Virtual reality has become a hot topic, with the release of two major VR headsets earlier this year, so look for conferences featuring talks on the subject.

The list is quite lengthy, so let’s dive in. Well, before we do, as you may or may not know, we also run a few practical conferences every year. Coming up next: SmashingConf New York on June 14th to 15th, SmashingConf Freiburg on September 12th to 13th and SmashingConf Barcelona on October 25th to 26th. Just sayin’!

The post Upcoming Web Design Conferences (June–December 2016) appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

WordPress is an exceptional platform that is growing continually with some great updates that are introduced by the vibrant WordPress community. This makes the WordPress an ever-growing content management system. With every update, there comes something more prominent in the new version. It includes advanced features and functions, user-centric elements, and much more to offer with the new version. WordPress is regularly getting updated, thus providing an exceptional chance for the users to get familiar with innovative features.

There is no doubt about WordPress being exceptional; however, there are certain issues that developers keep working on and updating the related community with. With every such new release, there is always a buzz in terms of its worth for the users and developers as well. As it is known that updates are always regarding some additional features being incorporated into the current version, it is always good to try these updates to get familiar with them. Here, in this write-up, we are going to explain the important reasons of why it is important to update your WordPress website with the current version.

1. For improving the overall website security

Since WordPress has millions of users, it has also attracted hackers in equal proportion. There is no doubt about WordPress being a robust platform; however, continuous hacking attempts from data thieves have forced the related community to act seriously on this matter.

With new and innovative WordPress version in use, improved security features are easy to embed in the website. Thus, to upgrade your site with security features, it is very important to download the current version.

2. Improved features

It is quite obvious that you will encounter new features with the updated WordPress versions. For example, WordPress 3.9 has enhanced media support for offering improved media experience. And, the 4.3 was having formatting shortcuts in the visual editor and also the visual editor and inbuilt support for site icons. Working with the new and improved WordPress versions improves the user experience as well. Thus, it is recommended to experience the enhanced functionalities.

3. Better site speed

Improved WordPress versions not only offer robust security improved features but also a better site speed. The evergreen WordPress community is working hard to make the already accelerated WordPress platform more user-centric by improving the site speed. The new WordPress versions have improved JS that performs exceptionally well for navigation menus. Thus, updating the website with the latest version helps in improving the site speed also.

4. Compatibility

Compatibility is one of the factors that comes as another reason for upgrading the websites with new WordPress versions. This very element ensures that your website is compatible with a different set of browsers, plugins, themes, etc. Thus, updating your WordPress website has got an additional advantage in the form of compatibility. The updated WordPress versions are developed so that they can synchronize well with all the other required elements important to be incorporated into a functional website.

5. Reduced bugs

Even being a secured platform, WordPress websites often face bug issues, which is not at all a desirable thing for WordPress users. These bugs not only affect your website completely but also slow down the speed of the site, thereby creating a bad impression. Every new WordPress update is released with improved features to reduce the bug issue on your website. In such a case, if any new issue takes place, the community remains active to solve the same as soon as possible.

Now that we have explained much on why to update your website, here is a note on how to keep your WordPress updated?

Updating your WordPress website is fairly easy as the WordPress platform itself comes with built-in update notification system if you are using WordPress 3.7 or above. By logging into WordPress dashboard, you can easily get highlighted notifications on the number of updates available for you. Thus, the users only need to visit Dashboard > Updates page in order to install those updates. A click is more than enough to get the installation done.

As we have already explained it above that the automatic WordPress updates arrive at the users if they are having WordPress versions 3.7 or above, then it gets much easier to install them further. Such updates are offered as minor releases that are often circulated for security issues as well as for bug fixes. Thus, users can easily turn on automatic updates for major releases.

Conclusion

With all the aforementioned benefits, it is quite obvious to opt for new WordPress versions that are frequently rolled out by evergreen WordPress community. Having the latest WordPress version, you are always open to enjoy better features, updated functionalities and much more.

Read More at Why it is Important to Update Your Current WordPress Version

In this tutorial, we’re going to learn how to create a brush textured lettering effect in Adobe Photoshop.

