Many criticize gestural controls as being unintuitive and unnecessary. Despite this, widespread adoption is underway already, and the UI design world is burning the candle at both ends to develop solutions that are instinctively tactile. The challenges here are those of novelty.

Even though gestural controls have been around since the early 1980s and have enjoyed a level of ubiquity since the early 2000s, designers are still in the beta-testing phase of making gestural controls intuitive for everyday use.

The post To Use Or Not To Use: Touch Gesture Controls For Mobile Interfaces appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

By now, Unsplash can call itself one of the largest, and most vivid photo communities out there. In the beginning of 2017, it was announced that Unsplash was hived off to become its own company. Now, a significant feature update that will further boost the platform’s growth has been released.

Unsplash and the Unexpected Success

It all began with a regular Tumblr blog, to which a man called Mikael Cho uploaded ten free images every ten days. This was in the spring of 2013. Soon, the success descended on Cho and his allies. A few weeks ago, I wrote down the stations relating to the spinoff of Unsplash Inc. in this article.

A few weeks after the company’s inception, Mikael Cho turns to his supporters via email, and Medium article again, announcing a large update of the service. You may remember that, in the beginning, there were no categories or a search function. Of course, all of that is available today.

Now, Unsplash takes the next step, which is a step towards becoming a social network, which is a logical step with a self-conception as a community. Unsplash introduces the following features:

Feature #1: Unsplash Following

Now, it’s possible to follow other members. This way, an according stream will give you live information on what the people you follow are currently doing on the platform. This ranges from liking to adding new photos. Your following-stream will display all of these activities in a clean way.

In the stream, images are displayed as a grid, which saves space while making it look modern and more pleasant. The feature is called Photogrid, and there’s an in-depth presentation right here. Photogrid is the new type of presentation for the following stream, and all other future streams, except for the traditional home, and news streams.

According to Unsplash, the unique advantage of the following function is that photos can be spread a lot faster than before. Photographers don’t have to wait for their new images to be discovered, and, depending on the amount of followers, enjoy immediate interactions.

Aside from the option to follow individual members, you will be asked to name at least three categories of images that you’re especially interested in upon starting to use the following function. I chose “People,” “Technology,” and “Street Photography.”

Based on these categories, Unsplash suggested a solid dozen of photographers that mainly bustle in these sections. I followed all of them. Let’s see how that turns out.

The following stream is already available in my Unsplash account. What about you?

Feature #2: Unsplash Notifications

Unsplash notifications work like notifications on Google+. On the top right, next to your profile icon, you’ll find the new bell icon. However, it is not available in my profile yet. According to Mikael Cho, this feature is currently being rolled out internationally. This might take some patience.

A click on the bell opens a small notification overlay. Here, you’ll see new followers, who likes your photos, which collections your image was added to, and more. According to Cho, notifications were one of the most requested new features.

Feature #3: Unsplash Stories

Unsplash Stories lets photographers provide more information on their photos. If a story is available for a photo, you can access it by simply scrolling down on the photo’s detail page.

I have tried it with a dozen of new images, but I couldn’t find a single story. Generally speaking, the idea of providing context to the sheer image is exciting to me. This serves the community idea.

The Rest: Unsplash S and Local

Unsplash S is not literally a feature, but rather a promise of fast performance. In the background, the code is constantly being tweaked. In comparison to previous versions of the service, the success up to this point is impressive. In my browser, Unsplash runs entirely smoothly. Using it is fun.

Unsplash Local is not a new feature either, but instead, it’s the promise to unite the community at a local level. This is also supposed to be done via local events in different parts of the world, like Switzerland and Japan. Events can range from photo walks, workshops, or plain community parties.

Conclusion: Unsplash Has a Lot of Plans

The most recent feature update moves Unsplash closer to communities like 500px. However, Unsplash offers the invaluable advantage that all images are free to use. This is not the case for most of the competition.

The social aspects of the service are sure to cause further growth. It’s also safe to assume that the commitment of the users will increase drastically as well.

Here’s a neat transcript of a talk by Mat Marquis where he details how he made the Bocoup website lightning fast, particularly with snazzy font loading tricks and performance tools to help monitor those improvements over time.

Although, my favorite part of the talk is when Mat goes into why he wants to make websites:

I don’t get excited about frameworks or languages—I get excited about potential; about playing my part in building a more inclusive web.

I care about making something that works well for someone that has only ever known the web by way of a five-year-old Android device, because that’s what they have—someone who might feel like they’re being left behind by the web a little more every day. I want to build something better for them.

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Performance Under Pressure is a post from CSS-Tricks

Every week users submit a lot of interesting stuff on our sister site Webdesigner News, highlighting great content from around the web that can be of interest to web designers.

