Author Archive for: admin

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/05/15-unmissable-web-design-podcasts-for-2019/

Web design gets broader everyday, with new technologies entering the field on a seemingly weekly basis. As a web designer, you need to stay on top of these technologies, and upgrade your skills, or you’ll become obsolete. But it’s tough to keep up when you’re reading countless Medium posts, and scouring the latest ebook for tips.

That’s where podcasts come in. The (usually) short episodes are like talk radio for the web, and are a great way to keep up to date on new technology and ideas.

Today we’ve collected 15 podcasts that are worth trying, if you’re not already addicted. Download a few, and listen to them on your commute, you’ll arrive at work inspired, more knowledgeable, and ready to go.

1. Responsive Web Design Podcast

The Responsive Web Design Podcast is brought to life by Ethan Marcotte and Karen McGrane. There are currently over 150 episodes, and still counting. Ethan and Karen conduct discussions and interviews centered around responsive design, and well-known sites that have implemented it.

2. ShopTalk Show

The ShopTalk Show is a huge deal, achieving a massive amount of publicity and attention, thanks to the efforts of Dave Rupert and Chris Coyier. Experts from across web design and development are invited on, on a weekly basis, and they’ve amassed over 350 episodes to date.

If you’re into web design, and love staying in touch with the latest web technologies then this is one podcast you’ll definitely want to check out.

3. The Web Ahead

Jen Simmons is the anchorwoman for The Web Ahead, through her resilience and love of tech, she invites renowned experts to speak their views and ideas on various web topics ranging from responsive web design, programming languages, and many other topics.

You’re able to access fresh episodes on weekly basis, which are usually above an hour in duration.

4. The Boagworld UX Show

Paul Boag’s a very successful writer on web design, and he’s been in the industry for years with a number of successful publications under his belt. His accomplice on The Boagworld UX Show is Marcus Lillington, who has an incredible history of successes as well.

This podcast channel runs to almost 500 episodes, all of which can be subscribed to, through your favorite podcast player, or RSS.

5. Alexa Stop

If I was ranking these podcasts starting with my favorites, Alexa Stop would have been right at the top.

Jim Bowes and Robert Belgrave study the impact of technology on our lives, and their podcast episodes explore cutting edge technologies like new developments on the web, and computational innovations.

6. JavaScript Jabber

The podcast here, as the name suggests, is mostly about JavaScript. JavaScript Jabber connects you with a wealth of experience in front-end web development. Plus it’s accessible enough for those who are just entering the field.

7. Drafts

Giovanni DiFeterici and Gene Crawford cover everything web design and development on Drafts, bringing this channel to life.

Each podcast encompasses a time frame of 15 minutes, which is shorter than most, but each one is packed with ideas to keep you inspired and engaged.

8. TheBuildUp

Bobby Solomon and Jon Setzen are the big hit on TheBuildUp, they are the experts themselves, so they engage in short conversations within fields that best suits the tech industry, with emphasis to the web technology among other fields. A single episode is released on a biweekly basis.

9. The Big Web Show

Jeffrey Zeldman really has it big for web techies. The episodes cover topics relating to web publishing, design, and typography among many other topics. The Big Web Show is a web show that you really can’t afford to miss out on.

10. CTRL+CLICK CAST

Ctrl+Click’s former name was ExpressionEngine which was brought alive by its hosts Lea Alcantara and Emily Lewis. As their slogan was “your human web inspectors” their approach to podcasting was to guide, teach, and motivate web designers.

11. The Gently Mad

Adam Clark with his guest on The Gently Mad podcast comes to their audience’s rescue by highlighting stories, facts, databases, deep insights and real-time experiences of individuals doing great in their respective fields.

12. 99% invisible

99% Invisible episodes are consistently brilliant, despite the fact that each of the episodes usually run to a duration of between 15 to 20 mins. An amazingly addictive series of podcasts.

13. Data Stories

Data visualisations are the primary topic on Data Stories, a podcast hosted by outstanding personalities Enrico Bertini and Mortiz Stefaner). Their topics are mainly academic but oftentimes, they follow their audiences responses into more divergent and less well-trodden paths.