The Steps (1-9)

1. Create a new document.

2. Select the Type Tool, and type a letter or word of your choice. Make this letter or word black in colour.

3. In the Layers Palette, Right-click the text layer, and select Blending Options.

4. On the Blending Options screen, adjust the Fill Opacity from 100% down to 0%.

5. Tick the box next to Stroke in the list of options on the left, and adjust your stroke width as desired.

6. At the bottom of the Layers Palette, select the Add a Mask option.

7. Next, select the layer mask itself, and select black as your foreground colour. Select the Brush Tool, and at the top next to your current brush type, you can click the arrow to reveal many more brushes that are available, and any custom brushes that you may have installed.

8. Select a brush style, and start painting over the letter by drawing on the layer mask.

9. Try changing your brush, brush size, and the brush opacity, to create some weird and wonderful brush effects for your text!

Download Adobe Illustrator.

Read More at Create a Textured Letter in Photoshop

The following is a guest post by Micha? Sajnóg, a front end developer at Netguru. Micha? has created one of those “when you scroll to here, trigger this animation” libraries. One of the things I like about it is that it leaves as much as it can to CSS for creating and controlling the animation themselves. Not to mention it’s proved itself by working well on a number of production sites. I’ll let Micha? walk you through it.

Have you ever seen those long web pages where different animations are being applied as you scroll down? I’d like to share with you a plugin I wrote that makes it really easy to handle all kinds of animations with full CSS control and no pain.

If you’d like to get right into it, the code is on GitHub.

The Problem With Other Libraries

In my previous company we were using WOW.js (or other similar libraries) to animate elements on scroll. For simple projects it was quite nice, but on larger sites we wanted to have more control over what’s actually happening. In all of popular libraries, animations were completely handled by JavaScript by inserting inline CSS. Arghgh! Inline styles are evil. They are hard to control and override. Though, in some cases it’s ok to set them using JavaScript, it’s still much cleaner to just leave them where they belong and handle all CSS related things inside CSS file.

I decided to create a library that has a pure goal – detect position of elements and then add appropriate classes when they appear in viewport.

Controlling Animations Entirely in CSS

I wanted to split the responsibilities with my new library:

• Have all the logic inside the JavaScript
• Have all the animations in the CSS

This allows you to add your own animations easily, and do things like change them according to the viewport.

How AOS Works

The idea behind AOS is straightforward: watch all elements and their positions based on settings you provide them. Then add/remove the class aos-animate. Of course, in practice, it’s not always that easy, but the idea behind AOS is as simple as that. Every aspect of animation is handled by CSS.

Example Animations in CSS

The are lots of different animations ready to use out of the box, but creating new ones is simple also. Here’s an example:

[aos="fade"] {
  opacity: 0;
  transition-property: opacity;
}

[aos="fade"].aos-animate {
  opacity: 1;
}

You don’t have to worry about duration or delay. In the CSS, you only:

• add styles for the attribute aos with the name of your animation
• set the transition-property (by default this is all, so it’s more performant and more predictable if you narrow the transition to the intended properties)
• add the post-transition properties on .aos-animate

Things like duration/delay/easing are set independently of the animation.

Example HTML

<div class="some-item" aos="fade">Example Element</div>

or with a different transition duration:

<div class="some-item" aos="fade" aos-duration="500">Example Element</div>

**Tip:** You can use data-aos instead of aos to make your HTML validate properly.

Live Demos

With different animations:

See the Pen AOS – animations by Snik (@michalsnik) on CodePen.

With anchor setting in use:

See the Pen AOS – anchor by Snik (@michalsnik) on CodePen.

With anchor placement and different easing:

See the Pen AOS – anchor & anchor-placement by Snik (@michalsnik) on CodePen.

With simple custom animations:

See the Pen AOS – custom animations by Snik (@michalsnik) on CodePen.

Additional Features

• anchor – Animate one element based on position of other element
• anchor placement – Animate an element based on it’s position on the screen. It doesn’t have to animate only when it appears in viewport, but for example when bottom part of it hits middle of the screen
• both way animations – By default elements animate while you scroll up and down, but you can force it to animate only once
• easy disabling – Disable animations on mobile devices using predefined options like mobile, phone, tablet or with a custom condition/function
• async aware – Recalculates positions of elements on DOM changes, so after loading something using Ajax, you don’t have to worry about anything (unless you support IE9, because it needs mutation observer)
• no dependencies – This library is written in pure JS and doesn’t rely on any dependencies

AOS is fully open source, so if you have an interesting idea or something is not working how you’d expect open issue and see you on GitHub! Any contribution is highly appreciated.

