5 Benefits of Animating Your Website

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Designrfix/~3/7Bdd7A4EkXs/5-benefits-animating-website

The rise of the online video opened the doors to endless possibilities for non-static graphics in website design. One trend that has taken web design by storm is website animation. Animating certain elements of a website has the potential to grab user attention, increase engagement, seal more conversions, and increase sales. Explore all the exciting […]

The post 5 Benefits of Animating Your Website appeared first on designrfix.com.

Scrolling Letters Animation

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/zK3B99lm0vE/

Recently we’ve stumbled upon a really nice effect on Akademi’s website: the main title of the page moves along as one scrolls down and changes depending on the section that is currently in the viewport. We thought this would be an awesome effect to recreate and play with different animations for the text as it changes. For detecting when a certain section is entered, we use the Intersection Observer API. Note that the API is currently not supported in Safari.

ScrollingLettersAnimation_Featured

The animations are powered by anime anime.js. We also use imagesLoaded for preloading the images and Charming.js for the handling the letter structure of the titles.

The demo is kindly sponsored by monday.com: The visual project management tool built for designers.
If you would like to sponsor one of our demos, find out more here.

Attention: Highly experimental demo with modern CSS properties in use. The Intersection Observer API is currently not supported in Safari.

For the demos, we’ve created a layout that starts with some intro text and another text element that will scroll along. Once that element reaches the next section, it will switch to a new title.

In the first demo shuffles the letters in a sequencial way and the second one shows some random characters.

ScrollingLettersAnimation_01

ScrollingLettersAnimation_02

ScrollingLettersAnimation_03

ScrollingLettersAnimation_04

We hope you enjoy the demos and find them inspirational.


References and Credits

Hand-drawn skull set by Freepik
Images made from the “Flight” Collection copyright by RuleByArt
Images by Unsplash.com
anime.js by Julian Garnier
imagesLoaded by Dave DeSandro
Charming.js by Yuan Qing

Scrolling Letters Animation was written by Mary Lou and published on Codrops.

Native And PWA: Choices, Not Challengers!

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/native-and-pwa-choices-not-challengers/

It’s hard to tell exactly where the rift between “native” and “web” really started. I feel like it’s one of those things that had been churning just below the surface since the early days of Flash, only to erupt more recently with the rise of mobile platforms. Regardless, developers have squared off across this “great chasm,” lobbing insults at one another in an attempt to bolster their own side.

How to draw: the best drawing tutorials and tips

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/JBf2Wk8ZEN8/how-to-draw-animals-people-landscapes

Whether you want to learn how to draw animals, or you’re pondering how to draw people, faces, scenery, landscapes or more, we’ve got you covered with our ultimate collection of drawing tutorials. 

You’ll find pro techniques and tips on how to draw anything you can imagine in this article, so bookmark it and come back whenever you get stuck, or want to sharpen your drawing skills in another area.

Some of the drawing tutorials here use digital tools, while others focus on traditional methods – but there's plenty of core skills to learn from both. So no matter what you want to learn how to draw, you'll find something helpful here. 

On this page we focus on how to draw animals. If you’re looking for tips on how to draw something else, you can use the page drop-down or links below to navigate to any of the following sections: 

How to draw people How to draw faces How to draw landscapesHow to draw mythical creatures 

Read on for these insider tips on how to draw animals… 

01. How to draw dogs
02. How to draw cats
03. How to draw horses
04. How to draw birds
05. How to draw bears
06. How to draw feathers, fur and scales
PAGE 1 How to draw people
How to draw faces
How to draw people: Basic tutorials
How to draw people: Advanced tutorials
PAGE 3 LANDSCAPES AND SCENERY
PAGE 4 How to draw mythical creatures

Using SSE Instead Of WebSockets For Unidirectional Data Flow Over HTTP/2

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/sse-websockets-data-flow-http2/

When building a web application, one must consider what kind of delivery mechanism they are going to use. Let’s say we have a cross-platform application that works with real-time data; a stock market application providing ability to buy or sell stock in real time. This application is composed of widgets that bring different value to the different users.
When it comes to data delivery from the server to the client, we are limited to two general approaches: client pull or server push.