If you are passionate about web and related topics like software development, infographics and data analysis, then Data Stories will help you stay up to date.

14. Design Matters

Debbie Millman has been rowing her boat in the podcast industry since 2005. She loves touching on anything design, right from architectural designs, web design, product design, etc.

This is why the experts she meets for discussion on Design Matters are always designers with high sense of technical craftsmanship.

15. The Digital Life

Jon Follett and Dirk Knemeyer are the podcast hosts here, they speak about everything digital but primarily digital technology. Their episodes were among the most trending. If you really want to go beyond web design, the Digital Life is your bet.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

Add Realistic Chalk and Sketch Lettering Effects with Sketch’it – only $5!

Source

p img {display:inline-block; margin-right:10px;}
.alignleft {float:left;}
p.showcase {clear:both;}
body#browserfriendly p, body#podcast p, div#emailbody p{margin:0;}

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/CreativeBloq/~3/WPVZ2bcZxK0/a-guide-to-googles-cloud-vision

Machine learning. Deep learning. Natural language processing. Computer vision. Automation. Voice recognition. You've probably heard all these and many other terms recently, all under the umbrella of artificial intelligence. In fact, the field is growing so rapidly, it's becoming increasingly difficult to nail down a definitive definition. AI is becoming part of nearly every aspect of our lives, from ecommerce websites and search engines to unlocking your phone.

Your websites and apps can leverage APIs to tap directly into the power of AI. Without having to 'train' AI agents, you can take advantage of massive quantities of data already analysed. Google, Amazon, IBM and many others have created endpoints for developers to hook into and start using AI right away.

On the front end, you can connect voice commands, chatbot interfaces or reactive WebGL creative elements. On the back end, databases use intelligent algorithms to maximise speed and analysis. APIs can provide a layer of abstraction from a wide range of AI functions, from predictions to collective training.

A guide to Google's web tools

There’s a flash sale now on on generate New York tickets! Don’t miss out, click the image to book your place

What is computer vision?

Computer vision is the study and creation of artificial systems that extract information from images. It can also encompass the mechanical system of vision itself. In terms of recognition, it is the process of analysing and determining the content of an image or series of images (including video). This could include medical scans, photos, 360-degree video and virtually any kind of imagery you can imagine.

AI-powered computer vision can:

Identify, label and categorise contentDetect faces and emotionsRecognise headwear such as glasses and hatsIdentify landmarks, buildings and structuresAssess pixel-level information such as colour data, quality and resolutionRecognise popular logosIdentify and read textIdentify potentially inappropriate images
Computer vision with Google's Cloud Vision API

There are lots of choices for Vision APIs but we'll be using Google's Cloud Vision API. Google hosts many AI APIs, including natural language processing, voice recognition, deep learning and vision.

The Cloud Vision API enables your sites and apps to understand what is in an image. It will classify the content into categories, labelling everything it sees. It also provides a confidence score, so you know how likely it is that what it believes is in an image actually appears there. You could use this to interact intelligently regarding camera input in AR or video apps. You could create tools to assist those who are visually impaired. You could create assistants to help identify buildings or landmarks for tourists. The possibilities are endless.

01. Set up a Cloud project

If you've used Google's APIs before, some of these first steps will be familiar. As with other Google services, you'll need to set up a cloud project. Go to the Google Cloud Platform console and create a new project or select an existing one. Like most of Google's services, the Cloud Vision API is free to use until you start making lots of API requests. You may need to enter billing info when you activate the API but this is not charged at a low volume of requests and you can remove the services after you're done testing.

02. Enable the Cloud Vision API

Browse the API library and then enable the Cloud Vision API

Browse the API library and select the Cloud Vision API for your project.

Once enabled you should see a little green check and the message 'API Enabled' beside it.

03. Create a service account

Next you'll need to set up a service account. Think of the API as a web service you're creating. Since we are going to set up usage like a typical service, this is the best practice. It also works best with authentication flow.

