Archive for month: July, 2019

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/best-design-handoff-tools/?utm_source=rss

Design handoff (before it was even called that) was a complicated, frustrating, and often disastrous task. Way back when, Photoshop was the only tool available for screen design, and converting a design to code was called “slicing a PSD.”

Oh, the days.

Slicing a PSD was the developer’s responsibility, which was quite frustrating because developers understandably didn’t want to work with design tools. That being said, designers had to manually write out design specs for every layer in a Photoshop document, which often resulted in inconsistencies and heated discussions with developers. This set designers and developers on a path of war that even today we’re not ready to joke about.

But eventually we were introduced to Sketch. Thanks to its extensible API, developers were able to build apps that could analyze and interpret design documents completely. Today, design handoff tools have become a must-have in every design workflow, with almost every screen design tool integrating with (or providing its own) design handoff solution.

What Do Design Handoff Tools Do?

Design handoff tools have three main objectives:

to help designers export their designs from [insert tool here]
to help developers inspect and implement said design
to facilitate feedback and collaboration between stakeholders

The design handoff workflow often looks like this:

The designer mocks up the design in a screen design tool.
The designer sends the mockups to a design handoff tool.
Stakeholders look at the design, and make comments if needed.
The designer fixes any issues, then sends an updated version.
The developer then inspects the finished design, layer-by-layer.
Design handoff tools translate each layer into code, and the developer can then use this code as the basis for developing the app or website.

Without design handoff, developers are left with only one alternative: guessing. Guessing can result in inaccuracies — for example the wrong colors being used, or an interaction behaving incorrectly — which in turn impacts user experience.

All handoff tools work the same way, but they don’t all support the same platforms or your screen design tool of choice. If you don’t use Sketch, for example, Marvel isn’t going to be all that useful to you as a design handoff tool.

Let’s take a look at the best design handoff tools that are currently available.

Zeplin

Zeplin has been leading the charge on design handoff since the concept was first realized, integrating with Sketch and Photoshop, and more recently Adobe XD and Figma. Designs synced from any of these tools can be translated into CSS, Android, Swift, Objective-C or React Native code, which includes the styles of each layer and any assets that have been marked as exportable.

This functionality is standard for design handoff tools, although with Zeplin being the first (or at least one of the first), the user experience of their app is almost unrivaled.

And as with all other design handoff tools, commenting features are there to aid feedback and collaboration.

Platforms: Web, macOS, Windows
Pricing: Free Plan, $17, $26, or $122.40 (/month)

The post 8 of the Best Design Handoff Tools appeared first on SitePoint.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/07/is-dribbble-worth-your-time/

The online community has been around since 2010 and is one of the top platforms where designers can share work, or shots, and get feedback.

The invite-only community is a showcase of portfolio projects and personal artwork for digital graphics and user interface design, illustrations, animations, and pretty much any other design work you can think of.

Dribbble Pros

If you want to be inspired, Dribbble is the place for you. There’s so much good work to browse through, comment on, and engage with. It’s a good mental distraction if you are working through a design problem of your own.

The community is huge and the company reports that the number of users nearly doubled last year. In 2018, designers uploaded 1.2 million shots, that got 35 million likes, and 1 million comments. Best estimates put the number of users at 4.5 million worldwide.

Everything about Dribbble has a community feel, for the time being, it’s very un-Facebook

Dribbble is more than just an online community. Dribbblers in different locations get together for meetups and design networking. They literally happen all over the world, or you can host one in your location. It makes the design-based peer network social IRL.

Everything about Dribbble has a community feel, for the time being, it’s very un-Facebook, even as it expands. It’s simple and authentic.

There’s something great about a design platform that is designed well. Every page is simple and stunning. Projects are easy to see, thanks to consistent previews. Usability is obvious. From the first login, everything about Dribbble is easy to understand, find, and explore.

You can get feedback from other designers. Feedback from your boss or clients or design team is great, but what if you want to know what a wider community thinks. This is the place to test out a design.

Dribbble has expanded to include job listings – real gigs from some reputable companies – and even mark your profile as available for hire. That allows others to seek you out. One the same note, you can sell designs and digital goods, which can be a nice supplemental income.

The theme of the site hasn’t changed since Day 1 and it’s cute and endearing. Basketball fans can appreciate it for sure.

Dribbble Cons

Dribbble can be a major distraction. There’s just so much to look at, and then there are the rebounds, which will have you asking if you really just spent 3 hours enhancing someone else’s original animation concept.

