September 22, 2014 — Are you a web designer or developer who dreams about creating a mobile game and bringing it to the app store? We have good news: Your road to the app store might be shorter than you think! And if you can recall your experience with ActionScript and the Flash platform from … Read More…

September 22, 2014 — Similarity and contrast, connection and separation, grouped and ungrouped are all ways to describe the varying sameness and difference between elements. Based on the information they carry, we’ll want some elements to look similar, to indicate that they are related in some … Read More…

September 19, 2014 — As mobile designers, we have a stark decision to make: do we spend time learning new tools and changing our design processes to create our own transitional interfaces, or are the tools that we’ve been using good enough? There’s an old writing adage that advises … Read More…

September 18, 2014 — Having addressed the information architecture and the various systems of navigation in the first two articles of this series, the last step is to efficiently simplify the navigation experience — specifically, by carefully designing interaction with the navigation menu. Read More…

September 17, 2014 — What is a product manager? What do product managers do all day? Most importantly, why do companies need to hire them? Good questions. Well, the first confusion we have to clear up is what we mean by “product.” Read More…

September 16, 2014 — The creative process takes a lot of time, and web designers know it. When you factor in feedback from clients, the process takes even longer: numerous emails, revision notes, chats and meetings — that’s what it normally takes to find out precisely what the client … Read More…

September 15, 2014 — To you, modal windows might be a blessing of additional screen real estate, providing a way to deliver contextual information, notifications and other actions relevant to the current screen. On the other hand, modals might feel like a hack that you’ve been forced to commit … Read More…

September 12, 2014 — The internal systems of many organizations have shocking user interfaces. This costs companies in productivity, training and even the customer experience. Fortunately, we can fix this. Read More…

September 10, 2014 — In a previous article, I discussed using POP to create sketch-based clickthrough prototypes in participatory design exercises. These prototypes capture well the flow and overall layout of early design alternatives. The same piece briefly mentioned another category of … Read More…

September 8, 2014 — Today Smashing Magazine turns eight years old. Eight years is a long time on the web, yet for us it really doesn’t feel like a long journey at all. Things have changed, evolved and moved on, and we gratefully take on new challenges one at a time. To mark this special … Read More…