Bert Bos, noting today as quite a notable day:
On December 17, 1996, W3C published the first standard for CSS.
Very interesting to see what historic points made the cut for the timeline. The Zen Garden, acid tests, preprocessors… good times!
Direct Link to Article — Permalink
20 Years of CSS is a post from CSS-Tricks
Every week we feature a set of comics created exclusively for WDD.
The content revolves around web design, blogging and funny situations that we encounter in our daily lives as designers.
These great cartoons are created by Jerry King, an award-winning cartoonist who’s one of the most published, prolific and versatile cartoonists in the world today.
So for a few moments, take a break from your daily routine, have a laugh and enjoy these funny cartoons.
Feel free to leave your comments and suggestions below as well as any related stories of your own…
Can you relate to these situations? Please share your funny stories and comments below…
| LAST DAY: Art Text App for Mac Turns Text into a Masterpiece – only $19! |
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“Wow!” is the usual response on trying VR for the first time. Even after spending hours in a headset, the experience is still extraordinary.
From a designer’s point of view, VR introduces a range of new challenges, but it also frees us from some of the problems we’ve wrestled with for years; any notion of a viewport is entirely moot.
15 years ago, Adobe (née Macromedia) Flash was similarly revolutionary. Flash was browser-agnostic, and (virtually) identical across all platforms. It raised expectations of the web from simple text, to experiences. In a time before the web standards movement was mainstream, when every browser implemented not only its own interpretation, but its own syntax for CSS, Flash was liberating.
Flash’s greatest strength…was also its downfall
There are numerous parallels between Flash technology and VR, the most apparent is the initial emphasis on gaming, and upon simple linear presentations. Flash eventually developed to produce rich, interactive, data-based experiences; it’s reasonable to think that VR will develop in a similar way.
Ultimately, Flash’s greatest strength—its encapsulated nature—was also its downfall. Without a way to reinterpret data that was so closely integrated with its presentation, accessibility was complex, and limiting. The oft-stated belief (commonly repeated now in reference to VR) was that Flash was inherently a visual medium, and as such couldn’t be accessible. The most cost-effective solution was to develop a non-Flash version in parallel with the “main” Flash site.
Accessible VR is perhaps even harder to achieve. However, imagine a VR setup in which touch is enabled—perhaps with gloves containing points that vibrate to simulate physical contact. A person—visually impaired or otherwise—could experience work by Richard Sera, or the death mask of Tutankhamun, or Hampton Court maze, with just their hands. VR has the potential to be far more accessible than the current web, because we experience VR in a manner very similar to the way in which we experience the real world; with accessible VR, vision is a progressive enhancement.
with accessible VR, vision is a progressive enhancement
The beginning of the end for Flash was Apple’s decision to block the Flash Player on iOS. Security and performance were cited as reasons, but the truth is probably that enabling SWFs on the iPhone would enable a rival app store revenue stream, that Apple couldn’t take a bite of. (The current iPhone has NFC blocked except for Apple Pay; security is blamed, but the monopoly on payments can’t hurt.) It’s interesting that Oculus, in the vanguard of VR technology, won’t produce a Mac version, stating Apple’s machines simply aren’t powerful enough. And so, VR may face a similar format dispute to Flash, albeit with roles reversed.
Despite being principally a one-organization format, there were applications that output SWF files other than Adobe’s product range. There were rival products, Microsoft’s Silverlight for example. And there was an entire industry based around Flash templates, frameworks, and components.
VR is more diverse than a single format, but only just. While there are numerous technology companies working towards VR solutions, formats seem likely to merge. One of the most affordable headsets, the Samsung Gear, is already powered by Oculus. Templates, frameworks, and components appear to be on the way; only this week the React VR Pre-Release was made public.