AOS: CSS-Driven “On Scroll” Animation Library is a post from CSS-Tricks

Greetings, readers! Summer is here. It’s time to beat the June heat by staying inside where the air conditioner is. While you’re there, have a look at our latest collection of portfolio sites.

This month brings a lot more minimalism of the aggressive, low-on-color variety. Well, in a way, it’s simpler. Even so, you’ll find that more than a few designers are using these constraints to help them find creative solutions, and that’s always exciting.

That creative touch might be an entirely new kind of design. Or, as is more likely, one or two little details, small things, completely change the feel of the site, making it new and interesting.

Also, there’s a fair few sites from France this time.

(Note: I’m judging these sites by how good they look to me. If they’re creative and original, or classic but really well-done, it’s all good to me. Sometimes, UX suffers, for example many of these sites depend on JavaScript to display their content at all; this is a Bad Idea™ kids.)

If you want to be included in next month’s roundup, contact me at ezequiel@webdesignerdepot.com.

Bukwild

We start with one of our more animated entries. Bukwild’s portfolio focuses a lot on their interaction design, so naturally, their site is almost constantly in motion. They don’t just show off the interfaces themselves, they show how users interact with them

Combined with their excellent sense of aesthetics, and talent for using white space as a weapons-grade design element, this is one site I would browse just for fun.

Daniel Benzie

Admittedly, Daniel Benzie’s one-page portfolio just barely makes it into the “portfolio category”, by virtue of a couple of non-linked thumbnails. Still, I’m a sucker for good typography, UX that doesn’t make you think, and minimalism. This site happens to tick all of those boxes.

Grace Scuitto

Grace Scuitto’s portfolio is so simple, it would be easy to overlook. It looks nice, and that’s about it, at first glance, until you start scrolling. Now, I’ve seen backgrounds change color before, but look at the way it changes the experience on her site.

That one detail, that one effect changes the whole experience somehow.

Twenty Nine NYC

Twenty Nine NYC is a media studio that does a variety of things. In order to show off that variety, they’ve taken a somewhat ingenious, if initially confusing approach. Instead of using any conventional layouts they have used desktop windows. Some of these windows just hold images and others show off web sites that they’ve built and you can browse those websites right within those tiny little windows.

Now this might not be the most usable approach all things considered. However, it is certainly creative, and it puts their work in a live, usable context.

Benjamin Jackson

Benjamin Jackson’s portfolio is one of those sites that, while presenting very different kinds of work, presents it all with the same theme. Besides, I love the use of the Quarto font family here.

Etienne Ledemay

Etienne Ledemay’s is an excellent example of using the conventions of flat design in an original way. While none of the site’s elements are new, and the layout is nothing complex, the site nonetheless feels new and different to most of what’s out there.

Plus, you know, my thing for yellow.

Deckchair

I’ve never seen a complete, if short, story told with just lines before. Deckchair did it, though. Just go to the home page and scroll down. Watch the mess get turned into… something else. I feel like that says more than the text, and the rest of the Material Design-inspired site ever could.

David Arias

David Arias’ portfolio site mixes things up by sort of “cutting things in half”. It’s an aesthetic I’ve never quite pulled off myself.

Here, it works because there’s not a lot of content, but there is a lot of space to fill. Besides, if you want to see any full image, all you have to do is hover over it, or tap your way through the link on mobile.

Les Singuliers

Les Singuliers is, according to what little French I can decipher, an art direction, and possibly branding design studio. While I can’t make heads nor tails of exactly what it is that they do, I can see the influence of their work in their website.

Theis Bothmann

Theis Bothmann’s portfolio is minimalist, simple, and supremely stylish. Ok, when I say stylish, what I mean to say is that I love those diagonal lines. I’m a sucker for people who find simple, subtle ways to break away from the default shape we’re given to work with when building websites.

Great use of color, too.

Studio Chevojon

The portfolio site for Studio Chevonjon puts the work front and center. Scrolling down will show you photo after photo of, hotels, restaurants and other such establishments.

Naturally, all of the focus is on the imagery. The eye is drawn toward the photos with an asymmetrical layout. Unfortunately, the site does tend to hijack your scroll wheel.

