Sharing React Components Easily with Bit

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Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/sharing-react-components-easily-bit/

This is the age of components. Frameworks built for UI components, such as React, enable us to split our UI into individual, reusable pieces that can be worked with in isolation.

In many ways, React components are not that different from other encapsulated code functionalities. They can get defined inputs (usually “props” or ES6 classes) and return UI-oriented elements that will appear as part of your UI.

Individual components are often used across different parts of our UI. The problem is, organizing and sharing our components across teams and applications often presents a real challenge. Sharing components can give us fast and simple access to components written and used by our team, and help make sure our codebase is made of nothing but what we actually need.

Bit is an open-source project that enables us to instantly share components from our existing source code with our team, and use them across our different projects without changing our source code, file structure or the tools we work with. Let’s see how.

Managing code components with Bit

Sharing Components: It’s Not That Simple

Three major issues stand in the way of easily organizing and sharing source-code components: discoverability, maintainability, and the overhead of sharing.

Discoverability is a major issue. A developer working on my team on or a different team has no way of easily discovering and browsing the components available throughout our source code when choosing, upgrading or installing the ones they need with the tools of their choice.

Maintainability is another problem while sharing common components across different parts of our application. Maintainability problems range from simple duplications, to the complexity of maintaining multiple repos and packages and keeping control over the dependency chain. This can quickly get out of hand.

Up until now, sharing our components was a bit of a challenge. It forced us to either duplicate code or invest a lot of time and effort maintaining large packages — which also weigh down our build and install time.

When trying to find and use an individual React component (Slider, Spinner etc.) we usually ended up installing vast static libraries containing a whole bunch of stuff we didn’t need. It also made it next to impossible to discover or use individual components created by our team or the community.

In some ways, this is very much like using a CD-ROM just to listen to a single song. Using Bit, we can easily share any set of components, making them individually available to anyone on our team.

Sharing Components with Bit

If you haven’t heard of Bit’s latest release, it’s an open-source project that allows us to share components from our existing source code with our team and across projects.

By decoupling the representation of components from our actual file structure, Bit tracks the components within our source code and enables us to quickly turn any file or subset of files into a reusable component. Using simple glob patterns (see below), the components within an entire library or project can be instantly shared without changing our source code itself or our file structure.

Any component (installed with Bit, and very soon with NPM or Yarn) can be individually shared, discovered and used in any application or project. It can also be modified and updated from any project environment, choosing if and how to let our friends update our components from their own projects (and vice versa).

A Netflix hero banner, showing featured content

Components can be grouped together into “Scopes”, which are collections that can be thought of as “playlists” of individual components sharing common attributes. When using the free Bit community site, each component is presented along with its rendered visuals, test results, semi-automatically generated docs and more.

Regardless of the tools we use to install our components, we can gain full control over our dependency graph and get a clear picture of the components used across our projects. Sharing code can also help keep our UI aligned with our design principles, as we can avoid changes when implementing the same components again and again in different projects.

Let’s try an example.

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Free Profile GUI PSDs for Social Networking Sites

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Original Source: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/social-networking-profile-psds/

Freebie PSDs are the norm amongst web designers. We love to share and the community is built around helping designers improve their workflow with pre-made graphics. There’s no need to reinvent…

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

Seattle Aquarium Redesign by Adobe Creative Resident Natalie Lew

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/c85IhY91LbQ/seattle-aquarium-redesign-adobe-creative-resident-natalie-lew

Seattle Aquarium Redesign by Adobe Creative Resident Natalie Lew

Seattle Aquarium Redesign by Adobe Creative Resident Natalie Lew

ibby
Sep 25, 2017

It’s our final day posting about the Adobe Creative Resident Class of 2017 and we’re thrilled to feature the work of Seattle-based interaction designer, Natalie Lew. A designer with a passion for thinking of ways future technologies like augmented reality and artificial intelligence can be used in the classroom to teach intangible concepts, we were particularly captured by Natalie’s work for the Seattle Aquarium Redesign. The project entailed attracting those who have visited the Seattle Aquarium before to see the site in a new light, and for those yet to go to the attraction to see aquariums themselves in a unique way. Natalie created a beautiful new visual identity for the aquarium, applied that identity to the branding of the design, and designed a new service application to aid those visiting the site. Check out Natalie’s journey for the aquarium redesign below and learn more about this rising star and what inspires her here. 

Designing the App Experience

This is an application intended for a user about to visit the exhibit or already within the exhibit. It does not intend for the aquarium to offer more than it already does; rather, it simply facilitates the activities and exhibits and the aquarium in current existence.