Flash did some great things: the fluid approach to responsive design, fine typography on the web, experience-centred design, were all pioneered by Flash designers. VR has the potential to be a similar catalyst for radical change. But to be viable in the long term, VR needs to do what Flash could not: it needs to embrace inclusive design, and if possible, accessibility; it needs to resist the pull towards a single format; and above all, it needs a set of VR standards—comparable to web standards—that designers and developers are prepared to defend.
| LAST DAY: Art Text App for Mac Turns Text into a Masterpiece – only $19! |
Sometimes illegal, but how can something so amazing and creative be a crime? Any fence or wall could be the next canvas for beautiful artwork. Take a look at these gorgeous examples of street art.
Herr von Bias is the artist of this attacker. Take a look at the gallery with 14 more photos.
This Art can be viewed in three different ways. The middle pieces with textured backgrounds displaying elements of the station, the left side showing the word “Goddag”, the right side the word “Farvel”.
Dermot McConaghy painting girls and skulls. His works can be seen in publications like Computer Arts Magazine or House of Tate Magazine.
Julien uses Street Art as a backdrop for his photos. The new elements expand the scene.
It has just been recognized by the Guinness Book, as the largest mural in the world. 15 meters high and 170 meters long.
Can you see the person before the Street Art? It`s like double art in one picture.
Georgi and Jelio Dimitrov are creatively united. Illustrators of Sofia, Bulgaria.
© Georgi Dimitrov & Jelio Dimitrov
A “Curtain Rd” in London. Take a look at the other Projects with more amazing art of David Walker.
DaLeast has its own, very unusual style. Numerous curvy lines shape a larger element.
© daleast
A project by the Agency Luminus Creative from Zagreb, Croatia. Buying a single set of UNICEF postcards provides 26 children with the necessary child paralysis vaccine.
© Unicef
Part of the “Kantina Kreuzberg” project. A group of artists painted the outside from this new pizzeria named “Eckstuck”.
© MTO
A piece made for the area 503 graffiti contest from The Zork. Be sure to check out his amazing fan art.
© The Zork
Hector Arrivillagas USA collection of Street Art Murals.
Collaborative piece “The people feed communism to the beast”.
© Nicolás Santiago Romero Escalada
This great piece of art was realized in the context of the Urban Art Festival of Winterthur.
Visionarya Vandalism is your daily dose of graffiti, murals, and urban art.
Please take one look at the work of new york-based Aakash Nihalani. 3D images on two-dimensional surfaces.
Wild Drawing was born in Bali and is currently based in Athens, Greece. He has degrees in Fine Arts and in Applied Arts.
A series of portrait-based works that combines the charm found in the distressed surfaces of modern cities with the intimate familiarity of the prominent features of the human face.
Matt dubbed his digital abstract style ‘Vectorfunk’ early on in his career, and has since employed it to cover surfaces ranging from Ray-Ban Wayfarers to Nixon wristwatches; large 3D mosaic walls for Instagram HQ, and an entire issue of Wired Magazine.
Let me be completely honest here. I was planning on writing this article at 9:00 AM and it’s almost 1:00 PM now and all I have is this depressingly honest intro. I’m a professional procrastinator and I hate that! Sometimes, when I’m overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do, I choose to go take a nap or watch something on Netflix, which is by far, the furthest thing from being productive. I know that lots of people struggle with procrastination and if you are working for home, it’s almost impossible not to get sidetracked.
If you are one of those people and if a sloth is your spirit animal, this article was carefully and slowly crafted for you. Here are a few things that I’ve been doing in order to boost my productivity and find out what are some of my biggest time wasters.
An important thing you need to understand is that you are definitely not the only one procrastinating. About 20% of the population identifies themselves as chronic procrastinators. People constantly put off things they need to do, and that’s because we get overwhelmed by the huge tasks ahead of us. Which brings me to my first point;
Michel Lotito. You probably have no idea who Michel Lotito is but I’m sure that he has something amazing to teach us. Lotito ate an airplane. I’m not sure why he did that but what staggers me is the fact that it took two years to do it. That right there is the perfect analogy for my point. Sometimes, a huge task like eating an airplane can be broken down into smaller tasks, smaller pieces. As someone who was recently introduced to the SCRUM workflow, I have to break down tasks every two weeks at the beginning of a sprint. For example, “email marketing – send black Friday promotion” isn’t a task anymore. It’s a “user story”. The user story “email marketing” has ten other tasks with subtasks so I can monitor my progress. This way, seeing that check mark which marks a completed task next to “user segmentation” or “email template” incentivizes me and it make me feel like I have accomplished something. It might be difficult at first to get used to this, especially if you work in a Marketing or Design department but you’ll get the hang of it and it will get easier in time.