The best way to keep track of all the great stories and news being posted is simply to check out the Webdesigner News site, however, in case you missed some here’s a quick and useful compilation of the most popular designer news that we curated from the past week.

Note that this is only a very small selection of the links that were posted, so don’t miss out and subscribe to our newsletter and follow the site daily for all the news.

77 CSS Forms

Utilizing the “C” In CSS

Terrible UX Trends for 2017

Lossless Web Navigation with Trails

Captain: A Docker Menu Bar App for Mac

No UI is the New UX

Make Creating Websites Fun Again with Hugo

Javascript Tooling – The Evolution and Future of JS & Front-end Build Tools

How Flexbox Works – Explained with Big, Colorful, Animated Gifs

The Freelance Designer Bible

Google Material Design Principal Joins Dropbox

Nachos – An Open Source UI Kit for React Native

Team Sketch: A Community for Sketch Designers

25 Logo Design Tips from the Experts

NegativeSpace: Beautiful Free Stock Images

Learnings from my 6-month Design Internship at a Startup

The Next Big Blue Collar Job is Coding

The Code Behind Arrival (the Movie)

When to Ignore ‘Mobile-First’

Building Great Mobile Forms

Milanote: The Notes App for Creative Work

My Mac App Icon Design Workflow

Slemma: Create Dynamic Business Reports

The Texture of Company Culture

Resources for Eliminating Bias in Design

Want more? No problem! Keep track of top design news from around the web with Webdesigner News.

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Addy Osmani:

Smaller JavaScript bundles generally do result in a faster load time (regardless of our browser, device & network connection) but 200KB of our JS !== 200KB of someone else’s and can have wildly different parse and compile numbers.

Using file size as a metric isn’t an awful crime, because it does matter, but it’s only part of the JavaScript performance story.

I also found the overview of the discussion of bytecode interesting. Browsers download JavaScript, parse it, turn it into an abstract syntax tree, then turn that into bytecode. What if we could do that during our build steps and ship bytecode?

My opinion is shipping bytecode can increase your load-time (it’s larger) and you would likely need to sign the code and process it for security. V8’s position is, for now, we think exploring avoiding reparsing internally will help see a decent enough boost that precompilation may not offer too much more, but are always open to discussing ideas that can lead to faster startup times.

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JavaScript Start-Up Performance is a post from CSS-Tricks

There is an interesting gotcha about the fill-rule attribute of SVG, detailed here by Anthony Collurafici.

Fill-Rule is an SVG property that basically defines how to determine what shapes are filled or subtracted from the shape. The default SVG value is “nonzero”, and this is what Android requires. Unfortunately, Sketch uses “evenodd”. Luckily Sketch provides all the features we need to convert our shapes from “evenodd” to “nonzero”. And its now even easier in Sketch 42.

The direction you draw the points in nested shapes affects the fill.

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Preparing and Exporting SVG Icons in Sketch is a post from CSS-Tricks

There a bit of a CSS trick is Scott Jehl’s latest article. Perhaps you’ve used an “accessible hiding” technique? That’s where you are deliberately avoiding display: none; because you want the element to be focusable, but not seen visually.

But… that can be awkward for anyone who uses the keyboard to navigate the site and also looks at the screen.

To avoid this, we try to remember that any accessibly-hidden content should be visible when it gains focus. For example, this CSS would place a focused element at the top of the viewport

.accessible-hidden {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0;
  left: -999px;
  height: 1px;
  width: 1px;
  clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);
  white-space: nowrap;
}
.accessible-hidden:focus {
  position: fixed;
  top: 0;
  left: 0;
  background: #fff;
  padding: 10px;
  /* etc etc... */
}

Scott credits Joe Watkins for the idea.

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Maintaining Accessibility in a Responsive World 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…

Info overdose

Email checker addict

Wrong business

Can you relate to these situations? Please share your funny stories and comments below…

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Posters offer a diverse canvas for graphic designers, and some of the very best are not only beautifully designed but also inspiring and thought-provoking. There are hundreds of stunning poster designs that are instantly eye-catching, but we’ve narrowed this list down to a few of the most intriguing examples from the current decade. Whether you prefer to be bold or understated, you’re certain to find something here that will get your creative juices flowing.

1. Stranger Things Poster

“Stranger Things” became a hugely popular show on Netflix thanks in part to the captivating poster that promoted it. Designer Kyle Lambert was able to expertly capture many of the most important elements and characters in a way that draws the viewer in without providing any spoilers.

One of the most brilliant things about this poster is that it provides a throwback to the 1980s style, which is the perfect complement for the feel of the show. Combine that with extremely accurate renderings of the actors and the overall emotive quality of the piece, and it’s no wonder that viewers flocked to Netflix.

