JavaScript Tooling Anxiety — Help Is at Hand

This article was peer reviewed by Chris Perry, Nuria Zuazo and Vildan Softic. Thanks to all of SitePoint's peer reviewers for making SitePoint content the best it can be!

JavaScript tooling anxiety, (or, as it's customary to abbreviate everything, TA), has now become a thing and not necessarily in a good way. It's that awful feeling you get when you're overwhelmed by the array of shiny developer toys and unable to filter the constant jibber-jabber of community advocacy.

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Like its better established cousin, information overload (IO), TA can lead to confusion, headaches, procrastination and, in some severe cases, leave the victim rendered totally inert with indecision. For those who feel they are coming down with a nasty dose of TA, however, the treatment is pretty straightforward: keep calm and carry on.

Remember What You're Good At

There's not enough time in life to get to know all the various frameworks, libraries and plugins out there, never mind reading about them, so it's important to not let yourself get overloaded with information. There was a great article by Tim Evko about IO published last year and as you can see from the ~50 comments it really hit home.

One of the most salient points in Tim's piece was to stick to your stack. I'd like to broaden that slightly and say: remember what you're good at. For many developers this means core skills such as being organised, problem-solving and efficient communication. So take a deep breath and remind yourself that you're good at what you do.

Horses for Courses

Tempting as it is to try each major piece of kit out there, it's likely there's only a tiny smattering of them that you need for each job. At Zone I've done a lot of CMS-oriented design-and-build jobs, and what makes doing that easier is having constant access to a very slim, but important, selection of tools. Consequently they're the ones I have focused on.

A lot of the libraries that fight for our attention these days are ones used for building slick single-page apps, which are generally known as MVC (or MV Whatever). If you or your company often make these kinds of applications, then it's worth getting to know one. If, like me, you don't make many of these things then you needn't worry too much about them. That's not to say you shouldn't know what problem they solve, but assuming you have an IQ over 90 it's likely you'll be able to get to grips with something like an SPA framework without too much homework.

Just Because It's Trendy

I've assessed quite a lot of software in my time. However, I've also seen a lot of things come and go. The world of web design and development can be fickle. Fads come and go as quickly as boy bands and, as a consequence, a lot of time is wasted learning about tools that will be dead by the time you get around to using them commercially.

I'm certainly guilty of obsessively having a stab at the next big thing and then realising I've forgotten much of what I learned when the time comes to use it.

Beware Buzzwords

Speaking of trends, certain libraries and frameworks (mentioning no names ahem Angular ahem) have become CV musts. When speaking with some recruiters the first question I've been asked is "What version of Angular are you at?". Any dev worth their salt should answer Angular 8 and see what the response is! But aside from being useful when it comes to winding up poorly informed recruiters, buzzwords should be avoided.

Continue reading %JavaScript Tooling Anxiety — Help Is at Hand%

by Richard Bultitude via SitePoint

Creating Responsive iOS9 iMessage Interface with jQuery, CSS and HTML5

A tutorial about creating responsive iOS9 iMessage interface by using jQuery, CSS and Html5.

by via jQuery-Plugins.net RSS Feed

What You Can (& Shouldn't) Automate for Social Media Marketing Success - #infographic

As far as the significance of automation in the success of social media is concerned, first of all, it is better to comprehend the notion of automation in a detailed manner. The concept of automation in the domain of social media suggests that it is the most influential tool through which organizations and small business owners are able to communicate messages to their potential and existing customers. Therefore, there are different kinds of tools or resources available that can be applied in order to perform the task of automation in the desired way.

In reality, this aspect should be taken into consideration that social media automation is actually dependent on different elements and these elements are mentioned as follows:

1. Industry

2. Social media tactics

3. Business objectives

4. Online channels

5. Time Allocation

How content could be used in order to make social media automation successful

There is no point of denying this attribute that content is becoming an important element by which social media automation could be performed in the right direction. At the same time, this is a crucial aspect to consider that it takes a lot of courage and hard work to develop content according to your own requirements or demands. During this phenomenon, managers are required to evaluate as well as improve the quality of content so that they can obtain required deliverables later on.

For the sake of automating social media content in the right manner, being a social media manager you are supposed to act in a proactive manner. For that reason, the Dos and Don’ts of social media automation are discussed below:

by Guest Author via Digital Information World

A CSS Multi-column Layout Tutorial for Beginners

Reading very long lines of text can be problematic for some people. They will have to focus more on not missing a line instead of the text itself. This problem is easily solved by using multiple columns to lay out the content. Multiple columns are ubiquitous in print media. The CSS Multi-column Layout Module features enable us to recreate the same kind of multi-column effect on websites.