Jürgen Hassler

Jürgen Hassler’s portfolio brings us back to that very minimalist, thin-font-loving aesthetic. The asymmetrical layouts and their love for solid blue is nothing new. However, the site is an excellent example of its class.

The animations are smooth, the UI elements look elegant, the execution is just that good.

Waaark

Waaark is one of those websites that feels more like a presentation than a web site. The layout is presentation style the animations are dynamic, and fluid, and beautiful and the whole thing is just very pretty. Based on visuals alone, it definitely belongs on this list.

However, I still do not understand why anyone would use a preloader screen with JavaScript that blocks the user from seeing the rest of the web site if JavaScript is turned off. That’s just bad UX.

Little

The portfolio site for Little, an ad agency, takes a somewhat different approach. While most portfolio sites start with either their work, or a quick bit of text about themselves, Little starts with social proof.

The first thing you’ll see is an award they won. Only after you get past that will you see case studies, and only the case studies for their biggest customers (Microsoft, Lowe’s, Sealy, etc.) It is, as stated, a somewhat unorthodox approach, but if it works for landing pages, maybe it works here.

Shorthand

Shorthand Doesn’t do anything spectacular with their layouts. This is just one of those sites where the quality is good enough to be featured in this article, based on execution alone.

Decent UX, good typography, and the general sense of professionalism make of this site worth looking at.

Twistudio

Twistudio features a delightfully monochrome design. Thin fonts, thick borders, it feels like a contract or other legal document, except you can read it. And it has pretty pictures. So like a legal document crossed with a children’s book.

MSDS

MSDS is a studio that does furniture, lighting, and interior design. The website brings us back to that asymmetrical layout, the monospace type, and… pastels? Well, as disappointed as Morticia Addams would be, I think it works.

Alessandro Risso

Well, MSDS and I aren’t the only ones who love some good asymmetry and pastels. Alessandro Risso uses a very similar approach on his own portfolio site, and it’s pretty.

Commando Group

Yep, I’m still in love with those big layouts that stretch right across my HD screen. Commando Group does it right by over-complicating exactly nothing. Little text, big images, as few columns as possible, and a dark background for a bit of variety. I dig it.

IYA Studio

IYA Studio. It’s simple, it looks good, it runs smooth. The navigation is, as with most of these presentation-style sites, not the most intuitive. But darn, the rest looks pretty.

Anthony Goodwin

Anthony Goodwin is an art director and designer in the UK. Using both small graphical details and quick sudden animations he has managed to make his website look sort of digital and glitchy, and since he works primarily in digital media this fits perfectly. The typography and color scheme complete the effect.

Futura

Futura’s portfolio brings back that minimalist-except-everything-has-a-thin-grey-border look. I’ll be honest, I missed it a little. When done right, as it has been here, it inspires a sense of order and organization. I feel like I can trust the people who made it to be precise. Looking at the rest of their work, I’d say that feeling is well-founded.

Stinkdigital

Stinkdigital takes an interesting approach to flash design. It makes use of a large number of gradients but the gradients are used primarily in the site’s graphics and not in the interface.

This seems to force the graphics to jump out at you in much the same way a button would. Since most of these graphics can be interacted with, it drives the site’s interaction while keeping that elegant flight design feel.

Charlie Isslander

Charlie Isslander’s portfolio changes things up a little by using horizontally scrolling elements. It starts on the home page, where his most recent projects will scroll across the screen. After that, it’s all vertical, except for when there’s an element that deserves special attention.

That is, on the case study pages, certain elements (I suspect they are the parts of his projects of which he is most proud) will move a bit from right to left, unerringly drawing the eye. It’s a technique that makes a well-done, but otherwise unoriginal design, feel very different.

Whirligig

Whirligig is a studio that specializes in animation and illustration. They stick to simple layouts that adapt to large screens as well as small. Like on the sites of many other animation studios, the thumbnails of their projects come to life when you hover over them.

There is not a lot of text as they want the work to speak for itself. Given that a picture is worth 1000 words and there are at least 25 frames every second I’d say that’s enough.

MotoPress Bundle of WordPress Page Builder, Responsive Sliders & More – only $37!

Source

I like Rachel Nabors measured thinking in this week’s Web Animation Weekly:

Scrolljacking has become a dirty word. But what is scrolljacking, and is it really all bad? Motion design on the web is young. Many agencies latch on to the newest techniques to dazzle clients, but industry heavyweights and aspiring leaders also have a tendency to latch onto big opinions about How Things Should Be.