Wireframes and Navigation

Further Branding

As the identity of the Seattle Aquarium relies on far more than just visual UI, Natalie created mockups of what Out of Home advertising might look like, as well as their website and catalogue for print viewing.

MORE ABOUT ADOBE CREATIVE RESIDENT NATALIE LEW

An interaction designer and recent graduate, Natalie Lew of Seattle is passionate about the intersections of design and philosophy. Her interdisciplinary background in design inspires her residency project, in which she’ll create a toolkit of resources to make user experience design more accessible and available to the creative community.  She plans to start a design studio in the future, so she’ll challenge herself to learn more about working in individual and group settings while constantly receiving and improving based on feedback. 
 

Natalie Lew
interaction design
Adobe Creative Resident


All Things Monochrome and How To Use It For Your Design Project

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/bf8ymEOC2IM/monochrome-design-project

The thought of making a project design using monochromatic colors could be intimidating at first, but take heed, because it can lead to a compelling aesthetics and visuals. Monochromatic colors are always a hot concept and work well with different design projects. In this article, we’ll explore the unique beauty of monochromatic colors and understand […]

The post All Things Monochrome and How To Use It For Your Design Project appeared first on designrfix.com.

When Slower UX is Better UX

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Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2017/09/when-slower-ux-is-better-ux/

When it comes to technology, faster isn’t always better. 

It’s true that 47 percent of people want web pages to load in two seconds or less (and 40 percent abandon sites that take three seconds to load). But when load times drop significantly below that two-second threshold, users start to get skeptical.

To understand why, put yourself in the shoes of someone checking his credit score. In the past, he may have spent hours on the phone to get even one bureau’s credit report. Now, using an app, he can get all three reports in mere seconds with just a few taps.

Yes, the app is fast, and yes, from an objective perspective, it’s user-friendly. Its designers clearly did their homework. But does he trust the app’s results? Is it a scam? Did the program really gather all three reports, check them for errors, and present them in a matter of seconds?

No way, he might think. Given his past experience, he’d be perfectly reasonable in thinking that the app couldn’t possibly have done it that quickly.

When Slower Software Works

In most cases, a speedy user experience makes sense. Optimization is important, and frankly, most sites need more of it, not less.

But there are certain situations in which a slower UX can actually increase user trust and engagement. Consider slowing your software in order to:

1. Create Security Theater

When you fly, the Transportation Security Administration’s job isn’t just to make you safer; it’s also to make you feel safer. This same labor of illusion is what made you confident when filing your taxes with TurboTax earlier this year. Intuit created fake animated loading bars that show that it triple-checking your returns for errors even though it actually does so along the way.

Slowing down this stressful process tells users that TurboTax is working hard for them and that they can trust it with sensitive information. Facebook provides random security checks for a similar reason: By drawing attention to something that’s already happening behind the scenes, Facebook gives users confidence that their data is secure.

When, exactly, should you provide a security-show slowdown? One might be in order if the user has provided sensitive information (such as a social security number or home address), paid money to use your service, or engaged deeply with it.

For example, imagine a home-finding startup. Rather than you doing the legwork of finding the perfect home, the startup’s app handles it for you. Because it costs money and requires personal information, it’s imperative that it slow the process down. In order to build trust, the app should explain why it needs your sensitive data, how it will use that information, and assure you that it will keep your information safe. A free messaging app, on the other hand, needs no such slowdown. Its goal is merely to gain and keep its users through a seamless experience with the least number of barriers.

2. Educate Users About Modern Tech Speeds

Thanks to Moore’s Law and the maturation of connected devices, many modern technology products are fast and efficient with little perceived latency. Mobile computing and network speeds are remarkably quick compared to even five years ago.

But with so many users accustomed to spotty internet service, old technologies, and buggy software, fast operating speeds can cause them to worry about whether your product is working correctly. Wells Fargo’s eye scan technology, for example, was so quick that users didn’t believe it was doing what it said it was. The developers artificially slowed the process by strategically including scanning and authenticating progress bars. 

Slowing your product to match user expectations should, however, be a stopgap solution. Look for opportunities to educate users on today’s software speeds. Within the product itself, explain how your software is faster than ever. 

Facebook, again, provides an illustrative example. Ever notice how it pushes temporary notifications into your newsfeed following a product update? Each update mentions how Facebook is constantly working hard to improve the platform’s speed.