One thing that makes it hard to use multiple columns when designing web pages is the inability to control the size of documents. In this tutorial, I will teach you how to create responsive multi-column layouts that look good on a variety of screen sizes. We will begin with the basics and then move on to more complex concepts.

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Browser Support

Browser support for multi-column layout is great if you are willing to use prefixes. This feature is supported by 95.32% browsers worldwide based on stats from Can I use. A few browsers like IE10+, Edge, and Opera Mini fully support multi-column layouts. Others like Firefox and Chrome need prefixes.

There is an older polyfill available that you try if you require support for older browsers (usually this means IE9 and below). Of course, if a browser does not support multi-column features, the layout degrades gracefully to a single column layout. So a polyfill in this case might not be the best option.

The CSS multi-column layout module has a number of different properties. In the following sections I will go over all of them one by one.

Column Count and Column Width

The column-count property specifies the number of columns you want to set for an element. You can set it to auto or a positive number. When set to auto, the number of columns will be determined by the column-width property. If set to a positive number, all the columns are set to an equal width.

The column-width property specifies the width of individual columns of an element. This is not to be followed strictly. For instance, columns can be narrower if there is not enough space available. This property too can be set to both an auto value or a positive number. If set to auto, the width will be determined by the column-count property. Available space will be divided among all columns equally.

Alternatively, these two values can be set simultaneously using the shorthand columns property. The syntax for columns property would be:

[code language="css"]
.example {
columns: <'column-width'> || <'column-count'>
}
[/code]

A few examples of this property in use are shown below with the interpretation in the comment beside each example:

[code language="css"]
.example {
columns: 10em; /* column-width: 10em / column-count: auto */
columns: 4; /* column-width: auto / column-count: 4 */
columns: 4 auto; /* column-width: auto / column-count: 4 */
columns: auto 10em; /* column-count: auto / column-width: 4 */
columns: auto; /* column-count: auto / column-width: auto */
columns: auto auto; /* column-count: auto / column-width: auto */
}
[/code]

As you can see, the first columns definition is a shorthand for what you see in the fourth, and second one is shorthand for the third. Basically, if the integer does not have any unit assigned it is parsed as column-count.

Here is a CodePen demo to demonstrate the features discussed so far

If you resize the window, you will notice a few things:

• The column-count property always keeps the number of columns equal to the value you specify. The only thing that changes is the width of the columns.
• The column-width property automatically changes the number of columns based on available space. The number of columns is adjusted in such a way that column width is greater than the specified value. It may also adjust the width of all columns to a smaller value if there is not enough space available.
• The columns property uses the column-count value as the limit for maximum columns allowed. It keeps adjusting the width in such a way that column-count never exceeds the count limit and column-width is also in close proximity to the specified width.

Continue reading %A CSS Multi-column Layout Tutorial for Beginners%

by Baljeet Rathi via SitePoint

The 11 Best Tutorials on Mobile Design

Mobile design is constantly evolving and if you want to stay up to date, you need to always be reading and watching quality tutorials. The good news is there are a lot to choose from, but the bad news is that even with all the time in the world, you can't read or watch everything.

In this article, I've done the hard work and have compiled my list of the 11 best tutorials to learn mobile design. Most of the tutorials are suitable for beginners but I feel that even experienced designers will benefit.

Continue reading %The 11 Best Tutorials on Mobile Design%

by Ada Ivanoff via SitePoint

Our courageous and determined role models

Today is  International Women’s Day. In this post we look at why it’s an important day to celebrate, we share some statistics about women in UX, and we feature our UX community’s favourite role models. 

I can’t remember where I first heard it, but someone once said “Show me how you spend your time, and I’ll show you what you value.”

Accepting the challenge, I have an ongoing personal project to create a meta-calendar that proactively and reactively helps me chart the ebbs and flows of my life, helping me pay attention to stuff I’d otherwise forget or consider too difficult. It tracks seasons both literal and abstract, reminds me about things to be thankful or sorry about, helps me stay in touch with useful traditions and long term goals, to celebrate food and friends and family, to mark the passing of time in a conscious way. Pretty basic stuff, but calendars can be a profound way to remain mindful of when and who we are, and what things we value.

Today’s date in my calendar, March 8, is designated International Women’s Day.

While it should perhaps be Women’s Day once in every two days, on this day in particular we shine a spotlight on the bigger picture.