Uploads are somewhat limited. While Dribbble eliminated the 400-pixel by 300-pixel rule late last year (thank you!), the maximum size for uploads is 10 MB. You don’t have to use a specific aspect ratio, but will be asked to crop for the preview to maintain design consistency across the network. Plus, you can still upload downloadable versions if you like.

The invites. It seems like a cool idea and maybe it was in the beginning, but are invites really necessary 10 years later? If someone doesn’t play by the rules kick them out.

It can feel a little like a high-school popularity contest

It can feel a little like a high-school popularity contest. There are bloggers out there with tips for what time to share your shots to get the most likes. Seriously? No thanks.

Some days Dribbble seems bigger than the rookie designer just starting out. It’s totally cool that designers from Apple and Airbnb are posting, but it can also be intimidating. If you are new to the platform, or design in general, try not to compare. Do your thing, find your niche, and be you in the community.

Dribbble is not the best place to keep a portfolio, although it is getting better. You can, but it can be a little tough to explain and share. (Do you really want a potential employer to see all those comments or a project you were just experimenting with?) So, you’ll probably need Dribbble, plus another platform to host a portfolio.

There are little ads everywhere. Dribbble needs a revenue source to survive and thrive, but some people are turned off by it. (If you are one of those people, you can upgrade to a paid plan.)

If you really want all the features of the network, you have to pay. It can be worth it if you are using it to sell good or get work (or ads drive you crazy). Dribbble Pro is $12 per month or $60 annually.

I’m on Dribbble … Kind Of

My name is Carrie, and I am a Dribbble lurker.

I have been on Dribble almost since the beginning. And I haven’t posted anything. That doesn’t mean I don’t value it, I’ve been looking at other designer projects for years love to see what’s out there, but just don’t have time to do more.

For me, Dribbble is all about inspiration and anticipation. So many of the shots are glimpses into experiments in design and can even be a predictor of trends.

I have go-to designers that I like to peek in on, but mostly I like to browse

I have go-to designers that I like to peek in on, but mostly I like to browse. What’s been uploaded recently, what’s getting a lot of attention, is there a technique or aesthetic that’s starting to emerge frequently?

I’ll also admit to getting called out for my Dribbble lurker status. Can you be a “real designer” if you aren’t using the platform regularly? Am I washing an invitation by not creating new, and regular shots?

Whether you are on (and are a frequent contributor to) Dribbble or not has nothing to do with your status as a designer. It’s all about time, project needs, and whether that feedback is something you crave. It’s like almost any other social network. You get from it what you contribute.

So, if you have the time and want to be a Dribbbler, go for it. And if not, that’s OK, too. (Let’s not judge each other because of a peer network.)

Conclusion

There’s nothing wrong with trying to get that coveted Dribbble invite, although with so many designers on the platform, invites aren’t as hard to get as they once were.

If you have time and enjoy the interaction, Dribbble can be a good use of resources and effort. But it’s OK to lurk too.

Just play with it in moderation and don’t let comments or shots overwhelm you. When Dribbble stops being fun, you should probably move on to something else. If you haven’t joined yet, now might be the time to ask your favorite co-worker for an invite.

Source

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Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/ways-to-lose-your-clients/

Clients are a feared group of people who freelancers depend greatly upon . Some clients are incredibly easy to work with; they say what they mean and mean what they say, and they never pay late….

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Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/make-cortana-do-custom-chores-in-windows-10/

Detailed guide to enable Cortana do custom tasks in Windows 10 through some simple steps.

The post How to Run Custom Tasks in Windows 10 with Cortana appeared first on Hongkiat.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/FpmVc7Ha6k4/

Among the many strengths of WordPress is the massive number of available plugins. There are tens of thousands, and those are just the free offerings. They handle all sorts of functionality, from security to image galleries to forms. Just about everything you could possibly want for your website is only a download away.

But it is the rare plugin that is so well-crafted and useful that it inspires a number of companion offerings to use along side of it. In many cases, they are among the most popular plugins out there. So popular and well-liked, in fact, that they have developed their very own ecosystems.

Today, we’ll take a look at the concept of WordPress plugin ecosystems. Along the way, we’ll show you some examples and discuss the advantages (and disadvantages) that come with adopting them into your website.