Teresa Amabile from Harvard wrote this in her study about progress. “This pattern is what we call the progress principle: of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work; of all the negative events, the single most powerful is the opposite of progress—setbacks in the work. We consider this to be a fundamental management principle: facilitating progress is the most effective way for managers to influence inner work life.”
Long story short, the feeling of accomplishment and seeing progress while working is the best self incentivization technique. Being productive isn’t always about working a lot uninterruptedly. Although, sometimes, when the nature of your work makes you do that, taking a five minute break for a walk, can actually help you a lot.
I think it’s crucial for a freelancer or even an entrepreneur for that matter, to track the way they spend their time. And you can do that in a lot of ways. It can either be a time tracker tool where you can record how much time you spend doing your work and how much of it you slack on facebook or watching Trump and Hillary singing “Time of my life”. Planning your work ahead can also help you stay on track and I’ve been doing that a lot recently using a more visual task management tool.
Now this is something that you probably didn’t see coming. An article about how to stop procrastinating that advises you to take breaks feels a bit far fetched but please, hear me out.
Studies show that those who give in to some kind of diversion or distraction once an hour perform better than those who just keep at it without a break. After a while, our brains numb out a bit to the constant stimulation. We become unable to continuously treat the task as important. Taking a break allows us to come back to the job at hand with renewed energy and sense of purpose.
A break can mean almost anything. From a walk around the office to taking the time to drink a cup of tea, don’t be afraid of putting the work aside for a few minutes and let your brain rest for a while.
There are three elements for optimizing your time and getting more work done. Start with small tasks, mark your progress and of course, take lots of brakes. If I’ve missed anything, do let me know in the comments below.
Read More at How to overcome procrastination. A Different Approach On Productivity
Let me be completely honest here. I was planning on writing this article at 9:00 AM and it’s almost 1:00 PM now and all I have is this depressingly honest intro. I’m a professional procrastinator and I hate that! Sometimes, when I’m overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do, I choose to go take a nap or watch something on Netflix, which is by far, the furthest thing from being productive. I know that lots of people struggle with procrastination and if you are working for home, it’s almost impossible not to get sidetracked.
If you are one of those people and if a sloth is your spirit animal, this article was carefully and slowly crafted for you. Here are a few things that I’ve been doing in order to boost my productivity and find out what are some of my biggest time wasters.
An important thing you need to understand is that you are definitely not the only one procrastinating. About 20% of the population identifies themselves as chronic procrastinators. People constantly put off things they need to do, and that’s because we get overwhelmed by the huge tasks ahead of us. Which brings me to my first point;
Michel Lotito. You probably have no idea who Michel Lotito is but I’m sure that he has something amazing to teach us. Lotito ate an airplane. I’m not sure why he did that but what staggers me is the fact that it took two years to do it. That right there is the perfect analogy for my point. Sometimes, a huge task like eating an airplane can be broken down into smaller tasks, smaller pieces. As someone who was recently introduced to the SCRUM workflow, I have to break down tasks every two weeks at the beginning of a sprint. For example, “email marketing – send black Friday promotion” isn’t a task anymore. It’s a “user story”. The user story “email marketing” has ten other tasks with subtasks so I can monitor my progress. This way, seeing that check mark which marks a completed task next to “user segmentation” or “email template” incentivizes me and it make me feel like I have accomplished something. It might be difficult at first to get used to this, especially if you work in a Marketing or Design department but you’ll get the hang of it and it will get easier in time.