2. Maze Runner: Scorch Trials Poster

Movie poster designers have the enormous task of making something stand out in a very crowded environment. After all, posters are everywhere at your local movie theater, and that can easily make them blend together unless a unique feature grabs your attention. “Maze Runner: Scorch Trials” quickly amassed blockbuster status in 2015, and this visually appealing poster almost certainly helped make that happen.

The use of negative space works extremely well here, and it also contrasts perfectly with the test tube shape in the middle. These subtle clues to the plot points may not even be picked up by most casual viewers, but they showcase a lot of skill on the designer’s part.

3. Metropolis Poster

If imitation is truly the sincerest form of flattery, then all of the designers who influenced Retro Heroes creator Grégoire Guillemin should definitely feel flattered. For example, the classic “Metropolis” poster was clearly the inspiration for this retro rendering of comic book character Silver Surfer. The poster draws you in because of the similarities, but it’s also set apart by the font choice and bold red color that frames two sides of the image.

4. It Follows Poster

“It Follows” surprised box office prediction experts by not only receiving rave critical reviews but also becoming a huge indie hit that brought in more than six times its miniscule budget. The strength of what started as a limited release is mostly attributed to word of mouth praise, but the film’s movie posters also deserve a lot of credit.

Graphic designer Akiko Stehrenberger draws viewers in instantly with the compelling usage of eyes staring straight at you. The foggy blank space is an intriguing addition because it makes the identity of the “It” a huge mystery, and this results in the viewer imagining the most terrible things possible.

5. Air New Zealand Poster

Retro designs have been popular for several years, but this usually means creating a new poster that has a retro styled image. Air New Zealand decided to go back to the past in 2016 for the 75th anniversary by rereleasing old posters instead that help showcase the history of aviation. This particular design features great usage of Technicolor for a vibrant appearance that makes flying look beautiful and glamorous.

6. Cross River Gorilla Poster(Endangered Species Line)

There are more than 16,000 animals that are currently threatened with extinction, and the Cross River Gorilla is high on the priority list. With a population of approximately only 300 left on Earth, it’s important to conserve their habitat and to raise awareness of their plight.

Artist Sean Duggan decided to utilize a minimal design with a retro feel to put people face to face with an image of two of these gorillas. The decision to have a mother and baby gorilla looking straight at the viewer makes it hard not to feel sympathetic for their plight.

7. San Francisco Tourism Poster

A tourism poster needs to depict at least one aspect of the area in question, and it should also intrigue and excite people. The Discover San Francisco poster may seem a bit cluttered at first, but it’s actually quite brilliant how the designer turned each letter into a recognizable part of the city’s charm and daily life. From the deeply slanted hilly roads to the intersection of Haight and Ashbury, all of the most tourism friendly places are represented.

8. The Blue Umbrella Poster

“The Blue Umbrella” is a short film from Pixar that was released with “Monsters University.” To promote their animated piece, Pixar produced this mesmerizing poster that easily captures attention. The umbrella itself is very kid-friendly with its happy expression. However, it’s the lines of the rain drops that draw us in every time we look at this poster. The implied motion is brilliantly executed, as is the juxtaposition between the color and typical mood of the word blue with the contented expression of the umbrella.

9. The Foundation of Arts Ring of Fire Exhibit Poster

This poster design wins big points for being fun, using a bold color to stand out and showcasing an extremely literal interpretation of its subject matter. As a poster for a music retrospective exhibition for Johnny Cash, it makes perfect sense to refer to one of his most famous songs. Bringing it to life by having a figure appear to be literally falling into a burning ring of fire was brilliant enough, but having that ring be the hole in Cash’s guitar really boosts the impact of this piece. Adding in the vintage feel and the eye-catching red background provided the proverbial icing on the cake.

10. The Secret of 4°C Poster

Posters can be designed to sell something, to raise awareness, to motivate or to explore a graphic designer’s personal interests. The particular piece is educational and visually appealing. At a first glance, you might not realize that the image in the middle of the poster is a dewdrop.

Water achieves its heaviest state when it reaches 4° Celsius, and artist Jongwon Won used the gradient scale in an attempt to depict and explore the many stages that water goes through just before or after this specific temperature. Even without knowing this explanation, the design, use of color and well-placed white space is captivating.

There are, of course, thousands of other designs we could have chosen, but these 10 are a nice representative sample of some of the best work that has been produced during this decade. There are clearly some common themes between most of these pieces, and that’s a reflection on modern trends. Allow these to inspire you, and perhaps you’ll be the one to spark the next massive trend in poster graphic design.

