by via Awwwards - Sites of the day
Tuesday, July 5, 2016
LOCUS SOLUS
by via Awwwards - Sites of the day
Monday, July 4, 2016
Julie Maurel
Responsive One Pager with a smart off-canvas navigation menu for French consultant, Julie Maurel.
by Rob Hope via One Page Love
The Motivations For Sharing On Facebook [infographic]
The team at Fractl conducted a survey of 2,000 Facebook users and asked them about what they share on Facebook and why. And this infographic illustrates what they found:
Some takeaways:
“When survey respondents were asked about their primary motivation for sharing content on Facebook, the most popular reason (at 48 percent) was to entertain their friends. A slightly smaller group of respondents (17 percent) wanted to express the issues they cared about. In third place is evoking an emotional response (13 percent). In fourth: providing useful information (11 percent).”
by Irfan Ahmad via Digital Information World
5 ways to ace your next UX design interview
For the month of July, we’re talking careers! We want to help you get the tools and advice you need to get started in UX, or take your career to the next level. Look out for more posts on this topic, and don’t forget to join the conversation in the forums!
Job interviews are nerve-wracking at the best of times. Whether you’re just starting out in UX or need a little inspiration, here are five ways you can prepare to nail your next interview.
1. Your portfolio is everything (well, almost!)
Portfolios are the standard for showing work for designers. But the trouble with creating a UX design portfolio is that so much of what we do isn’t strictly visual. This makes it hard to showcase your work in a portfolio in the same way as a graphic designer or UI designer.
Because many UX designers come from a UI or graphic design background, many employers still expect to see a portfolio of your work. They often expect UX designers to have traditional design skills.
This attitude is starting to change, but even so, you need to a way to show your previous work. You just might need to get a bit creative. Here’s how:
Write about what you do
Blogging about UX design shows your knowledge of the field in a creative way that potential employers can easily understand. It demonstrates your passion for the field and helps you learn (and teach) difficult or new concepts. Try guest blogging for other UX design sites to boost your SEO and make your blog easier to find.
Create a website
A website is essential for employers to find you, and a platform to talk about the work you’ve done for previous clients. If your work wasn’t visual, present it in an engaging way using images, logos and photographs.
Wireframes
Wireframing is a visual element of UX design work, even if it’s not the prettiest or most polished part of what you do. Upload project wireframes to your website under client projects. This way you can show your interviewer the ‘back end’ of design – the thought that goes into the navigation, information architecture and user flow for each site.
2. Know what UX design means to you
It’s common to be asked about you define UX design in an interview, as it gives a clear insight into how you work, and how you’ll fit in with the rest of the team. If you’re a junior, you need to be able to work effectively with the company’s senior UX designer. For senior roles, your approach to the field shapes the company’s approach.
Where do you sit on the UX/UI debate?
A commonly used definition of UX design is:
“The process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving the usability, accessibility, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the user and the product.”
Compare that against a common definition of UI design:
“UI design is focused on the design of the actual interface elements that the user interacts with to accomplish a goal within an application.”
It’s useful to understand both, and where you sit on the continuum, as it helps to place you within the existing skills of the team. If there’s no UI designer, for example, you might be expected to work in this area too.
3. You are not an island
UX designers work with all sorts of people: user researchers, UI designers, content strategists, CEOs…
Teamwork and communication are core skills of a good UX designer – we work with lots of different types of people in this job. Interviewers need to see that you can explain complex concepts simply and clearly, and that you’re a team player.
If you’re the sole UX designer at a startup it’s likely you’ll be working with everybody – from the copywriter to the CEO herself. You’ll be responsible for seeing projects through from end to end, with the help of user groups, of course. If you’re lucky enough to be part of a large UX team, you’ll probably work with user researchers, UI designers, graphic designers and content strategists.
Whether flying solo or in a team of UXers, you’ll always have an ongoing dialogue with the web development team. They’ll work with you to scope out your ideas, plan your timelines and ultimately implement your designs.
4. Describe your unique process
Because there’s so much ambiguity surrounding UX design, it’s a good idea to talk your interviewer through how you work.
Try speaking on their terms, and explain (based on your research of the company) what you’d do if you worked there. This helps your prospective employer visualise you working there, which is handy trick that can help you land the job.