Why is International Women’s Day even a thing?

It’s been celebrated for the past 107 years, but lately has been recognised by the United Nations as a crucial part of the new Sustainable Development Goals that were agreed and adopted by the global community in September last year.

That sounds very grand and lofty, but in reality it is a chance for all of us—you, me, civil society, the private sector, and governments—to actually make some important decisions about things that end up affecting real lives. One of these important goals is achieving gender equality and empowering women and girls.

Sure, but that seems to be about global stuff… How is this actually relevant to UX?

It’s important for a whole bunch of interrelated reasons; gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.

Let’s get some perspective:

47% of the UX Mastery community are women, which is great when compared to the female population of countries in the Arabian peninsula (as low as 26%), but it still doesn’t quite match the global ratio of roughly 50:50.

In the last six years, the ratio of women to men in UX and related fields has equalised by around 7% (based on statistical data and anecdotal observations), but there is a lot more to it than simply aiming for an equal gender split.

Jeff Sauro’s Salary Survey in 2014 found that within the professional field of user experience, men can be paid up to USD$10,000 more, on average, than women, and that there is a greater statistical impact when gender is coupled with age and years of experience. “This three-way interaction shows women are paid slightly more than men in the 18-25 age cohort, but have less experience, and consequently lower salaries, as they get into their careers after their late 20’s.” he says. Taking time off to help raise children is still a major factor.

In Australia, the average full-time weekly wage for women workers is 18.2% less than for men, and it’s been stuck between 15-18% for the last two decades. That means Australian women would have to work an extra 66 days per year to earn the same salary as men—for doing the same work. Correspondingly, in 2009-2010, average superannuation payouts for Australian women were only just over half (57%) those of men.

A significant part of the problem is related to time of work for parenting, can be traced to women not demanding equal pay and others not giving it to them, and gender bias in workplace language, especially where it affects hiring or promotion of staff. To begin addressing some of these issues, we need to know our positive role models and leading voices.  But who are they?

Know your UX role models, they may not be that far away…

Our female UX heroes need to come to mind in conversations as easily and as commonly as the male ones do. It’s not that women haven’t achieved, or there weren’t as many contributing, it’s that they aren’t properly or widely recognised for the stuff they did do.

Perhaps the benefit of having role models that you really know, like a sister or a mum, is that you get to know them at a level that helps you see bits of yourself in them. They’re not just inspiring and practical, they’re mentors who may know you better than you know yourself.

Grandparents: Jessica Enders, herself a globally recognised expert in form design, looks up to her late grandmother. “She survived the Great Depression and two world wars, brought up two children on her own, never drove a car but always walked or caught public transport, sewed all her own clothes, could master any cryptic crossword, and loved her husband like no-one else could.” Jessica is also inspired by women that nurture their children, help them feel loved, and raise them with solid values, “Because parenting is a thankless but also incredibly important task”.

Sisters and Mothers: Natalie Eustace, a UX designer with a Master’s degree in Human Interface Technology, also recognises the value of family role models: “I feel really corny saying this, but my sister and my mum? My mother from her empathy and always trying to see all points of view, and my sister because she’s been through so much. She’s a designer, among many other talents: she doesn’t let others opinions put her down and continues to do what she loves. The stuff she does is amazing.”

Nerd friends: Fox Woods is strengthened by her first female nerd friends Michelle and Priya. “We’ve been to SXSW, Web Directions, Webstock, UX Book Club, and so many other nerd meetups… We’ve discussed code, encouraged each other, inspired each other.”

Workplace leaders: Rebecca Jackson, a self-confessed nerd (and one of our favourite UX sketchers), attributes the seeds of her UX career to her boss. “If I take it back to the beginning it was the boss which introduced me to the world of UX that is probably the most influential. Previously I had been undertaking UX activities but I didn’t realise there was a whole discipline and world behind it. When I started working with, and eventually for Erin, she introduced me to UX and UX Australia.” Erin also continued to foster Rebecca’s appreciation of UX, “which is not something that those of us who work outside of agencies and UX teams always get in the workplace.”

 

They’re working right alongside you

Rebecca describes the scene brilliantly: “I am lucky that we are in a community where there are many fabulous women who I can continually seek inspiration from.”

Jessica finds inspiration from Donna Spencer and Maxine Sherrin, two people separately at the heart of Australia’s two best web conferences: UX Australia and Web Directions. “Both these women have a strong sense of who they are and what they want to do, and they just go out and do it. Their success demonstrates their tenacity and dedication”, explains Jessica. “I also love how people like Alice Bartlett from the UK Government Digital Service and Sara Wachter-Boettcher are fighting to get us to see the real people faced with our designs.”