In your own product, take it one step further and include a call to action to allow users to provide feedback. Have an FAQ ready (or, even better, live support) to respond to this feedback and help users understand what’s really happening behind the scenes of your software.

3. Work Within System Constraints

Keep in mind that not all devices are connected to fast internet providers. Your product’s users might be of modest means or live in rural areas, or your own server infrastructure might not be up to snuff.

Either way, progress indicators such as loading bars can remind users that your product is still working on their request. For example, FirstRand Bank Limited of South Africa baked an artificial progress bar into its web interface. Because its infrastructure is outdated and slow, information can’t be displayed as quickly as it could, say, in Wells Fargo’s app.

Again, consider the user’s experience. If you’re a FirstRand customer staring at a blank screen for 15 seconds after clicking a button, wouldn’t you try checking your connection and refreshing the request? Unfortunately, these actions only make the bottleneck worse.

A fake loading bar might not be the ideal solution, but it’s better than providing no feedback at all. Animation to show that your software is handling the user’s request provides relief for both your servers and your users.

Speeding Up or Slowing Down?

All this talk of slowing down software requires some historical context. System limitations and users’ past experiences may be slowing things down, but on the whole, technology is pushing toward faster user experiences.

The more time that elapses, the more long-term tech users we’ll have. The more long-term tech users become accustomed to instantaneous results, the less UX designers will need to slow down their technologies. The faster technologies work — and, importantly, work correctly — the more users will trust them. Meanwhile, younger generations without the preconceived notions of their parents will grow into adults who are accustomed to seamless technological experiences.

Older generations who aren’t comfortable with technology still exist, however, and two people of different demographics rarely have the same comfort levels with the same technologies. Today, intentionally slowing down certain product scenarios can help older users feel comfortable with what’s happening to their data.

When slow systems (by today’s standards) are gone and people are used to instantaneous results, how much systems reveal to us about their back-end operations may become a question of personal freedom. As humans, we want to feel in control. Choices are comforting.

Ultimately, speed is important, but so is matching users’ expectations. No matter how fast we move into the future, slowing down will never go out of style.

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The 40 best free web fonts

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/j-SCh_lXXkA/free-web-fonts-1131610

It's time-consuming to cut through the ocean of free fonts online, especially web fonts, to find the real gems that punch above their price tag. With this in mind, we've rounded up the greatest free web fonts from around the internet to get you started.

There are various methods to source and license web fonts, including subscription-based models such as Typekit and Fontspring, which boast libraries of quality typefaces that are becoming increasingly popular with professional designers.

If you're on a tight budget, however, or are just looking to experiment on a smaller project, there are plenty of good web fonts available at no cost if you know where to look. 

Luckily, we've done the hard work for you, and have put together this list of the best free web fonts around at the moment. There's a broad selection so there should be something here to suit every project. Don't forget to check out our articles on How to use webfonts and How to choose the right typeface for your brand, to help you out.

01. Archivo Narrow

Archivo Narrow is built for high performance typography

Designed by Héctor Gatti and Omnibus-Type Team, Archivo Narrow consists of four fonts with 416 glyphs each. It is designed to be portable and can be used across both print and digital platforms, and its technical and aesthetic characteristics of this typeface are both crafted for high performance typography. 

And if you like its style, Archivo Black, a heavyweight grotesque designed for highlights and headlines, is also available.

02. Palanquin

Palanquin has seven weights plus a heavier display family

A Unicode-compliant Latin and Devanagari text type family designed for the digital age, Palanquin is a versatile font family that strikes a balance between typographic conventions and visual flair. It consists of seven text weights and can be extended with a heavier display family, Palanquin Dark.

If you'd like to contribute to the Palanquin project you can find it here on GitHub.

03. Ostrich Sans

Ostrich Sans is a gorgeous modern sans-serif, available in a variety of styles and weights

Available from The League of Moveable Type, free web font Ostrich Sans is a gorgeous modern sans-serif with a very long neck. The family comes complete with a number of styles and weights, including dash, rounded, ultra light, normal and black.

04. PT Sans

PT Sans is based on Russian sans serif types of the second part of the 20th century

PT Sans was developed for the project Public Types of Russian Federation. Based on Russian sans serif types of the second part of the 20th century, free web font PT Sans also incorporates distinctive features of contemporary humanistic designs. 

PT Sans was designed by Alexandra Korolkova, Olga Umpeleva and Vladimir Yefimov and released by ParaType in 2009.

05. Fira Sans

Free web fonts: Fira Sans

Fira Sans was created by legendary type designer Erik Spiekermann

Free web font Fira Sans was created by legendary type designer Erik Spiekermann, with additional contributions from Carrois Type Design. 