How to Take Your Idea from Concept to Creation with Moqups

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-take-your-idea-from-concept-to-creation-with-moqups/

This article was created in partnership with Moqups. Thank you for supporting the partners who make SitePoint possible.

So, you have a great idea.

You’ve already told your family, friends, and colleagues, and the feedback has been great. Everyone loves the concept, and can see its potential. They think you should just go for it!

But, you know it’s not quite that simple.

Before committing time and money – both yours and other people’s – you need to get real, and work out the details.

As you move your concept from ideation to realization, you’ll need to assemble your team and put together your financing. That means pitching to a wide range of industry professionals: product managers, developers, designers, business analysts, marketers, and investors.

To show them that your vision is both viable and executable, your pitch needs to be abstract enough to capture their imagination, but specific enough to be clear and credible.

You need to build out your concept, assess its technical complexity, and map out its full scale. In other words, you need to get real.

And that’s where Moqups can help.

We designed Moqups as an online, all-in-one creative platform, so that it could take you from your first brainstorming session – capturing and connecting ideas – all the way to fully-realized, interactive, hi-fi prototypes.

Our goal was to create the perfect “low effort – high impact” app.

We think Moqups’ real strength is that it’s UI is both intuitive and easy to master. So, without switching apps, you can produce a wide range of materials that outline the requirements of your project, including workflow diagrams, sitemaps, wireframes, mockups, and interactive prototypes.

Sure, there are a number of more complicated and detailed tools out there for each of these specific artifacts (i.e diagramming apps that just do diagrams, or apps that focus exclusively on wireframing or prototyping).

But when you’re frantically building out your concept, every hour spent struggling with a new and unfamiliar interface is an hour NOT spent on your own product’s future.

So, let’s take a look at three artifacts that you’ll probably want to have as part of your eventual pitch package:

Wireframes and prototypes
Flow diagrams
Sitemaps

Begin Anywhere

During the incubation process, you may be the only one who can make sense of your vision. But even with all that information in your head – or maybe because of it – your ability to explain its intricacies may still be fuzzy, and chaotic.

The best thing you can do is give shape to those scattered ideas by getting them out of your brain and onto the page. That way, you can turn them into something tangible and organized.

But where to begin?

Bruce Mau, in his Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, has a great prompt:

Begin anywhere. John Cage tells us that not knowing where to begin is a common form of paralysis. His advice: begin anywhere.

So don’t worry about prescriptive methodology. Just rely on your intuition. No matter where you start, each artifact will inform the others – and develop in parallel – as your vision comes into focus and becomes more concrete.

A real advantage of an all-in-one tool like Moqups is that it frees you to jump back and forth seamlessly between assets as they develop.

So, let’s get going!

If you want to play along, just head to moqups.com and click on "Try it now for free".

Wireframes & Prototypes

Software helps users accomplish certain goals by leading them through a series of steps towards those objectives – and your concept is no different. Building a wireframe will help you empathize with your users by putting you in their shoes, and helping you visualize each step they take.

Creating a wireframe is also the most immediate way of getting your vision out of your head, and onto the page, because it lets you experiment with different options and layouts – without worrying about details like colours, fonts, logos, exact sizing, etc.

Chances are, you’ve probably already identified some primary use cases, and imagined the sequence of steps the users should follow. Wireframes give you the chance to figure out what essential elements are required by those screens – content, input fields, buttons, menus – and which ones you may have overlooked.

So, choose a single objective. In this case, I’ve chosen ‘Create an Account’ as my objective. I’ve decided to embed the sign-up fields directly into the home page – in the hope of capturing more leads.

Now, identify the steps required to achieve that goal:

Visit the landing page and enter personal credentials in the sign-up fields
Get confirmation

In this Moqups project, I want every objective – in this case, ‘Create an Account’ – to have its own page. Further, that page will contain a series of nested pages that detail the steps/screens required to achieve that objective.

In the Moqups app, your assets (stencils, pages, icons, images, etc.) are accessed from the left sidebar. Formatting and interactivity is controlled via the right sidebar.

