Over the past decade, there has been a seismic shift towards conversational interfaces. As people reach ‘peak screen’ and even begin to scale back their device usage with digital wellbeing features being baked into most operating systems. To combat screen fatigue, voice assistants have entered the market to become a preferred option for quickly retrieving information. A well-repeated stat states that 50% of searches will be done by voice in year 2020.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/voice-skills-google-assistant-amazon-alexa/

With the year slowly coming to an end, now is probably a great time to slow down and be mindful. Look back, reflect, breathe. It’s been a long year for all of us, so why not make yourself a good cuppa coffee or tea (whatever your preference is, there are other options, of course), and think about what your personal highlights were and set out some hopes and goals for the upcoming year to come.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/monthly-roundup-12-2019/

Many UX designers are somewhat afraid of data, believing it requires deep knowledge of statistics and math. Although that may be true for advanced data science, it is not true for the basic research data analysis required by most UX designers. Since we live in an increasingly data-driven world, basic data literacy is useful for almost any professional — not just UX designers. Aaron Gitlin, interaction designer at Google, argues that many designers are not yet data-driven:

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/quantitative-data-tools-uxdesigners/

It’s increasingly common to see websites built using the JAMstack — that is, websites that can be served as static HTML files built from JavaScript, Markup, and APIs. Companies love the JAMstack because it reduces infrastructure costs, speeds up delivery, and lowers the barriers for performance and security improvements because shipping static assets removes the need for scaling servers or keeping databases highly available (which also means there are no servers or databases that can be hacked).

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/dynamic-async-functionality-jamsstack-websites/

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, we’re talking about variable fonts. What are they, how do they differ from regular fonts, and how can they help in the design and performance of our websites? Drew McLellan talks to a font of knowledge on the matter, Jason Pamental. Show Notes Weekly update: Brand Illustration Systems: Drawing A Strong Visual Identity Struggling To Get A Handle On Traffic Surges Building A CSS Layout: Live Stream With Rachel Andrew Web Design And Development Advent Roundup For 2019 Should Your Portfolio Site Be A PWA?

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/smashing-podcast-episode-5/

Drawing can instantly lower barriers and make communication with a client much easier. Having a face-to-face meeting with your client can cause anxiety for those of us that push pixels for a living, but even the simplest kind of sketching can help. On top of drawing, let’s take a few clues from a meeting rockstar: Priya Parker. Author of the book “The Art of Gathering” and TED Talk speaker, Priya Parker is a proponent of making gatherings (and meetings!

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/live-sketching-site-visitor-journey-sitemap-client/

Tuesday, December 3, was the official release date for Inclusive Components, and the reception has been overwhelmingly positive. The book is already an essential resource for accessibility experts and developers. You Had Me At “Inclusive!” As the book makes its way to offices, doorsteps, and accessibility meetups all over the world, here are just a few of the mentions we’ve seen so far. 332 pages. Quality hardcover with a stitched binding and ribbon page marker.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/inclusive-components-book-reviews/

This is going to seem like an odd thing to suggest, considering how much work is required to build a progressive web app instead of a responsive website. But, for many of you, your portfolio site should be built as a PWA. There are a number of benefits to doing this, which I’ll outline below, but the bottom line is this: If you want to spend less time looking for clients, applying to design gigs and convincing prospects to hire you, a PWA would be a wise investment for your business.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/should-your-portfolio-site-be-pwa/

In the run-up to Christmas, there is a tradition across the web design and development community to produce advent calendars, typically with a new article or resource for each day of December. Last year, I did a roundup of these calendars, and now that the 2019 season is in full swing, here is this year’s line-up. I’m sure you’ll notice that the majority of the calendars published here are true community efforts, often with the bulk of the work falling to an individual or tiny team, with no budget to pay authors and editors.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/web-design-development-advent-roundup-2019/

We’re opening up our Smashing TV webinars to everyone, and today you’re welcome to follow along as Rachel Andrew builds a layout using CSS Grid and Flexbox. In the session, Rachel will be building a component of a layout, talking through her thinking as she does so. Is Flexbox or Grid the right method to use? How will the component respond to different screen sizes? And, what about those old browsers?