Designed to integrate with the character of the Mozilla FirefoxOS, the Fira family aims to cover the legibility needs for a large range of handsets varying in screen quality and rendering.

06. Montserrat

free web fonts: montserrat

Montserrat is inspired by the urban typography of the region in Buenos Aires

Julieta Ulanovsky created this font because she wanted to preserve the beautiful typography she saw on the street signage in Montserrat, Buenos Aires. As the area is developed, the old posters and signs are lost. 

This font is distributed under an open source license and goes some way toward preserving the urban typography of the historic region.

07. Abril Fatface

free web fonts: abril fatface

Perfect for arresting headlines

Abril Fatface is part of a big type family that has 18 styles designed for all kinds of uses. Fatface has a strong, elegant presence that makes for striking headlines. It's commonly paired with Lato, Open Sans and Droid Sans.

08. Playfair Display

free web fonts: playfair display

Great for squeezing into tight spots

With its extra large x-height and short descenders Playfair Display is particularly suited to headlines, especially if space is tight. It works well with Georgia, and you’ll also see it used with Oswald, Lato and Arvo.

09. GT Walsheim

Free web fonts: GT Walksheim

GT Walsheim is a popular choice for design blogs

Used by many design blogs these days, GT Walsheim is a geometric sans-serif typeface designed by Noël Leu and released in 2010 through Swiss foundry Grilli Type. 

You have to pay for the full font family, but Grillit Type kindly offers GT Walsheim as a free trial, so you can try before you buy.

10. Merriweather

Free web fonts: Merriweather

A good choice for long reads on screens

If readability on screens is a priority in your project you might reach for Merriweather, which was designed especially for this purpose. Merriweather is always evolving, and you can request features and stay up to date by checking creator Eben Sorkin's blog.

11. Josefin Sans

Free web fonts: josefin sans

Josefin Sans captures something of the Swedish design style

Josefin Sans was drawn with vintage Swedish design in mind, and has a geometric, elegant aesthetic. The letter z has a distinctive 'haircut', which was inspired by New Universal Typeface Newut from André Baldinger.

12. Gravitas One

Free web fonts: Gravitas One

This web font will be perfect for headers and tabs

Designed by Riccardo De Franceschi, Gravitas One is modelled on the 'UK fat face' – a heavy advertising type created during the industrial revolution in England. 

This is a font that'll look great in a medium to large scale; perfect for headers, tabs and striking titles.

13. Jura

Free web fonts: Jura

Jura comes in four different weights, so will work well almost anywhere!

Daniel Johnson wanted to create a Roman alphabet using the same kinds of strokes and curves as the Kayah Li glyphs. Jura was born and has been expanded to include glyphs for the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets. 

It's available in light, book, medium, and demibold weights.

14. League Gothic

Free web fonts League Gothic

The League of Moveable Type delivers another stellar web font

Originally designed by Morris Fuller Benton for the American Type Founders Company in 1903, League Gothic has been given a new lease of life thanks to The League of Moveable Type. 

Thanks to a commission from WND.com, it's been revised and updated with contributions from Micah Rich, Tyler Finck, and Dannci, who have contributed the extra glyphs.

15. Fjord

Free web fonts Fjord

Fjord is perfect for content on the web

Fjord is a serif typeface, originally designed with printed books in mind, and particularly intended for long texts in small print sizes. This will look great for your longer content on the web as it features sturdy construction, prominent serifs, low-contrast modulation and long elegant ascenders and descenders relative to the 'x' height.

16. Amaranth

Free web fonts Amaranth

Play around with Amaranth and see what works for your site

The Amaranth family is a friendly upright italic design with a slight contrast and distinctive curves. With its three new styles Amaranth works really well with almost any text type. This is a font perfect for playing around with – see what works!

17. Gentium Basic

Free web fonts Gentium Basic

The free web font Gentium Basic was designed as a multilingual face

Released under the SIL Open Font License, Victor Gaultney's serif was designed specifically as a multilingual face, incorporating Latin, Cyrillic and Greek scripts and advanced support in the Gentium Plus version. 

Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic are both available as free web fonts, but are restricted to a Latin character set.

18. Open Sans

Free web fonts Open Sans

This free web font is crisp, clean and optimised for web and mobile

Designed by Steve Matteson, type director at Ascender Corp, this humanist sans serif boasts great legibility even at small sizes, and has been optimized for both web and mobile interfaces. This free web font has an upright feel, with open letterforms and a neutral-yet-friendly appearance that ensures versatility.