From the left sidebar, click on the Pages tab. From the Pages panel you can create, name, and nest both folders and pages.

If you want to change your page dimensions to suit the device you’re designing for, the Workspace dropdown in the top toolbar (the little gear icon) will give you access to page settings, as well as snapping, guides and grids.

(Moqups UI is intuitive, so I won’t go into too much detail here… but if you need more granular instructions, just visit the Help Center which is pretty comprehensive and user-friendly.)

Now, it’s time to start mocking up your screens.

Click on the Stencil tab in the left sidebar. From the open panel, you can search for relevant stencils to add to your screen; for example, an account registration form is composed of text inputs, checkboxes, radios, and buttons.

Simply drag and drop these stencils onto the page. Then move them around, resize them, or style them by using the Format tab in the right sidebar.

Add as many details as you want, but don’t sweat them too much. At this point, aesthetics aren’t really important. You can always come back and polish your work. It’s more important that you discover whatever input is required from your users – and how the basic navigation will work for them.

Watching your amorphous vision take concrete shape can be wonderfully energizing… so you may want to add a bit of color and tweak the fonts, just to get your blood pumping, and to give you an inspiring sense of your future brand. The important thing is to keep moving, building, and making progress. You can always change, edit, and iterate later.

You may want to go even further, turning your wireframe into a preliminary prototype by adding interactivity. This can provide your stakeholders with a visceral sense of the user experience (UX) and navigation.

A well constructed wireframe/prototype not only helps you communicate your vision in a comprehensive and comprehensible way, but it’s also the kind of document that your designers and developers will need in order to get right down to work.

Flow Diagram

Now that you’ve used the wireframe/prototype to explore the user interface, and you’ve got a feeling for the navigation, it’s time to go explore the business aspects of your project by creating a flow diagram.

Continue reading %How to Take Your Idea from Concept to Creation with Moqups%

Collective #389

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/zuWVpCboK8U/

C389_WOTW

Inspirational Website of the Week: Okkapi

Engaging details and a beautiful layout combined with nice transitions made us pick Okkapi this week.

Get inspired

C389_TLD

Our Sponsor
Get a FREE .design domain name for your website!

.design reflects what you do as a designer. Your name comes with free email hosting, SSL Security, and a Site Builder.

Your FREE .design domain

C389_Simcity

OpenSC2K

An open source remake of Sim City 2000 written in JavaScript using HTML5 Canvas API, SQLite and built on Electron.

Check it out

C389_askadev

ask-a-dev

A really great idea: free mentoring from local programmers.

Check it out

C389_hell

Hell over ocean

A fantastic demo by Karim Maaloul where he explores shaders, noise and fractal Brownian Motion (fBM).

Check it out

C389_mediaqueries

Using Media Queries For Responsive Design In 2018

Rachel Andrew takes a look at the use of media queries for responsive design with modern layout methods such as Flexbox and Grid Layout.

Check it out

C389_mountain

Wed'ze – Lookbook Winter 2017-2018

Some fine three.js work with a nice design direction combining realism with an abstract look.

Check it out

C389_game

How to Create a Memory Game (ala Super Mario 3) with Plain JavaScript

Tania Rascia’s easy-to-follow tutorial on implementing a memory game with JavaScript.

Read it

C389_memex

Memex

A free and private browser extension to easily manage and find visited websites.

Check it out

C389_hreftools

Href Tools

Some useful online web tools to get your work done faster.

Check it out

C389_zen

The Zen Zone

A digital meditation area for calming you down with small satisfying activities. Built by Tim Holman.

Check it out

C389_icons

Magicons – 100 Multimedia Icons

A nice set of 100 icons with a multimedia theme. By Icono.

Get it

C389_accjourney

My Accessibility Journey: What I’ve Learned So Far

Manuel Matuzović shares what he has learned during his accessibility journey.

Check it out

C389_HowCSSGrid

How I design with CSS grid

An article by Chen Hui Jing where she explains how she plans the setup for a CSS grid layout.

Read it

C389_cube

CSS-Only Cube Pack

David Khourshid’s great demo where he recreates an animation by Joseph Ryba.