Teresa Amabile from Harvard wrote this in her study about progress. “This pattern is what we call the progress principle: of all the positive events that influence inner work life, the single most powerful is progress in meaningful work; of all the negative events, the single most powerful is the opposite of progress—setbacks in the work. We consider this to be a fundamental management principle: facilitating progress is the most effective way for managers to influence inner work life.”
Long story short, the feeling of accomplishment and seeing progress while working is the best self incentivization technique. Being productive isn’t always about working a lot uninterruptedly. Although, sometimes, when the nature of your work makes you do that, taking a five minute break for a walk, can actually help you a lot.
I think it’s crucial for a freelancer or even an entrepreneur for that matter, to track the way they spend their time. And you can do that in a lot of ways. It can either be a time tracker tool where you can record how much time you spend doing your work and how much of it you slack on facebook or watching Trump and Hillary singing “Time of my life”. Planning your work ahead can also help you stay on track and I’ve been doing that a lot recently using a more visual task management tool.
Now this is something that you probably didn’t see coming. An article about how to stop procrastinating that advises you to take breaks feels a bit far fetched but please, hear me out.
Studies show that those who give in to some kind of diversion or distraction once an hour perform better than those who just keep at it without a break. After a while, our brains numb out a bit to the constant stimulation. We become unable to continuously treat the task as important. Taking a break allows us to come back to the job at hand with renewed energy and sense of purpose.
A break can mean almost anything. From a walk around the office to taking the time to drink a cup of tea, don’t be afraid of putting the work aside for a few minutes and let your brain rest for a while.
There are three elements for optimizing your time and getting more work done. Start with small tasks, mark your progress and of course, take lots of brakes. If I’ve missed anything, do let me know in the comments below.
Read More at How to overcome procrastination. A Different Approach On Productivity
Andrew Coyle on when to use :
Which amounts to pretty much: “Don’t use them”. Notice there are no examples of good use cases, and even the examples in the “Do” graphics just say “Placeholder Text”, which isn’t exactly demonstrative of usefulness.
I wonder if placeholder text will fall completely out of favor.
It reminds me of float labels. Float labels were a fun little fling, but they aren’t actually useful. The reason you’d reach for them is when you’re so space-limited that you can’t show a regular label beside the input. But you can’t actually ever remove the label, just move it. So if the label is still there and readable, why not just leave it there the whole time?
Direct Link to Article — Permalink
Alternatives to Placeholder Text is a post from CSS-Tricks
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Only one week left until Christmas, and people already start freaking out again. No gifts purchased yet, work isn’t finished either, and suddenly some budget has to be spent until the end of the year. All of this puts us under pressure. To avoid the stress, I’ve seen a lot of people take a vacation from now until the end of the year — probably a good idea.
And while it’s nice to see so many web advent calendars, I feel like I’ve never written a longer reading list than this one. So save this edition if you don’t have much time currently and read it during some calm moments later this year or early next year. Most articles are still worth reading in a few weeks.
The post Web Development Reading List #163: The End-Of-Year Wrap-Up appeared first on Smashing Magazine.
Kevin Suttle on the ever-growing number of .dotfiles in projects:
The number of config files per repo is slowly but surely overtaking the number of code files.
Seems to me /config/ or /.config/ as a directory to keep them are also too overloaded to be a real solution. I agree: “something’s gotta give at some point.”
Direct Link to Article — Permalink
Propelling developer experience through configuration is a post from CSS-Tricks
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The blank Photoshop document glows in front of you. You’ve been trying to design a website for an hour but it’s going nowhere. You feel defeated. You were in this same predicament last month when you couldn’t design a website for a project at work. As a developer, you just feel out of your element pushing pixels around.
How do designers do it? Do they just mess around in Photoshop or Sketch for a while until a pretty design appears? Can developers who are used to working within the logical constructs of Boolean logic and number theory master the seemingly arbitrary rules of design?
The post Mistakes Developers Make When Learning Design appeared first on Smashing Magazine.
