Last November I wrote a short tour of the UX principles of the Ubuntu operating systems for phones. In this article I will focus on specific UI elements, based on the official style guide provided by Canonical. Time to begin!
Continue reading %Exploring Ubuntu Phone UI Elements%
Being able to share your designs in Sketch with very little effort is hugely beneficial to your team, especially for those that don’t use Sketch or whose role isn’t a technical one. At the very least, it keeps over-enthusiastic team members constantly returning to your desk to “see how everything is coming along”!
So why even bother sharing artboards with your team? Because:
Sharing artboards with team members (over the internet) who work in the same office may seem a little redundant, but meetings do take up a lot of time and I’m certain many designers and developers don’t like to be bothered or checked-up on throughout the day.
Let's take a look at two ways we can solve those issues.
Sketch 3.4 introduced a new feature called Local Network Sharing, which basically lets the Sketch user share their artboards with other team members, even if they don’t have or use Sketch. All the recipient needs to ensure is that he or she is using the same network connection as the Sketch user. Multiple members of the team can then see what the designer is up to from the comfort of their own desk, using their own web browser.
Start by opening a .sketch document (one with multiple artboards would be most suitable) and selecting “Share” from the toolbar, and then toggle the Enable Local Sharing button.
Your entire artboards will then open in the default web browser and the URL in the address bar can be shared with anyone. What’s unique about local sharing is that your whole canvas will be divided into artboards alongside their name, where the recipient of the URL can click on each artboard to see it in full-screen.
Essentially, you’re sharing the entire document, like so:
A QR code is a machine-readable formation of black and white squares that is usually used to store a URL. Anybody with a smartphone with a camera can lift a URL from these codes, which saves mobile users the hassle of having to type in lengthy URL’s.
If you’d rather not force team members to type in the URL of your locally shared .sketch document, send them a QR code instead. With the use of a Sketch extension called QRCode for Sketch Local Sharing, we can generate QR codes for our .sketch documents and team members only have to scan the QR codes to read the URL.
Since there’s no keyboard shortcut to activate it you’ll have to access it from Plugins → QRCode for Local Sharing → Show QR Code. After that, take a screenshot (command+shift+3) and send the QR code to team members as an email/message attachment.
Plugins can help extend the functionality of Sketch far beyond what’s natively available, if you haven’t used them before here’s a quick setup tutorial.
Sketch doesn’t offer a way to natively share artboards with remote teams; for that kind of functionality you’ll definitely need to look towards plugins, although the following two methods are still massively useful to in-house teams as well.
Slack has really been on the rise in the last couple of years with many teams switching over from HipChat for their core communication needs, citing that Slack offers a more exciting chat interface, better customer support and an abundance of integrations of its own.
Sketch users can benefit from the Sketch to Slack Plugin, helping Sketch users to share their artboards directly into the Slack team conversation with ease.
Before we set this up you’ll need an API token from Slack. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage and click “Generate test tokens” to begin the request.
Now, click “Create token” next to the Slack team you want to connect with and follow through with the instructions until Slack gives you an API token. After that, install the Sketch to Slack Plugin if you haven’t already, navigate to Plugins → Sketch To Slack → Update API Token and use the token that Slack gave you.
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When you’re all set up, select any number of artboards and navigate back to Plugins → Sketch To Slack to choose where you’d like Sketch to send the artboards to. You can choose a channel, a group, a user - even the Slackbot itself (for testing). Perfect for sharing designs with large teams!
If you work in smaller teams then Easier.cc might be easier, quite literally. Easier.cc takes your artboard, uploads it to their servers and creates a self-expiring link to it. After that, you’re free to share your artboard with whoever and, however, you’d like; email, messenger, Slack, whatever.
Easier.cc is ideal for when you want to keep your team conversations separate from your client conversations or when the client doesn’t have time to be on-boarded into your Slack team.
Select an artboard and use the keyboard shortcut command+option+e; a small dialog will appear telling you that a temporary URL has been copied to the clipboard. Naturally this wouldn’t be a suitable method if you had multiple artboards to share, but it sure is handy if you need a quick and easy solution.
Continue reading %Sketch App: How to Share Artboards with Your Team%
Virtual reality has come a quite long way since Oculus Rift entered the stage a few years ago, opening up a whole new range of possibilities to experience digital content. Although its use cases were blurry and undefined, it gained huge traction which lead to Facebook acquiring Oculus for $2 billion. Such great expectations also lead to the inevitable influence of VR on the web, which is not likely to be a 2D exclusive environment by the year 2020.
As one of the main players advocating an open and free web, Mozilla has been actively helping chart the course of virtual reality on the web. As a result of their exploration of the area, the MozVR project was founded, which today is one of the key contributors to WebVR standards alongside Brandon Jones from the Google Chrome team. These contributors recently teamed up to announce the version 1.0 release of the WebVR API proposal. This is a big step for the future of virtual reality on the web so let’s have a look at what this means.
Note: Our very own Patrick Catanzariti covered WebVR and how to get started last year at SitePoint, so if you haven’t dipped your fingers into the big and immersive world of VR, make sure to check out his article.
Concretely, as detailed in the official Mozilla Hacks blog post, the updated APIs offer various improvements. These are in a nutshell:
Continue reading %Quick Read: The WebVR 1.0 API Draft Proposal%
Fastlane is a tool that every serious iOS developer should know. It was created out of the pain that came from interacting with iTunes Connect in its early days. Although the iTunes Connect interface has become much better, fastlane still has a lot to offer by automating and easing the process of interacting with the Developer Portal and iTunes Connect.
Envato Tuts+ instructor Markus Mühlberger has created a couple of Coffee Break Courses to help you learn fastlane. Each course is just ten minutes long and covers a single aspect of the tool. Here are more details.
In this course, you'll learn how to use fastlane to screenshot and submit your iOS app from the command line. After watching this course, you should be able to create automated workflows for adding your app to the iTunes Store, including metadata, binaries, and bundled screenshots in many different languages and screen sizes.
Find out how to use fastlane to sign and provision your iOS app from the command line. After watching this course, you should be able to create automated workflows to create signing certificates and provisioning profiles. You'll also learn how to manage these certificates and profiles in a team environment.
If you're ready to move your app development into the fastlane, you can take our Coffee Break Courses straight away with a free 10-day trial of our monthly subscription. If you decide to continue, it costs just $15 a month, and you’ll get access to hundreds of courses, with new ones added every week.
If you want to improve as an iOS developer, you could also check out the hundreds of useful iOS app templates on Envato Market.
Step 1: master one of the most popular programming languages out there. Step 2: round out your skill set with Git, Bootstrap, D3.js, and Flask. Step 3: Snag your dream job, successfully ask for a raise, and be next in line for a promotion. Do it all with help from the Ultimate Python Coding Bundle, now $49 at SitePoint Shop.
This bundle comes with seven courses that teach you Python—and then help you master how to use it with Bootstrap, Git, D3.js, and Flask. You'll learn how to write maintainable and reusable code, how to create web layouts and elements like image carousels, how to resolve bugs, how to create data-driven apps, how to build an authentication and authorization system, and plenty more. You'll have lifetime access to all seven courses, so no pressure to cram.
Next step: a lucrative programming career you love. Get the Ultimate Python Coding Bundle for $49 at SitePoint Shop.
Continue reading %Learn Python & More from Scratch for $49%