19. Signika

Free web fonts Signika

The free web font Signika was designed with clarity in mind

In the tradition set by the likes of Meta and Tahoma, Anna Giedry's designed Signika with signage and wayfinding in mind, where clarity is key. This free web font is a sans serif with low contrast and a tall x-height, qualities that translate well onto screen. Its wide character set includes small caps, pictograms, and arrows.

20. Josefin Slab

Free web fonts Josefin Slab

The x-height of this free web font is half its caps height

Drawing on the trend for 1930s-style geometric typefaces with some added Scandinavian flavour, Santiago Orozco's distinctive slab serif brings a distinctive 'typewriter' feel to its sans serif counterpart, and this free web font is perhaps best suited to display use. Unusually, Josefin's x-height is half that of its caps height.

21. Forum

Free web fonts Forum

This free web font is particularly effective for all-caps headlines

As its name implies, this is a grand Ancient Roman-style serif that is particularly distinctive as a display font used all-caps for headlines, although works stylishly as a sentence-case text face at slightly larger sizes. This free web font's elegant proportions are reminiscent of classical architecture, with semi-circular arches, horizontal cornices, and vertical columns.

Next page: 20 more great free web fonts…

22. Tikal Sans

Free web fonts Tikal Sans

This free web font takes its name from the Mayans’ main city

Taking its name from the Mayans' most prominent city, Tikal Sans' characterful sharp-ended strokes are influenced by glyphs that were used by the South American civilization. Foundry Latinotype gave this web font a large, contemporary-feeling x-height for both legibility and friendly appeal, while its multiple weights ensure maximum versatility.

Note: currently only medium and medium italic are available free.

23. Arvo

Free web fonts Arvo

Good arvo, mate! And a very good web font, too…

Equally suited to both print and web, Anton Koovit's geometric slab serif is available in Roman, Italic, Roman Bold, and Bold Italic. Although this free web font has an almost uniform stroke width, Arvo's very slight contrast adds to its character – and it's also carefully hinted to enhance its on-screen readability.

24. Bevan

Free web fonts Bevan

Ultra-bold web fonts don’t always translate to screens, but this one does

This is Vernon Adams' reimagining of a traditional 1930s slab serif by Heinrich Jost. The letterforms have been digitised, reshaped and optimised for the web, with more open counters and stronger stems to ensure that Bevan functions as an ultra-bold display font that suits modern browsers.

25. Old Standard TT

Free web fonts Old Standard TT

This web font has a very ‘scientific document’ feel to it

Revisiting the Modern (classicist) serif style that was widespread in the late 19th and early 20th century but later abandoned, this style is well suited to giving style and heritage to particular types of content, such as scientific papers, or for setting Greek or Cyrillic type. The name counterbalances the ‘New Standard’ (Obyknovennaya Novaya) used in much Soviet typography.

26. Kreon

Free web fonts Kreon

This is a personality-packed web font which is great for blogs

Ideally suited to magazine and news websites, as well as blogs, this characterful serif by Julia Petretta has a slight slab feel to it, but its balanced, low-contrast letterforms convey considerably more personality than a more neutral typewriter-style web font might, making it ideal for headlines. Sans serif and italic versions are currently in development.

27. Droid Sans

Free web fonts Droid sans

Droid web font is ideal for mobile screens, hence the name

A digital-focused typeface by Ascender Corp’s type director Steve Matteson, Droid Sans has been optimised for maximum readability at small sizes for user interfaces – particularly menus on mobile phone screens (hence the Android-referencing name). It has an upright stress with open letterforms, and balances a neutral feel with a friendly touch.

28. Italiana

Free web fonts Italiana

This elegant web font adds a touch of class to any site

Another web font geared up for setting newspaper or magazine headlines, which makes it useful for carrying a brand seamlessly across print and digital. Mexico-based designer Santiago Orozco was inspired by traditional Italian calligraphy, and accordingly is well suited to projects that need a touch of elegance and Continental style. Development is ongoing, and Orozco welcomes feedback.

29. Vollkorn

Free web fonts Vollkorn

Hardworking web font Vollkorn is its designer’s first attempt as a typeface

Considering it's Friedrich Althausen's first attempt at typeface design, this hardworking, multi-purpose serif (the name is German for 'wholemeal') is a considerable accomplishment, and has been downloaded thousands of times. Its chunky, well-defined serifs give it confidence and energy that make it equally effective at large sizes for headlines or titles, or for larger passages of text.