Read More at 10 of the Best Modern Poster Designs to Inspire Creativity

Every month, there are exciting and relevant developments in browser news that web designers and developers will want to know about. What happens with your favorite browser or one that you haven’t become familiar with (yet!) can profoundly affect the quality and output of your client work.

So without further ado, we present a new, monthly feature that tracks all the latest browser developments over the past month, so you’re always on top of what each new browser is doing.

Chrome gets 28% faster

In its quest to always update the performance of its browser, Google recently announced that page reloads within Chrome on both desktop and mobile are now 28% faster. Go on—give it a try! Maybe you’ve already noticed this improvement, but this initiative was a joint project between Google, Facebook and Mozilla. To get this done, Google engineers simply streamlined Chrome’s reload behavior, so it now just validates the main resource (as opposed to making many network requests to check if resources like images are still valid).

Apple improves its Safari Technology Preview

The experimental browser of Apple, Safari Technology Preview, received an update at the end of January that focused on fixing some bug issues as well as addressing some prior performance issues. As a result, this will impact Web Inspector, JavaScript and CSS. Only available for those developers who are running macOS Sierra, this latest iteration of STP features a bunch of patches related to enhanced JavaScript and CSS handling. General website handling was improved, too.

Opera debuts its first concept browser, called “Neon”

While not a replacement for its main Opera browser, Neon is an experiment in simplifying one’s browser experience to a handful of select tasks. With a nice design that blends into your desktop, Neon is more of a concept browser than a real replacement for any of the established browsers on the market. Nonetheless, it’s important since it gives us a glimpse of the future of browsers and what the Internet can evolve into. Some of its memorable features include newly improved, circular icons and a new take on the omnibox, which is Opera’s search feature.

Firefox makes focus available in 27 languages

Mozilla’s Firefox Focus, known as the privacy browser, is encouraging people to browse with more privacy than ever by becoming available in 27 languages for iOS. Coinciding with late-January’s International Privacy Day, this initiative is a continuation of Mozilla’s overall mission to empower users to have more control than ever over their web behavior. Some of the new languages included in this rollout include Welsh, Czech, Ukrainian and Songay. The company’s not done yet either: it plans to continue adding more languages in the future, so more people all over the world have the option of private browsing.

Latest version of Google Chrome stops Gmail support

Google confirmed that, by the end of the year, some versions of Google Chrome won’t be supporting Gmail any longer. This has natural security implications for users. In addition, users may also miss out on important bug fixes and updates. In the next few months, look for Chrome version 53 and earlier to stop support for Gmail. From February 8^th onwards, Google will display a banner at the top of users’ pages (the ones who use the online portal of Chrome), urging them to upgrade before the end of 2017.

Microsoft Edge receives stellar features in Windows 10 creators’ update

Recently, Microsoft revealed what new improvements would be coming to Edge, the company’s new browser. One of the biggest changes is the greater availability of extensions. As a result, extension developers will enjoy more access to about 30% more APIs when compared to the original release. End users will therefore enjoy extensions with greater power. Microsoft is hoping that this round of new features will generate more interest in its new browser from the developer community. Since Microsoft abandoned Internet Explorer, it’s been pushing Edge as a competitor to Chrome and Firefox.

Microsoft gains market share with Edge

In welcome news for the company, Microsoft’s Edge browser seems to be gaining (if only a little) on its top competitors in the browser market. According to a NetMarketShare report, the Edge now has 5.48% of the browser market in January, which is an improvement from the 5.33% of the market it owned in December 2016. Overall, the gains for Edge look even better and promising: year-on-year, Edge has risen an impressive 178% in market share. Of course, Internet Explorer’ market share continues to free-fall while Chrome only gets stronger at almost 58% of market share in January.

Vivaldi tackles the noisy tabs problem

The Vivaldi browser already allows users to identify what offensive tab has a specific ad or video playing in the background causing unwanted sound or noise, but the new player on the browser block has decided to one-up itself and go a step further. Now, users are able to activate Vivaldi’s tab-muting feature by using their keyboards. The company has also thrown more muting-related commands into the mix, so users have unprecedented control. For example, Mute Other Tabs, Unmute All Tabs, Unmute Other Tabs, Mute All Tabs, and Mute/Unmute Tab are all new options for users.

Firefox supports new WebGL2 standard

WebGL2 is the new standard that gives developers the chance to use high-quality and dazzling 3D graphics that are made available for the first time ever on the Internet. Continuing where WebGL1 left off, this new standard empowers developers to harness accelerated rendering features that are more modern. This includes multi-sampled rendering support, expanded texturing functionality, and transform feedback. The end result benefits both developers and users alike: You’ll get to see more interesting and captivating visual content on the Internet. At a time when video content is taking up more and more bandwidth on the web, Firefox’s support for WebGL2 is timely and makes sense.

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