If you’re new to the field, a standard process can guide you until you’ve figured out exactly how you like to work.
The general UX design process involves:
- User research: Collating information from your target persona via interviews, user groups, surveys and questionnaires to understand the needs and behaviour of the user.
- Design: Structuring, labelling and organising content on the site (information architecture), wireframing, prototyping.
- Testing: Usability testing (observations, questionnaires, surveys), A/B testing, remote user testing.
- Implementation: Working with web developers and UI designers to get your design built and functioning.
5. Engage with your field online
Show your interviewer that you’re passionate about what you do. They want to see that you’re in it for more than paying the rent. In addition to blogging, make sure to mention blogs you read, influential people you follow and sites you admire for their UX design.
Need some inspiration? Here are a few of my favourites:
Blogs
Sites with great UX:
Influencers on Twitter
- Abby Covert @Abby_the_IA
- Jared M Spool @jmspool
- Whitney Hess @whitneyhess
- Karen McGrane @karenmcgrane
- Peter Merholz @peterme
- Liz Danzico @bobulate
Got a UX problem you want help with (career or otherwise)? Join UX Agony Aunt Ashlea McKay for our next “Ask Me Anything”. Midnight Wednesday 6 July PDT or 5pm Thursday 7 July AEST. Get all the details
The post 5 ways to ace your next UX design interview appeared first on UX Mastery.
by Rosie Allabarton via UX Mastery
5 Success Stories from the Emerging Internet of Things Market
A term describing the interconnectivity of multiple physical devices via the World Wide Web, the Internet Of Things (IoT) is often thrown around as a buzzword or hyped as a flashy trend.
But as of 2016, the importance of the IoT can no longer be ignored. The same technology that can be used to flush a toilet every time a toaster turns on can also be used for things like improving prenatal health care, preventing sports-related injuries, and enhancing our indoor air quality.
The following IoT products go beyond financial success by proving just how integral the IoT is becoming to our health and wellness.
1. BabyBe
When babies are born prematurely, they are often taken to a neonatal intensive care unit and put into an incubator. This reduces the risk of infection and helps maintain hydration. It’s essential for the baby’s survival, but there is a cost: The mother is unable to physically interact with her child.
The company BabyBe Medical believes there’s a better way. Using Intel’s Edison developer board, the BabyBe helps connect premature babies with their mothers by replicating the movement of the mother’s heartbeat and lungs for the baby.
The BabyBe is made up of three parts. The baby lies atop the Bionic Mattress, a pad comprised of air bladders and heating elements, and the mother holds the Turtle, a devices that mimics the feel of a baby’s body, against her chest. The Cradle, which sits beside the incubator, translates data from the Turtle into pneumatic actions for the Mattress.
Allowing premature babies to experience their mother’s movement and touch can expedite healing and development time, which means less time in the hospital, fewer hospital bills, and a more fulfilling mother-child bond.
2. Shockbox
While America’s Funniest Home Videos showed us just how much we all love watching children hurt themselves, sports-related concussions are a serious issue, and according to the National Athletic Trainer’s Association, sport-related concussions account for 58 percent of all emergency department visits in children aged 8 to 13. But in an IoT world, not even Bob Saget can get in the way of safety.
In 2011, a man named Scott Clark watched his 10-year-old son take a nasty hit during a hockey game. After wondering whether or not his son had a concussion, he decided to do something about solving that particular guessing game. So he co-founded Shockbox, a device that attaches to a player’s helmet and uses sensor technology and Bluetooth to measure head impacts. If the Shockbox records a hit hard enough to result in a potential concussion, it notifies coaches via their smartphones. It also tracks the time, date, hit direction, and force estimate of each impact, making it much easier for coaches to decide if and when to pull a player from the game.
In 2015, Shockbox was acquired by i1 Biometrics, a company dedicated to reducing sports injuries. With this additional backing, hopefully the Shockbox and other products like it will become the standard for collision sports.
3. Foobot
No, Foobot isn’t a Dave Grohl robot clone, although one can dream. It’s actually the first air monitoring system that both monitors and improves indoor air quality. Give me the best indeed.