At best: design innovation should propel the web forward while experienced leaders apply the brakes of caution lest we hurt ourselves or our users. At worst: creative trends make portions of the web uninhabitable for users; or would-be heroes bolster their own position by adopting black and white views on new and possibly revolutionary design techniques. For this reason, we must turn to research and facts rather than opinions and fashion to help us think for ourselves.

Find and replace “scrolljacking” with “whatever controversial thing people are talking about”.

Direct Link to Article — Permalink

“… have a tendency to latch onto big opinions about How Things Should Be.” is a post from CSS-Tricks

While multiple file formats had to be provided during the early days of web fonts, nowadays, the WOFF format has become the standard and is supported by all modern browsers. Older formats like the EOT format are only needed when you want to support Internet Explorer before version 9. After the WOFF format became the official standard in 2012, there’s lately been an upgrade called WOFF 2.0, which comes with improved compression, and thus creates smaller files.

Files Up to 50 Percent Smaller

“Brotli” is the name of the new compression standard used in WOFF 2.0. It replaces the LZMA compression which was used before. The “Brotli” algorithm was developed by Google and promises a file reduction of up to 50 percent in comparison to WOFF 1.0. In practice, this value probably won’t be achieved. However, cuts of up to 30 percent are realistic.

The font provider MyFonts, which has tons of web fonts in store, states that their fonts have an average size reduction of 30 percent in comparison to WOFF 1.0. The “Proxima Nova Bold” is named as an example. In the WOFF 1.0 format, it had a file size of 60 kilobytes. In the new WOFF 2.0 format, it was reduced to 44 kilobytes. That equals a reduction success of 27 percent.

“Proxima Nova Bold” is a web font by MyFonts

While the LZMA algorithm is generally lossless, “Brotli” is lossless regarding functions. During the compression, redundant information is removed. Other information that was deleted from the original font can be recovered during decompression. According to W3C information, being functionally lossless is not disadvantageous.

However, there is a small disadvantage of WOFF 2.0: The decompression of the files reduced via “Brotli” takes longer than decompression with the LZMA algorithm of the WOFF 1.0 fonts. The decompression of the LZMA algorithm is almost twice as fast.

First Fonts Available in WOFF 2.0

Although WOFF 2.0 is not an official W3C standard yet, the first font providers already offer their web fonts in the new format. For example, WOFF 2.0 is one of the supported web font formats at MyFonts. Those that already purchased web fonts at MyFonts can now download them in the new WOFF 2.0 format as well. Its competitor Linotype also offers its fonts in the new format. Here, previous customers will also receive the WOFF 2.0 fonts without any additional costs.

Font Squirrel’s Web Font Generator

WOFF 2.0 also asserts itself step by step in the sector of free web fonts. For instance, it’s possible to create fonts in WOFF 2.0 format using Font Squirrel’s web font generator. Google also provides its web fonts in the new format. Other providers are sure to follow as soon as WOFF 2.0 is the official standard, and the browser support is broader.

Currently Limited Browser Support

At the moment, the WOFF 2.0 format is supported by Chrome version 41 and above, Opera starting at version 27, Firefox, starting at version 45 and recent Android browsers as well as Microsoft Edge from version 14 on. IE, Safari, and iOS Safari, as well as Opera Mini, don’t support the standard.

As CSS allows you to embed multiple web font formats, you can definitely insert WOFF 2.0 already. When doing so, you should still consider adding WOFF 1.0 fonts, due to the currently limited browser support.

@font-face {
  font-family: "Open Sans";
  src: url("opensans.woff2") format("woff2"), url("opensans.woff") format("woff");
}

The example shows how to integrate both WOFF and WOFF 2.0 web fonts into a stylesheet via “@font-face” rule. Make sure to embed the WOFF2 before the WOFF1. Otherwise, WOFF2 will not be loaded.

Conclusion and Related Links

Although internet connections become increasingly faster, it is still just as important as ever to keep websites small, mainly to reduce the data transfer as much as possible when it comes to mobile surfing. Thus, the substantial compression of the new web font format is enough reason to switch to WOFF 2.0. Due to available fallbacks, no browser will be excluded.