Check it out

C389_normalize

Modern-normalize

Normalize browsers’ default styles the modern way (Chrome and Firefox only). By Sindre Sorhus.

Check it out

C389_Phase

Phase

An interesting new design tool announced for Summer this year. Read more about it in this article.

Check it out

C389_UIkit

H1 Free UI Kit (Sketch, PS)

Hristo Hristov shares this great free mobile UI kit for Sketch and Photoshop.

Get it

C389_dotcolor

.colors()

A useful tool for quickly previewing color codes.

Check it out

C389_WPatGoogle

WordPress @ Google

Read how Google is actively engaged and looking for expert WordPress developers to support and accelerate success of the WordPress ecosystem.

Read it

C389_serviceworkers

Service workers: the little heroes behind Progressive Web Apps

A great guide to Service Workers by Flavio Copes.

Read it

C389_map

Leaflet Truesize

A plugin for the Leaflet maps library, which lets you easily compare sizes of geographical shapes.

Check it out

C389_6

Automerge

A JSON-like data structure that can be modified concurrently by different users, and merged again automatically.

Check it out

Collective #389 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

A Comprehensive Guide To Mobile App Design

Original Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/comprehensive-guide-to-mobile-app-design/

(This is a sponsored article.) More than ever, people are engaging with their phones in crucial moments. The average US user spends 5 hours per day on mobile. The vast majority of that time is spent in apps and on websites.
The difference between a good app and a bad app is usually the quality of its user experience (UX). A good UX is what separates successful apps from unsuccessful ones.

Top 5 Mobile Apps to Keep Your Kids Safe

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/kid-safety-mobile-apps/

In today’s highly digitalized world, everyone seems to be carrying a smartphone, and that includes kids as well. If you entrust your kids with a smartphone, then you might as well use it to…

Visit hongkiat.com for full content.

16 most imaginative movie wallpapers

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/oQdoW-sSza4/movie-wallpapers-designers-12121425

Movie wallpapers usually consist of predictable still-shots that are nice to look at but nothing more. As a creative, though, you're probably looking for something with a little imagination.

That's why we've curated this list of the best movie-inspired desktop wallpapers, which all offer a different insight into your favourite films. Whether minimal, illustrative or 3D art styles are your bag, there's something here for everyone.

01. Léon: The Professional

Realistic pencil drawing of Jean Reno and Natalie Portman taking aim with a sniper rifle

This hand-drawn take on Léon is bang on target

Some elements of Luc Besson's hitman classic feel a lot more problematic these days than they did back in 1994, but it's still hard not to love the core story of a kind-hearted assassin taking an orphan under his wing and teaching her the trade. And it's this aspect that's reflected in this stunning hand-drawn close-up.

02. Metropolis

Metropolis typographic title and Bauhaus styling

This graphic interpretation of the silent sci-fi classic will give your desktop some Bauhaus cool

Fritz Lang's 1927 epic is regarded as a masterpiece of early sci-fi cinema, boasting stunning special effects and beautiful art direction. The film was inspired visually by Bauhaus, Cubism and Futurism, and these inspirations are reflected in this elegant and understated wallpaper.

03. Akira

Moody art of Akira and motorcycle at night, overlooking a city skyline

Tetsuo! Kaneda! Etc!

Katsuhiro Otomo's movie adaptation of Akira was the most expensive animated film ever when it was released in 1988, and it still looks stunning 30 years down the line. We love this atmospheric interpretation by Jonas de Ro, featuring Shotaro Kaneda and his iconic motorcycle, with Neo-Tokyo exploding in the background.

04. The Shawshank Redemption

Blurred image of a tree with text overlaid saying 'Get busy livin' or get busy dyin''

Inspiration courtesy of Red

Who can resist an inspirational quote every now and then? This wallpaper's based on The Shawshank Redemption and nails its subject using just three elements: the tree in the background, the silhouette of a rock hammer, and a single line of dialogue.

05. Pulp Fiction

Cartoon of Uma Thurman's character in Pulp Fiction wiping her nose and looking at the camera

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

It would be remiss of us not to include a bit of Quentin Tarantino here, and we've opted for this fantastic vector portrait of Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction, catching her just at the moment after she's helped herself to a portion of the wrong substance. Don't try this at home, kids!