30. Actor

Free web fonts Actor

The free web font Actor has very distinctive 6s and 9s

Like Poly, this free web font emerged from a university project – this time by Thomas Junold while he was studying at Aachen University of Applied Sciences at Karl-Friedrich (Kai) Oetzbach. It has a particularly high x-height that calls for generous line spacing, and also features old-style figures, with 6 and 9 particularly unique.

31. Lato

Free web fonts Lato

This free web font is published under the Open Font License

A sans serif family created by Polish designer Łukasz Dziedzic, Lato is published under the open-source Open Font License. Originally developed for a client project, which was later steered in a different direction, the face is relatively non-descript when used small, but reveals its character at larger sizes, where its semi-rounded characters add warmth.

32. Average Sans

Free web fonts Average

Average by name… This web font is neutral and no-nonsense

As its name implies, this typeface by Argentine designer Eduardo Tunni has relatively neutral letterforms in terms of structure and proportion, and comes in both sans serif and serif versions that complement each other nicely. It's best used as a text font, or for short, no-nonsense headlines. A serif version, simply called Average, is similarly clear and crisp.

33. EB Garamond

Free web fonts EB Garamond

This variation of the Garamond typeface is a great free web font

Since its roots in the 16th century, the humanist serif face Garamond has become a true typographic icon, and much copied. This particular open-source project by Georg Duffner seeks to bring the essence of Claude Garamond's masterpiece onto the web. 

The 'EB' stands for Egenolff-Berner, as the web font is based on a specimen created by Conrad Berner while at the Egenolff print office.

34. Ubuntu

Free web fonts Ubuntu

Ubuntu is a distinctive web font – and open source, of course

Created by leading London foundry Dalton Maag, this distinctive sans serif font was developed with funding from Canonical Ltd to benefit the wider free software community, and users are encouraged to modify, improve and share the web font. Ubuntu is designed to convey personality on both desktop and mobile screens.

35. Rosario

Free web fonts Rosario

Rosario is perfect for setting paragraph type

Rosario is described by publisher Omnibus as being a classic semi-serif typeface, featuring weak contrast and smooth endings. We think it's an excellent Humanist sans-serif addition to your type arsenal. Perfect for setting paragraph type, Rosario is named after the city where designer Héctor Gatti lives. The font has also benefited from TrueType hinting additions provided by Adobe via their Edge Web Fonts platform.

36. Roboto Slab

Free web fonts Roboto Slab

Roboto Slab provides a pleasant reading experience

Roboto Slab is one variant in the wider Roboto family designed by Christian Robertson. The slab version particularly catches the eye with its geometric shapes and open curves. It works equally well as a display font or for dense copy: the letterform rhythm feels natural, making for a pleasant reading experience.

37. Oswald

Free web fonts Oswald

Oswald is a fantastic display font for headlines

One of the first fonts to be featured in Google’s Web Fonts library, Oswald has been updated more recently to include multiple weights, extended character sets and better kerning. The font is a reworking of the classic Alternate Gothic sans-serif typeface style, created by designer Vernon Adams, and is a fantastic display font for headlines and captions.

38. Stalemate

Free web fonts Stalemate

Stalemate works well as an accent font

A wonderfully quaint script design by Jim Lyles, and harking back to vintage origins. This font works well as an accent or display font, adding instant “personal” impact to your typography on the page.

39. Crimson Text

Free web fonts Crimson Text

Crimson Text is a solid, well proportioned serif

This wonderfully refined font makes an excellent choice for copy that requires the solidity and impact of a well proportioned serif. Designed by Sebastian Kosch in the best traditions of oldstyle typefaces such as Garamond, this features beautifully rendered ordinals and uppercase forms, making it a solid and reliable choice for many applications.

40. Ledger

Free web fonts Ledger

Free web font Ledger has excellent legibility even on low-resolution screens

A multi-purpose face with a large x-height, strong stroke contrast, and clearly defined serifs and terminals that all contribute to excellent readability, Denis Masharov's free web font Ledger is particularly effective for editorial use – working equally well on the printed page or on a low-resolution screen.

Related articles:

How to use web fontsMaster accessible web typographyBest free fonts for designers

User Authentication For Web And iOS Apps With AWS Cognito (Part 2)

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Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/09/user-authentication-web-ios-apps-aws-cognito-part-2/


 

 

In today’s digital landscape, developers constantly need to be adding new tools to remain competitive and at the top of their craft.