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/building-a-css-layout-live-stream-rachel-andrew/

(This is a sponsored article.) When a traffic spike hits, you want your website to be able to ride the wave instead of drown beneath it. But how do you do that without constantly overspending on server resources in anticipation of a traffic surge that may or may not happen? Part of it comes down to knowing how to read your data really well so that you can predict upcoming upticks (or slumps) in traffic.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/struggling-handle-traffic-surges/

In the flood of online content, companies live or die by their brand image. A brand image has to express the company’s message and connect with users, who should instantly recognize it across different media, even away from the company’s website and marketing content. A strong brand image is like an anchor, helping ensure user attachment and fix value associations. Brand image is typically built up from different visual elements — logos, color palette, a particular font.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/brand-illustration-systems-visual-identity/

A sales funnel is a set of invisible steps you lay before visitors that takes them from the point of entry to the desired action. There are three stages in a sales funnel: Top of the funnel (TOF), Middle of the funnel (MOF), Bottom of the funnel (BOF). Why do we call these three stages a funnel? Because, together, they form a funnel-like shape: A sales funnel and its three key stages: top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, bottom-of-funnel marketing.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/design-profitable-sales-funnels-mobile/

In this tutorial series, we will build a web-based multiplayer virtual reality game, where players will need to collaborate to solve a puzzle. In the first part of this series, we designed the orbs featured in the game. In this part of the series, we will add game mechanics and setup communication protocols between pairs of players. The game description here is excerpted from the first part of the series: Each pair of players is given a ring of orbs.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/real-time-multiplayer-virtual-reality-game-part-2/

This article is about creating limits and rules to follow throughout the entire design process. There is an unlimited number of ways in which you can combine elements in a user interface — and so you’ll need to set some rules and boundaries, or else the design workflow might become an unpleasant chore. You might be struggling with all of the possibilities and trying to pick the best option among many “correct” options.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/ui-design-tips-speed-up-workflow/

Front-end accessibility is still somewhat mysterious these days. How do we build accessible buttons and dropdowns? What about keyboard-friendly tooltips, tabs and notifications? Or inclusive accordions, sliders, data tables and modals? Let’s figure it out together. Meet Inclusive Components, our new handbook for building fully accessible digital products. Download a free sample PDF (1.1 MB). Heydon Pickering." Print + eBook eBook Print + eBook { "

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/inclusive-components-release/

Cookie consent prompts, push notifications, app install prompts, video autoplays and annoying pop-ups. Every time we enter a new site, it feels like a fight against all the annoying marketing messages endlessly streaming at us. If you’ve wondered why a product you looked up in a search engine one day keeps showing up in all your social channels over and over just a few hours later, that’s the power of data collection and retargeting at play.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/privacy-ux-live-session-vitaly-friedman/

In this episode of the Smashing Podcast, Drew McLellan talks to Heydon Pickering about his new book, Inclusive Components. Heydon is known for his work and writing on Accessibility, so what is Inclusive Design, and where do components come into play? Heydon eplains all this and more in this episode. You can listen below, or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Show Notes The book Inclusive Components from Smashing Magazine Heydon’s project Every Layout with Andy Bell Heydon’s website Heydonworks Heydon on Twitter Transcript Drew McLellan: He’s a freelance web accessibility consultant, interface designer and writer.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/smashing-podcast-episode-4/

One of the major requirements working for a team or an open-source project is using a version control system (VCS). Git is a free and open-source distributed version control system for tracking source code changes during software development. It’s been created by Linus Torvalds in 2005 for the development of the Linux kernel. It is easy to learn and has a tiny footprint with lightning fast performance. There is a big chance you have already used Git (since it is one of the most popular and well-adopted VCS tools available in the development community), and you most probably already have some knowledge about staging and committing your code by pushing and pulling it from a remote repository.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/12/git-hooks-team-development-workflow/

As the year is coming to a close, many of us feel rushed, trying to meet deadlines, finishing off projects, and preparing for the holidays. Do you remember what December felt like when you were little? It was a time of wonder and expectation, a time to slow down and enjoy the small things: watching the first snowflakes fall, drinking hot chocolate, and admiring the Christmas decorations in your neighborhood, for example.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/11/desktop-wallpaper-calendars-december-2019/