New Zealand’s premier web event, the world renowned Webstock, was co-founded by Natasha Lampard, self-described ‘air commodore’ of event registration software developer Lil Regie and ‘squadron leader’ of Extraordinary Tales of Strength and Daring, a series of get-togethers with a focus on livjng and learning, creativity, inspiration and connection.

Donna Spencer, Information Architect, Author and conference organiser of UX Australia.
LinkedIn | @maadonna | http://ift.tt/znKUo2

 

Maxine Sherrin, Co-founder and Director of Web Directions
LinkedIn | @maxine | http://ift.tt/SvSs0x

 

Alice Bartlett, front-end developer and presenter of Bin Your Select talk, jQuery UK 2015
LinkedIn | @alicebartlett | alicebartlett.co.uk

 

Sara Wachter-Boettcher, content strategy consultant, author and editor. Personal Histories post.
LinkedIn | @sara_ann_marie | www.sarawb.com

 

Natasha Lampard, co-founder of Webstock, and of Lil Regie.
LinkedIn | @tashmahal | webstock.org.nz | http://ift.tt/21jpipJ

 

Dean, based in Amsterdam, has been working in UX and accessibility for six years, and wanted to add names to the hat from a male perspective. “So, so many,” he says. “Susan Weinschenk—if you haven’t read 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People then you should. If you have read it, you’ll know why her name is here.” He goes on: “Content strategy and accessibility especially have so many amazing thought leaders—like Geri Coady and Karen McGrane.” Our community manager, Hawk, saw Karen McGrane speak at the Webstock conference last month, and seconded Dean’s nomination. “She’s definitely inspiring.”

Susan Weinschenk, ‘the brain lady’ and behavioural scientist.
LinkedIn | @thebrainlady | www.theteamw.com

 

Geri Coady, colour-obsessed designer, illustrator and author. Accessible websites do not have to be boring.
@hellogeri | www.hellogeri.com

 

Karen McGrane, content strategist, prolific blogger and writer, and founder of Bond Art + Science.
LinkedIn | @karenmcgrane | karenmcgrane.com

 

Kayla Heffernan is a UX designer, advocate, design detective and presenter. She counts herself fortunate to have great role models at work: “We have some awesome women at SEEK who are passionate about equality day-to-day and have done some great things during our Hackathons. Sarah Redmond and Anna Kelk spearheaded Camp SEEK out of a hackathon which ran a week long program for high school girls interested in Tech. Emma Haslip started a hack to check for gendered words in job ads to encourage more female applicants. None of these ladies are specifically UX, but are still ladies in Tech doing awesome things.”

Sarah Redmond
LinkedIn | Twitter

 

Anna Kelk
LinkedIn | @annakelk

 

Emma Haslip
LinkedIn | @emmahaslip

 

Kayla also appreciates that there are so many people on Twitter promoting gender equality in UX. “Too many too name” she says, “but a few that stand out are Jennifer Aldrich, Jessica Ivins and Jen Simmons.”

Jennifer Aldrich, UX & Content Startegist, InVision
LinkedIn | @jma245 | userexperiencerocks.com

 

 

Jessica Ivins, faculty at Center Centre
LinkedIn | @jessicaivins

 

 

Jen Simmons, the Web Ahead podcast
LinkedIn | @jensimmons | thewebahead.net

 

There are many, many accomplished people driving the UX profession. Here are three more:

Elizabeth Churchill, Director of UX at Google, former Director of HCI at eBay
LinkedIn | @xeeliz

 

Whitney Hess, and gender parity advocate
LinkedIn | @whitneyhess | whitneyhess.com

 

Gayna Williams
LinkedIn | @SheCanICan

 

 

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and often does

Women who face and defeat adversity, frequently needing to respond to pretty hostile environments, are seen as the most inspiring. Fox Woods is a UX consultant and former co-runner of Girls Club xo. “Every time I see a woman being a leader in their field, it’s really inspiring to me.” Jessica Enders agrees, and says that “Women working in gaming or blogging inspire me, because they get so hammered by misogynistic abuse yet keep going. Women who stand up for themselves in situations of family violence inspire me, because that is one of the most difficult things a person can ever do.”