User Authentication For Web And iOS Apps With AWS Cognito (Part 2)

If you regularly create new web or mobile applications, then Amazon Cognito is a powerful tool that can cut 90% of the time it usually takes to set up a custom user-management solution. If that is intriguing to you, then let’s continue the journey to learn more about what Amazon Cognito has to offer.

The post User Authentication For Web And iOS Apps With AWS Cognito (Part 2) appeared first on Smashing Magazine.

10 Outstanding Shopify Themes to Boost Your Store

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/H1SljIH2MhY/

Shopify is one of the most popular eCommerce service providers, with over 500,000 businesses having used their suite of tools to sell online. One of the main attractions for site owners is the flexibility of Shopify themes. Each theme comes with its own customization settings – great for novices and pros alike. Templates can be changed with the ease of a drag-and-drop UI. But advanced designers can take even more control via custom HTML and CSS, thanks to the Liquid templating language.

What this means is that you aren’t limited to just the same old basic designs – regardless of your skill level. And just as great is the sheer selection of professional themes available. No matter what type of store you run, you’re sure to find a theme that’s a perfect fit.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at 10 of the top themes available for Shopify:

Kodo

Kodo brings the style of high fashion to Shopify. The theme features 11 different home page layouts, with each sporting a classic look that is perfect for high end merchandise.

Product photos are heavily featured to ensure that your products are the focal point. Kodo is compatible with Shopify’s page builder – so customization of the header, footer and body of the theme is simple. You’ll also find lovely mega menus, product quick-views, live search and a sharp look on mobile screens.

Kodo

TechMarket

TechMarket makes wonderful use of every last pixel on large screens – resulting in a fully-immersive experience. 

But don’t worry; it still looks amazing on a phone. Choose from eight home page designs, two landing pages, 10 category layouts and three single-product pages to get just the look you’re after. The theme also includes several custom blocks, product labels for “new” and “sale” items, along with horizontal and vertical mega menus.

TechMarket

Max

Max is a flexible, multi-purpose Shopify theme that includes a dozen home page layouts. They range from designs featuring large promotional images to those that get right down to business with immediate product display.

There are also multiple category and single-product layouts available, as well. A popup or slide-out shopping cart makes for convenient viewing from anywhere on your site. Product quick-views allow customers to browse products without having to leave their current page. Mega menus, a newsletter popup window and product carousel is also included.

Max

Kute Shop

Kute Shop is aimed at supermarket/general retailers and includes some very handy features. A daily deals module allows for creating limited-time promotions, while a variety of different content sliders encourage further exploration of your catalog.

The theme makes use of AJAX with an optimized toolbar and navigation. Plus, it’s easy to customize with Shopify’s drag-and-drop builder. Choose from multiple home, product and category page designs. Overall, Kute Shop is a very well-organized and easy to navigate theme.

Kute Shop

Colora

Colora sports a look that will bring a nature-inspired feel to your online store. Features include AJAX filtered navigation, mega menus, a blog module, product/category slider and a daily deals module.

You’ll also find four home page layouts, a featured products slider, wish list, product quick-views and the ability to display items in a grid or list view. The look is quite attractive and fits well for shops promoting a natural lifestyle. It’s built to take advantage of large photos.

Colora

Mega Shop

Mega Shop works with Shopify’s drag-and-drop builder to let you easily add and move page sections to the desired spot. The theme includes lots of useful features like displaying announcement text, zooming in on images, product quick-views, tabbed content and a newsletter signup form. Also included are sliders for displaying products and brand logos.

Templates for categories and products can easily be customized through the admin. There are six home page layouts to choose from – each with a different specialty. Mega Shop is a clean, convenient and user-friendly package.

Mega Shop

Movic

Movic lets you show off your products in style. Its’ must-have feature is “Lookbooks”, which let shopkeepers put together highly-visual product collections. They consist of a photo with one or more hotspots that, when hovered or touched reveal the related product.

While intended for fashion, it could easily be used for other areas like home décor. You’ll also find six home page designs, multiple header styles, product hover and quick-view, along with AJAX layered navigation. The available looks are very modern and make nice use of subtle effects to create a high-class shop.

Movic

Kids Store

Kids Store focuses on children’s fashion, but could also be repurposed for a variety of kid-related shops. Navigation is really well-thought-out, with great effects and five different mega menu styles included.

Also in the mix is AJAX product filtering, product quick-views, image zooming, a product carousel and a wish list. This theme will certainly brighten up your Shopify store while bringing attention to your products.

Kids Store

Jewellery

Jewellery ups the ante with a very high-end look. The fantastic grid layout on the home page is both functional and attractive. The use of hover effects brings a level of excitement to images.