Created by the European company Airboxlab, the Foobot is equipped with internal sensors that measure the levels of volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter in a user’s home. When levels reach a critical threshold, Foobot sends the data right to your smartphone, and by integrating with products like Amazon’s Echo, Alphabet’s Nest, and If This Then That (IFTTT), Foobot can turn your home into a smart home by adjusting air purifiers, filters, and other connected devices.
Launched in 2015, Foobot quickly won over consumers by achieving a 90 percent retention rate after three months. This may be due to the fact that Foobot is the most intelligent air monitoring system available, and anyone concerned about their air quality, their daily health, or allergies should consider letting a Foobot into their home.
Continue reading %5 Success Stories from the Emerging Internet of Things Market%
by Joshua Kraus via SitePoint
Web Design Weekly #242
Headlines
The Psychology of Color in Marketing and Branding
Gregory Ciotti, part of the marketing team at Help Scout, delves into the psychology of colour. For him, it is one of the most interesting, yet controversial, aspects of marketing. Whilst the article may raise more questions than answers for you, a clear takeaway is that the kaleidoscopic nature of color theory means we may never have definitive answers. Look at the research and find your own palette. (medium.com)
Matt Mullenweg Interview and Q&A from WordCamp Europe (wordpress.tv)
Sponsor Web Design Weekly and reach over 22,000 designers and developers
Articles
An Introduction To Redux
If you have been keeping an eye on the JavaScript landscape of late you would of seen Redux being mentioned an awful lot. It’s pretty neat and this post by Alex Bachuk is a great place to start learning how it all works if you haven’t had the chance yet. (smashingmagazine.com)
Improved Font Loading
Many web fonts are quite large, causing a long delay until the browser can use them. WebKit has mitigated this in two ways: improving font download policies, and making fonts download faster. (webkit.org)
Angular 2 – Best Practises to Level Up
A collation of 12 best practices and tips to help you write better and cleaner code when using Angular 2. (blog.budacode.com)
How Facebook Live Streams To 800,000 Simultaneous Viewers
This new Facebook feature allows people to share video in real-time. This post details the feature’s origin, problems it faces, its scabaility and much more. (highscalability.com)
Paul Irish discusses Progressive Web Metrics (youtube.com)
Tools / Resources
Content Jumping (and How To Avoid It)
A guide on why it happens, how to avoid it and some examples. This article is a good reminder that one of the most important things when designing any user experience is to keep expected behaviour in mind. If things don’t work as anticipated, it can be unpleasant, frustrating and even disorientating for the user. (css-tricks.com)
anime.js
Anime is a flexible lightweight JavaScript animation library. It works with CSS, Individual Transforms, SVG, DOM attributes and JS Objects. (anime-js.com)
Decorative Text Underline
Decorative Text Underline uses a combination of box-shadow and text-shadow to form a modest underline that preserves the element color and weaves between text descenders. (codepen.io)
Clips To Bounds – Episode 1 – Pull Requests (soundcloud.com)
Coloring emoji using CSS (codepen.io)
A Scrolling SVG Sunset (thenewcode.com)
Inspiration
React-powered Hacker News client (github.com)
CSS in 2016 and Beyond (youtube.com)
RandomFont (randomfont.com)
Jobs
Product Designer at Trello
We’re looking for a savvy product designer to join the Product Team at Trello. Your work will have an impact on how millions of people all over the world collaborate and organize their lives. (trello.com)
Need to find passionate developers or designers?Why not advertise in the next newsletter
From The Blog
Integration and Comparison for ES6
If you’re still writing JavaScript using ES5 and desire to author in ES6 fear not. Dennis Gaebel has you covered. He looks over some logical ways to start using this new syntactical sugar in your own work today. (web-design-weekly.com)
Last but not least…
The Languages Which Almost Became CSS (eager.io)
CaptionBot (captionbot.ai)
The post Web Design Weekly #242 appeared first on Web Design Weekly.
by Jake Bresnehan via Web Design Weekly
Tracking GPS data with the Tessel 2
The Tessel 2 is a JavaScript-focused microcontroller that has a range of pre-built modules you can attach to extend its functionality. In this article, we will explore what we can do when attaching a GPS module to a Tessel 2.