• Google Fonts
• MyFonts
• Linotype
• Font Squirrel

(dpe)

We have a lot of passwords to remember, and it’s becoming a problem. Authentication is clearly important, but there are many ways to reliably authenticate users – not just passwords. Passwords are written off as inconvenient and unavoidable, but even if true a few years ago, that’s not true today. Due to a combination of sensors, encryption and seasoned technology users, authentication is taking on new (and exciting) forms.

Most other interaction patterns have been updated over time, but no one wants to mess with password authentication. It’s too serious. Or there’s too much liability. You know, like if you don’t clear the password input after someone types the wrong password, their credit card information is at risk.

The post The Current State Of Authentication: We Have A Password Problem appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

Complex user interfaces for websites or applications have to be well thought out and intuitive. Before it comes to actual design, it is a common thing to define the appearance and controls via mockups. Mockplus allows you to create interactive mockups with just a few clicks, and test them on mobile devices as well.

Download Mockplus for Windows and Mac OSX

Although the trend is moving away from classic applications to web apps, Mockplus is available as a classic app for Windows and Mac OSX systems. Once you’ve installed the app and registered an account for free, you can immediately get started with your first project. Choose which type of mockup you want to create. You can choose between smartphones, tablets, and desktop devices, as well as websites and whiteboards. Depending on your choice, you receive a different work interface that suits the chosen task best.

Starting a New Project

Next, decide on a style for the mockup. While the wireframe style uses geometrically reduced shapes, the sketch style comes with a handdrawn look. You can switch between the two styles whenever you want to.

Choice Between Wireframe and Sketch Style

Placing Classic Content and Control Elements

Once your work surface is prepared, start conceiving and designing your mockup. Mockplus provides plenty of different components which you can comfortably drag onto your work interface with your mouse. For example, there are classic buttons, text and image elements, as well as form fields, which you place and scale freely.

On top of that, there are more components that simulate common user interfaces and content, available in six categories. There are popup menus, notification windows, scrollbars, tabs, and even image carousels. Each component has its own property settings. For instance, you are able to enter text, or import images, which is the case when using the image carousel.

Placed Components in Sketch Style on the Drawing Space

By the way, text boxes are filled with blind text, so you can work without entering your own text, when that text might not be necessary or simply has not been written yet.

In total, there are about 200 components available. There’s barely anything that Mockplus didn’t prepare a component for.

In the preview, you can not only check the look of your mockup, but also the controls. Menus, and other interactive elements, like the image carousel or tabs, are functional.

Defining Interactions

To make your user interface work in the mockup, equip buttons and other elements with interactions. “OnClick”, “OnLongClick”, and “OnLoad” are three events that can be used to trigger an interaction.

Setting Up Simple Interactions

Aside from choosing the interaction, you have to enter a target as well. Here, it is an interactive component on the drawing space, that will be displayed via interaction, or altered via animation. This gives you the option to move a component out of the invisible area of the page, as well as to enhance or rotate it.

You either choose the target for your interaction from a list of all elements placed on the page, or you simply link it via drag-&-drop. If you hover over a button equipped with an interaction, the linked elements will be highlighted, to prevent you from losing the overview on which buttons interact with which components.

Depending on your choice, different settings options are available, which allow you to influence the form of the animation. Also, you define the speed of the animation.

Due to the interactions, a click on a button will open a menu or a sidebar.

Creating and Linking Pages

Websites and apps are rarely restricted to one page. Most of the time, they are divided into different areas on multiple pages. Mockplus also enables you to create unlimited pages for a project and fill them with content.

Similar to the interactions, you create links to other pages, and, if desired, define an animated transition to the page. Here, you choose from different slide animations, that make the chosen page slide into display from any direction. A fade animation is possible as well.

Linking Pages and Defining Animated Transitions

You can choose custom fonts for each page. Assign a background color, as well as a font type and font size. Font type and size are applied to all elements that are placed on the respective page. This allows you to easily alter the look of the entire page without having to edit every single component.

If you want to, the style adjustments will also affect all other pages of your mockup.

400 Icons for User Interfaces

There are barely any user interfaces that work without using meaningful icons. Mockplus has also taken care of that, and offers 400 icons that you can simply integrate in your projects.