06. Dr. Strangelove

Silhouette of Slim Pickens riding an atomic bomb through the sky

Ride ’em, cowboy!

Peter Sellers might have been the star of Stanley Kubrick's Cold War black comedy, but it's Slim Pickens who steals the show right at the last minute, as he rides an atomic bomb, rodeo-style, down to earth. This lovely minimal silhouette captures that moment perfectly.

07. Batman

Polygonal Batman art

*squints* Hang on, that’s not Ben Affleck, is it?

There's so much Batman to choose from out there, but we've kept things simple with this delightfully angular polygonal representation of the Dark Knight, and in doing so we've avoided annoying anyone by plumping for a specific Batman (although obviously Michael Keaton was the best). Result!

08. The Shining

Retro patterned carpet from The Shining

Show you’re a real horror buff with this design taken straight from The Shining

If you like your wallpaper creative, abstract and film-related, perhaps this design is for you. This pattern is taken from the gloriously retro carpet found throughout the The Overlook Hotel in Kubrick's 1980 film adaptation of The Shining.

09. The Grand Budapest Hotel

Front of the pink Grand Budapest Hotel with mountain backdrop and title from the film

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a stunning piece of architecture

The whole of Wes Anderson's 2014 movie is a work of art, and pretty much any scene would make a stunning desktop background, but the impressive pink front of The Grand Budapest Hotel (which is in reality, Palace Bristol Hotel located in the Czech Republic) makes a grand wallpaper display indeed.

10. The Hunger Games

Negative space silhouette of the face of Katniss from the Hunger Games in profile, with a full body silhouette in front

Get two Katnisses for the price of one in this sleek desktop design

We absolutely adore this negative space Hunger Games design. If you are keen to show off your love of the film series but want something a little classier than the bog-standard film wallpaper, this design is sure to capture your imagination.

11. Fight Club

Two faces of Tyler Durden in Fight Club, with text 'You're not your job, how much money you have...'

The two personalities clash with this brilliant Fight Club movie wallpaper

"I saw a Fight Club poster the other day on Imgur's website, which inspired me to create this wallpaper," explains designer Alex Cican. "I'm using two exceptional drawings of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton." A brilliant movie wallpaper for members of Fight Club.

12. Princess Mononoke

The forest spirit from Princess Mononoke sitting on mossy rocks

The forest spirit from Princess Mononoke makes an appearance

There's plenty of Studio Ghibli movie wallpapers out there, but our pick is this Princess Mononoke-inspired offering from designer David Lanham. Featuring a forest spirit, a Kodama, set against a life-like background gives it that creative edge we were looking for.

13. The Hobbit

Montage of stills from The Hobbit movie

Which characters will you pick for your customised wallpaper?

OK, we know we said that we were steering clear of still-shot movie wallpapers – but this one from The Hobbit has a little trick up its sleeve. Launching the 'make your own wallpaper' app, you're able to pick and choose which images you like best from various settings across the film and combine them to make your very own movie wallpaper.

14. Life of Pi

Whale breaching from the Life of Pi movie

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi was certainly a feast for the cinematographer’s eye

The cinematography in Ang Lee's Life of Pi is out of this world. The movie certainly got critics in a spin, with this epic whale scene stuck in many movie-goers' memories. This wallpaper adds an oil-painted effect to make it even more beautiful.

15. Indiana Jones

Cartoon-style graphic of Indiana Jones rescuing a woman from the jaws of a crocodile

Bringing back the old school Indie

Let's just forget about the most recent Indiana Jones release and instead try to concentrate on the old gems. This comic-inspired movie wallpaper will bring a burst of colour to any creative desktop. We love its old school feel; if only the movie makers had felt the same way!

16. Star Wars

Storm trooper white graphic on black background

We just had to include a Star Wars movie wallpaper, right?!

How could we compile a list of movie wallpapers without including some sort of Star Wars reference?! Here we go for minimal once again, with this Stormtrooper-inspired movie wallpaper. What more could your desktop want? Well, maybe the others in this list…

Read more…

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