If you are new to working with the Tessel 2, I covered the basics of getting started with the Tessel 2 earlier this year. Have a read of that first to get a grip on the basics of setting up the Tessel on your Wi-Fi and pushing code to it. It also teaches you how to make the LEDs on your Tessel blink like crazy. Very valuable skills to know!
Connecting the GPS Module
To bring some GPS functionality to your Tessel, connect it up to port A on your Tessel 2 — this is the one closest to the USB power connector:
As you can see above, you'll want to connect it with the large bulky rectangle bit and electrical components facing up. If you look at the pin connectors, you will see one which says GND — that should match with the GND on the Tessel 2's port A. Basically, there are plenty of telltale signs if you are connecting it incorrectly!
Starting Our GPS Tessel App
Create a folder for your Tessel app called "gps" (or whatever name you'd prefer). Go to that folder in your Terminal/Command Prompt and type the following to initialize a new project:
[code language="bash"]
t2 init
[/code]
Then, run the following command in npm to install the GPS module:
[code language="bash"]
npm install gps-a2235h
[/code]
gps-a2235h should match the name on your GPS module (this is important to note, in case future GPS modules are a little different).
If you find you get an error message like this:
[code language="bash"]
> cd examples ; pakmanager build || echo 'Could not build pakmanager package. Please make sure pakmanager is globally installed'
sh: pakmanager: command not found
Could not build pakmanager package. Please make sure pakmanager is globally installed
[/code]
You'll want to install that globally first like so (and then attempt the gps module installation again):
[code language="bash"]
npm install pakmanager -g
[/code]
Our Tessel's JavaScript
Our Tessel 2 JavaScript code is relatively simple and looks like so:
[code language="javascript"]
var tessel = require("tessel"),
gpsLib = require("gps-a2235h"),
gps = gpsLib.use(tessel.port["A"]),
WebSocket = require('ws'),
ws = new WebSocket('ws://192.168.0.30:5000'),
latestCoords;
gps.setCoordinateFormat({
'format': 'deg-dec'
});
gps.on('ready', function() {
console.log('GPS module now searching for satellites...');
gps.on('coordinates', function(coords) {
console.log('Lat:', coords.lat, '\tLon:', coords.lon, '\tTimestamp:', coords.timestamp);
latestCoords = coords.lat + ',' + coords.lon;
});
gps.on('fix', function(data) {
console.log(data.numSat, 'fixed.');
});
gps.on('dropped', function(){
console.log('GPS signal dropped');
});
});
gps.on('error', function(err){
console.log('GPS Error: ', err);
});
ws.on('open', function() {
setInterval(function() {
if (latestCoords !== undefined) {
console.log('Trying to send coords of ' + latestCoords);
try {
ws.send(latestCoords, function ack(error) {
console.log('Error detected while sending: ' + error);
});
} catch (e) {
console.log('Error caught while sending: ' + error);
}
} else {
console.log('No coords coming through');
}
}, 10000);
});
[/code]
Let's go over what is actually happening here. We start by requiring the Tessel module and our GPS' module:
[code language="javascript"]
var tessel = require("tessel"),
gpsLib = require("gps-a2235h"),
[/code]
We then set up the GPS module by telling it which port our Tessel's physical GPS module is located in. I placed mine in port A, which I defined like so:
[code language="javascript"]
gps = gpsLib.use(tessel.port["A"]),
[/code]
In order to send data back and forth between our Tessel and our server, we will be using WebSockets. Due to the wonderful fact that the Tessel 2 runs JavaScript and npm modules, we can run the commonly used ws WebSocket module on the Tessel. We add in the ws module and set it up to watch for our server location. I ran this all locally, with my Mac running the Node server connected to my 4G router and my Tessel also connected to the same 4G router. This allowed me to directly use an IP address to refer to the server.
[code language="javascript"]
WebSocket = require('ws'),
ws = new WebSocket('ws://192.168.0.30:5000'),
[/code]
If you wanted to have this run over the web, you could host this on a publicly accessible server and change the WebSocket set up to:
[code language="javascript"]
ws = new WebSocket('ws://www.myfancynodeserver.com'),
[/code]
Continue reading %Tracking GPS data with the Tessel 2%
by Patrick Catanzariti via SitePoint
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