05.27.14 |
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Cool online book by author Dan Zambonini on getting a web app off the ground successfully. As he writes:
You’ll find processes, statistics and resources that you can use for the entire lifecycle of your app, from developing the seed of an idea to post-launch promotion. Rather than getting bogged down with unnecessary detail and opinion disguised as best practice, this book concentrates on the critical points of each topic to ensure a well-rounded app that’s equipped for even the most demanding users.
That’s the key – it’s short and very much to the point. And it’s completely free.
05.20.14 |
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Engineer Jeff Miller put together a simple but well thought out Python bot that tweets Hacker News stories:
Here’s a robust cure for Hacker News overload: use score thresholds. This solves the problem of too many stories by cutting out low-scoring noise while still leaving behind those links interesting enough to have been upvoted by the HN community.
I’ve created a handful of Twitter and RSS feeds that apply score thresholds to Hacker News. Stories enter the feeds in near real-time as soon as they reach X points on the main HN site.
05.19.14 |
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The Flickr web developer team breaks down the usability and performance considerations behind their new signed out homepage. There’s a lot of solid content including emphasis on 3d transforms to keep CSS animations fast and throttling JavaScript-based scroll events.
05.16.14 |
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Vulture’s Matt Zoller Seitz writes on TV series that are breaking away from the traditional 13 to 26 episodes per season format. It’s a concept often mentioned on social media and the occasional blog post, but Seitz constructs the best argument to date. He cites influences like the BBC and Netflix, along with our changing viewing habits and mediums (e.g. TVs, computers, tablets) to help shape the “anything goes” approach that defines a lot of TV today.
05.15.14 |
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In the last year I’ve worked more from home than I have in all my previous roles combined. It’s a move that comes with both a lot of freedom but also new challenges. Tech writer Matt Gemmell writes about the subject at length in this post. There’s plenty of smart advice that’s worked for me as well in practice, especially sticking to a schedule and scheduling blocks of time for email.
05.14.14 |
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Web designer and developer Dan Davies ran a fascinating experiment; he asked twenty three UK-based web developers on their workflow and overall opinions on responsive web design. As you might imagine there’s a lot of repetition, but many answers were insightful, especially those regarding tools used (a handful of which I’ve barely heard of) and pitching RWD fundamentals on clients.
05.13.14 |
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Designer and speaker Stephen Hay:
Emulation is a part of the evolution of design. And the web, for that matter. But design sameness tends to fade when one forgets all of the existing patterns, all of the Bootstraps, all of the preconceived design solutions. Design sameness fades when designers stop focusing on which solutions for their problem are out there and start focusing on the problem at hand.
Solve that problem, and maybe the solution is exactly what your peer implemented, in the exact same way. But maybe not.
05.12.14 |
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88 different typefaces are mentioned on this informative Typewolf post; Avenir, Brandon Grotesque and Adelle lead the pack.
05.09.14 |
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Regardless of your thoughts on Nicholas Wending Refn’s Only God Forgives (I have mostly mixed to negative feelings), it’s a visually assured, at times stunning work with its slow dolly shots and strong primary color usage. So it’s really interesting to see how much visual effects played into post production, and not just for the violent scenes. There’s some otherwise mundane yet critical touches, like removing all traces of dolly tracks to give the effect of a floating, dream-like camera, or editing out a small ceiling fan to distract from an actor’s performance.
As a warning, there’s a lot of very grisly, bloody content highlighted in this video (NSFW).
05.08.14 |
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Smart post by iDoneThis manager Janet Choi analyzing how a few small bits of gratitude can dramatically improve productivity and morale at work. At first reading through how LinkedIn implemented this practice in their meetings felt cheesy: everyone goes around and shares a personal and professional “win”. But then I considered how often I’ve seen meetings turn into negative complaints on how a feature or design isn’t working. Injecting some forced positively up front could open up a nice change of pace.