The theme features multiple mega menu and header styles, AJAX product filtering, a wish list, product quick-view and image zoom. It’s a very nice choice for those looking to appeal to an upscale audience.

Jewellery

Ap Travel Gear

Ap Travel Gear brings big features to any outdoor or travel related shop. Choose from five home page styles – each featuring an attractive full-width slideshow with a variety of clean-cut grid layouts beneath.

Also included are mega menus for easy navigation and product variant color swatches. Other conveniences like product quick-view and AJAX product filtering are also in the box. The theme supports Shopify’s drag-and-drop builder, so customization is easy.

Ap Travel Gear

Sell in Style

Part of the beauty of Shopify is that you don’t need to gather various components in order to create a beautiful, user-friendly and successful store. Simply pick a theme and start building. All the features you need are right there, waiting for you to take advantage.

The themes featured above will help you achieve the look and functionality you’ve always wanted for both desktop and mobile customers. Having those two items crossed off your to-do list means that you can focus on what you do best: Running your store.

You might like: Shopify vs WooCommerce.


10 top design-related movies

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/1-prdvavI0k/the-top-10-design-related-movies

We all love a good movie, but rather than tune into the latest action film or comedy, why not take a look at some of the many awesome design movies and documentaries out there? There’s nothing better than seeing what some of the great designers have done to help boost your creative ideas and spur you on. 

With new for 2017 Netflix series Abstract: The Art of Design booming, it's clear there's a huge appetite in the design community for films about other designers and areas of design.

So in no particular order, here’s a rundown of 10 of the best classic design documentaries to catch, featuring famous names and inspiring stories, covering everything from typography to street art.

01. Why Man Creates, 1968

Seminal artist Saul Bass and Mayo Simon created animated short documentary Why Man Creates in 1968. An early classic, the film discusses the nature of creativity and is as much inspiring today as it was 50 years ago.

02. Helvetica, 2007

American director Gary Hustwit celebrates 50 years of the typeface with a feature-length documentary focusing on the wider conversation about how type affects our culture. 

Released in 2007, the documentary has received widespread recognition and been shown at over 200 film festivals, museums, design conferences, and cinemas worldwide.

03. Design and Thinking, 2012

Directed by Mu-Ming Tsai, Design and Thinking examines how design can influence the world of business and social change and calls on creative minds to work together to change the world. 

Interviewees David Kelley, Bill Moggridge and Tim Brown put forward the idea that attempting to ask the right question is more important than providing firm answers.

04. Objectified, 2009

Following on from Helvetica, Gary Hustwit’s second film looks at the world of design engineering and the creative concepts behind everyday objects such as toothbrushes to tech gadgets. He also completed a trilogy with his third film, Urbanized, which looks at the design of cities.

05. Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight, 2009

Wendy Keys’ debut documentary offers a glimpse into the brain behind the iconic I ❤ NY logo and New York Magazine. Released in 2008, the film illustrates the full-breadth of Glaser’s artistic work and has become a design docu classic.

06. PressPausePlay, 2011

Directed by David Dworsky and Victor Köhler, PressPausePlay interviews with some of the world’s most influential creators of the digital era to ask: Does democratized culture mean better art or is true talent instead drowned out?

07. The Universe of Keith Haring, 2008

Christina Clausen plays homage to Haring’s iconic career, told through archive footage and a series of interviews from the likes of Jeffrey Deitch to David LaChapelle to Yoko Ono.

08. Sign Painters, 2014

This pay-per-view documentary from Faythe Levine and Sam Macon depicts the fascinating stories of more than two dozen sign painters working in cities throughout the US, celebrating the specialised art form.

09. The Cool School, 2008

A documentary depicting the art scene of 1940s America, The Cool School tells the story of how a small group of creatives gave birth to the LA art scene. Walter Hopps and Irving Blum, owners of the Ferus Gallery, painters Ed Ruscha and John Altoon, and architect Frank Gehry are just some of those featured.

10. Beautiful Losers, 2008

Directed by Aaron Rose, founder of the now-closed Alleged Gallery in New York City, Beautiful Losers depicts the work of a 1990s collective that championed a 'do-it-yourself' style – influenced by skateboarding, graffiti and hip hop.

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Google App’s "Recent" Feature – All There’s to Know

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Original Source: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/google-app-recent-feature/

When it comes to search history, Google has been known to keep a record of your searches in the My Activity page as text records. However, it appears that Google has up the ante when it comes to…

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