Choose From 400 Icons, All Available in the Wireframe and Sketch Style

There are emoticons, simple geometric shapes, arrows, as well as editing symbols like copy, cut, edit, and delete. Icons are placed in a fashion similar to the buttons. You can also assign an interaction to them.

However, when using Mockplus in the free version, not all icons are available.

Preview and Test on Mobile Devices

Comfortably switch from the editor to the preview at any time. In the preview, you are able to test your interactions and links to other pages. When creating a mockup for a mobile device, an Apple or Android device appears to visualize your mockup. It gives you an accurate depiction of how the mockup will look on the respective device.

For the proper smartphone or tablet experience, Mockplus also allows you to test the mockup on a real mobile device. To do so, all you need to do is install the Mockplus Android or iOS app on a smartphone or tablet.

While you get the iOS app in the Apple Store, the Android app is provided as a download outside of the Play Store, which means that you have to manually install it on your device.

Functional Preview of Your Mockup

Now, choose the preview for mobile devices in the desktop app, and you’ll receive a QR code to scan with the Android or iOS app. After that, your mockup project appears on your smartphone or tablet.

Cloud Connection in the Pro Version

Aside from the free version, Mockplus also comes in a paid variant. It allows you to save projects in the cloud, giving you access to them at any time.

On top of that, more icons, as well as an export and print feature, become available. The pro version with all of these features costs 20 dollars a month, 79 dollars a half-year, or 119 dollars a year.

Conclusion

Mockplus’ biggest advantage is its ease of use. Because of many key-ready components, you are able to quickly build a mockup without any programming knowledge. Interactions and animations can be added and tested in a preview just as quickly.

The connection to mobile devices is extremely fast and uncomplicated, due to the respective iOS and Android app. Especially when it comes to mockup creation, finding fast results that can be tested or trashed very quickly is crucial. Mockplus makes just that possible due to its large amount of features.

All summed up Mockplus is a good choice for app developers, as well web designers and developers that design and develop complex, and easy to use user interfaces.

(dpe)

We have a new thing we’d like to try! We’re going to round up some websites that we like and share them with you. We’ll take a look at the weird and peculiar, the shocking and downright odd; websites that spark our interest and make us double-take. We might choose a website for a number of reasons, such as in the use of a particular technical feature, or it might be a website that stands out from the crowd because of its typography.

This is entirely subjective and not a competition. Let’s begin!

An Interesting Day

An Interesting Day is a one-day conference held in Norway later this year, and the marketing website for the event was designed and developed by Bakken & Bæck.

What I find interesting here is the contrast between type and layout. Unlike a great number of websites, the layout compliments the background illustration and vice versa; the eye is naturally drawn from one eye-popping graphic to the next. It would be so very easy here for the illustration to conflict with the text and yet thankfully everything works on mobile sizes just as effectively as large desktop displays, too. That’s no mean feat.

I’m also attracted to the design because of the unfamiliar mix between Atlas Grotesk and Larish Neue.

Charlie Rose

In the rebranding of Charlie Rose’s talk show, the typeface really steals the show again. Instead of going with a safe and popular webfont, the designers at Pentagram decided to digitize a type family called Schmalfette, I think it works perfectly.

It’s bold and dashing and it certainly doesn’t look like any other talk show website.

The website uses a Flash of Invisible Text method to deliver the web fonts. Sometimes, if a designer picks a typeface that is more condensed than the fallback system fonts you’ll get a horrible judder to the screen as the thin web font replaces the much wider system font. So perhaps in testing the designers believed that reducing this flash between fonts was more important than showing the text as quickly as possible.

You can read more about this project on Jessica Svendsen’s website or see more examples of the typeface Schmalfette in the wild.

Persona

Finally, I wanted to take a quick look at Persona, a publishing platform from the team at Cargo. This is because it uses scroll events and interactive image effects in a really interesting way. Take the homepage of the project:

It’s difficult to describe what’s going on, so you’ll have to experiment yourself, but effectively as you scroll down the background image stretches at the same time. It’s like you’re manipulating a surface beneath the text and it’s quite surprising just how smooth that effect is in practice.

Another really interesting effect is made on this demo template where an image is broken up like a shattered mirror and as you move the mouse the fragments realign themselves:

What’s your pick?

Feel free to drop links to excellent websites you’ve stumbled across recently in the comments, we’d love to see!

Websites We Like: June 2016 is a post from CSS-Tricks