Ash shares that the women who inspire her the most in UX are mostly those close to her—friends and colleagues past and present: “The woman who has had the biggest inspirational impact on my UX career to date would have to be my first UX manager and now friend. Her name is Ange and she empowers me and shows me that I can do absolutely anything in this world.” But she also looks to prominent figures in science, such as Marie Curie. “She was passionate, curious and driven—nothing got in her way. She had two kids, her husband died, and she got caught up in a crazy scandal, but it didn’t stop her.”

Marie Curie, developer of the theory of radioactivity (a term she coined) forcing a reconsideration of the foundations of physics, discoverer of two elements (polonium and radium), the first female to be awarded a Nobel Prize and first person and only woman to win twice (physics and chemistry). Wikipedia

 

From science to music, Ash also sees contemporary role models like Lady Gaga as a hero, too: “She’s incredibly talented and is constantly evolving and reinventing herself but she’s also quite empathetic. Underneath the crazy outfits is an actual person who gives a crap about making a difference, and I respect that.”

Lady Gaga, singer, songwriter, and actress known for her self-empowering messages.
@ladygaga | Wikipedia

 

 

Marrissa Mayer, Yahoo president and CEO
LinkedIn | @marissamayer

 

 

Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook
LinkedIn | @sherylsandberg

 

 

Lena Dunham, creator and star of the HBO series Girls.
LinkedIn | @lenadunham

 

 

Kristina Karlsson, founder of Kikki.K
www.kikki-k.com

 

 

Gretchen Rubin, author on habits and happiness
LinkedIn | @gretchenrubin

 

 

Garance Doré, blogger photographer, illustrator
LinkedIn | @garancedore

 

 

Jessica Walsh, designer, illustrator, art director
LinkedIn | @jessicawalsh

 

 

Lisa Messenger, Collective Magazine
LinkedIn | @LisaMessenger

 

 

Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman, A Beautiful Mess
LinkedIn | @abeautifulmess | http://ift.tt/Op7W9X

 

 

Ada Lovelace, mathematician and writer (1815-1852), developer of the first computer algorithm.
Wikipedia

 

 

Grace Hopper, computer scientist, US Navy Rear Admiral and inventor of the first compiler for a programming language.
Wikipedia

 

 

Ruth Ginsburg, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and advocate for women’s rights.
Wikpedia

 

 

Joan Clarke, cryptanalyst and deputy head of Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, one of the very best practitioners working on the Enigma project during WWII along with many other women. Wikipedia

 

 

Jane Caro, mentor, social commentator, writer and lecturer with strong interests in education and women in business.
LinkedIn | @JaneCaro | janecaro.com.au

You, too, should be a role model

Natalie believes strongly in the importance of finding and following female role models, and suggests one of the problems is the lack of women in software development and its tertiary-level education: “I don’t actually have very many female role models at all. Most of the work that I have done, or courses I have taken, have been majority male dominated, and therefore I tend to think about them more when I think role models.”

But Natalie has chosen to do something about that. “I’ve also been helping out with some school code club activities and I would have to say, looking at the younger girls and the kind of work that they are learning and doing to break the bonds of ‘I shouldn’t do tech because it is a boys world’, it is quite inspirational.” By being a role model herself, Natalie hopes to short-circuit the problem. “The fact that they are the ones to start ignoring the divide and just do it because they enjoy it—and even go against their parents sometimes in terms of suggested subjects—they are taking a leap of faith in an awesome direction.”

 

Wonder Woman deserves a mention. Why? Ashley explains: “Because I have a LEGO mini-figurine of her and she makes me smile.”
LinkedIn | Twitter

 

 

Giving time to things that are worthwhile is one of the most useful things we can do in a world where time is a precious commodity. International Women’s Day is a time to reflect on progress made, to call for change and to celebrate acts of courage and determination by ordinary women who have played an extraordinary role in the history of their communities as we aim to give gender inequality a firm expiration date.

Your challenge for the week is to take a few minutes to seek out the female voices around you (both prominent and emerging) and to engage with them, pick their brains, give them feedback and be inspired by them. Become the role model you wish you’d had yourself.

Watch out for International Men’s Day on November 19.

The post Our courageous and determined role models appeared first on UX Mastery.

by Luke Chambers via UX Mastery

Glamour

'Glamour' is a clean One Page HTML template suited for an online portfolio or business landing page. This template is also geared at multi-page designs but offers a dedicated layout for long scrolling One Page websites with an impressive 26 different header options. Other features include the powerful Revolution Slider, Masonry portfolio filter and MailChimp integrated signup form.

by Rob Hope via One Page Love