Prime Examples

Before we dig too deeply into the pros and cons, let’s see what a plugin ecosystem looks like. For our purposes, we’ll define it as such:

A “base” or “core” plugin that works on its own, but also has multiple add-on plugins available;
Add-ons may be created by the original author, or by outside developers within the WordPress community;
Can be free, commercial or any combination thereof;

In short, this means that the term “ecosystem” is rather flexible. It might be that a plugin’s author has created the base and all add-ons themselves. Or, other developers out there may have decided to build their own extensions. Either way, we have a group of related plugins that can scale up functionality based on need.

Here are a few prime examples we can use to better illustrate the concept:

WooCommerce

Perhaps the most well-known plugin ecosystem, WooCommerce turns your website into an online store. The core plugin adds shopping cart functionality and related features that go along with it for things like shipping and accepting payments. However, it is capable of so much more.

Through the use of add-ons (WooCommerce refers to them as “extensions”), you can leverage the cart for all sorts of niche functionality. Among the more basic features are the ability to work with a wider variety of payment gateways and shipping providers. But you can also add some advanced capabilities such as selling membership subscriptions or event tickets.

Gravity Forms

Here’s a great example of a plugin whose ecosystem has taken a core concept and expanded it immensely. Gravity Forms is a form-building plugin, which already includes a lot of advanced functionality. Yet add-ons allow it to perform tasks well beyond what you’d expect from your standard contact form.

Through a community that both includes and goes beyond the plugin’s original author, add-ons allow for a number of advanced tasks. You can accept payments, run polls or surveys, connect with third-party service providers, view and manipulate entry data and a whole lot more. It may one of the best examples of how an ecosystem provides nearly endless flexibility.

Something to Build On

One of the biggest advantages to buying into one of these plugin ecosystems is that you can add what you need, when you need it. Think of it as a building. The base plugin provides you with a solid foundation (and maybe a floor or two). Then, you can add as many floors as it takes to fulfill your needs.

Sometimes, that first core plugin is all you need. But even then, you still have the blueprints to build upon should you want to expand later.

Another potential benefit is that these plugins tend to have been built with expansion in mind. That means that you don’t necessarily have to rely on official or even community-based add-ons. If you have some programming knowledge, you might be able to add functionality by building it yourself.

Plus, by utilizing a related set of plugins, you can avoid one of the more frustrating parts of WordPress site development. So often, we attempt to bring many disparate pieces together to form some sort of cohesively functioning website.

This often means using plugins that were never meant to necessarily work together, which can lead to problems when attempting to make it all run seamlessly. In theory, this shouldn’t be an issue when you tap into an ecosystem.

Potential Drawbacks

Despite the many advantages to using a set of related plugins, there are some possible downsides to consider. Among the most common:

It Can Get Expensive

For plugins with commercial add-ons, you may find yourself being nickeled and dimed for each and every piece of added functionality you’d like to add. WooCommerce is a classic example, where each official add-on requires a yearly investment. That’s not to say it’s not worth the cost – it very well may be. Rather, it is a potential obstacle for the budget-conscious.

Not Everything You Want Is Available

This is something you’ll want to check before making any decisions as to how you’ll build your site. It may be that a base plugin and a selection of add-ons will get you 90% of the functionality you need. However, that missing 10% could be a big deal.

If a companion plugin doesn’t cover this, you might have to either look elsewhere or build it yourself. That could lead to some unexpected issues when it comes to both compatibility and cost. Short of those options, a lack of that one piece of functionality can result in a long wait in hopes of it being added in at a later date.

Unofficial Add-Ons May Not Keep Pace

Plugins are updated with new features and bugfixes all the time. Sometimes, those updates can be major – and that poses a risk when using unofficial add-ons built by community members. It could mean that updating the base plugin means that you have to abandon a particular add-on.

One way to avoid this potential issue is to stick with official add-ons only. If you do utilize those from unofficial sources, look for plugins that are frequently updated. They are more likely to adapt to any major upgrades.

A Compelling Option

In the right situation, a WordPress plugin with its own ecosystem can be your best option. This is especially so in cases when you are building a website in which a plugin fulfills the core part of your mission.

For instance, an eCommerce site will want to use a shopping cart that can be expanded to meet the specific requirements of the store. This provides the best opportunity for future growth and will help you avoid a costly switch later on.

Of course, there are some potential negatives to consider. But with some due diligence, you may just find a collection of plugins that will successfully power your WordPress website for years to come.