04. Download private key

 Get your private key for the service account

Once you have a project with the API enabled and a service account, you can download your private key as a JSON file. Take note of the location of the file, so you can use it in the next steps.

If you have any problems with the first few steps there is a quick start guide that helps and ends with the download of the JSON key.

05. Set environment variable

You need to set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS environmental variable, so it can be accessed by our API calls. This points to the JSON file you just downloaded and saves you having to type the path every time. Open a new terminal window and use the export command like so:

Replace the [username] with your username. Be sure the path to the place you stored the private key file is correct. Replace the [file name] with your private key file and use the path to your file.

On Windows, you can do the same thing via the command line, like this:

Note: If you close your terminal or console window, you may need to run that again to set the variable again. We'll add this into our PHP code shortly as well, so you don't have to worry about it again.

06. Make a call to the API

Now you're ready to dig into the Cloud Vision API. You'll use curl to do quick tests of the API. You can also use this method from your code as well.

The curl requests can be made in most languages, whether that's PHP, Python or Node. This way you can make the calls direct in command line or assign the result to a variable in the language of your choice. FInd some quick tips on using curl here.

Create a simple JSON file to hold the details of the request. Call it google_vision.json. Store it local to where you want to run the terminal commands from.

In the above code, you've indicated an image to analyse, as well as specific API features to use, including face detection and landmark detection. SAFE_SEARCH_DETECTION is great for knowing if the image is safe and in what category it belongs to, such as adult content or violent. IMAGE_PROPERTIES tells you about colours and pixel-level details. 

To execute the curl command, in your terminal or command line interface, enter the following.

By using the > results syntax, you'll have the results stored in a new file called results for you. You indicated the URL to the API ("https://vision.googleapis.com/v1/images:annotate") and included your JSON data to POST to it.

You may get prompted the first time you use this to activate the API or allow access. Answer yes or Y to that prompt and it should return the JSON.

If you open the results file, you'll get JSON data results from the Vision API request. Here's a snippet:

You see some very useful results right away. Under the labelAnnotations node, you can see a 98 per cent match that the image contains a "dog" and a 95 per cent match that it contains a "golden retriever"! The AI already identified the content of the image and other detail, including a "snout" and the fact it is likely a "sporting dog". 

This required no training on your part because of the already-trained Google Vision AI system. Scanning through the results, you'll see everything from recommended crop regions – for auto-cropping images to subjects – to incredible detail of what is in the images, including colours and content. Try it out with other images to see how powerful the API is.

You can continue using this method to test out the calls we'll use. You can also set up a local SDK in a language you prefer and integrate it into your app.

07. Install client library

Next you will make a simple web-based app to show how to integrate the API into your projects. 

There are a number of SDKs available in a variety of languages to make integration easy. You'll use the PHP SDK for this next section. If you wish to tweak the code that follows into a different language, there is a great resource of SDKs here.

Start by making sure you have a project folder set up on your local or remote server. If you don't have it already, get Composer and install it to your project folder. Optionally, you may have Composer already installed globally and that is fine too.

Run the following Composer command to install the vendor files for the Cloud Vision SDK.

Composer makes a vendor folder in your project folder and installs all the dependencies for you. If you get stuck setting this up and want to use PHP, you can check out this installing Composer resource.

08. Create a new file

Create a new PHP file in your project folder. Set it up however you like but include a simple HTML form to upload images for quick testing. Here's an example PHP file with the form included:

The code includes a basic HTML file with a form and a placeholder for PHP code. The code starts checking for the existence of the image, submitted from the form. If it's not submitted yet, it does nothing.

09. Store the image

If you'd prefer to point to images online or on your system, skip this step. If you'd like to process images you select, add this code to save the image selected.

10. Add environment variable 

You need to set the GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS variable for it to authenticate. In PHP we use the putenv command to set an environment variable. Add this code next in your PHP code:

Replace the path and file name to your JSON private key file.

11. Include the library 

Add the library and initialise the LanguageClient class in your code. Add this code next:

Start by requiring the vendor autoload. This is similar in Python or Node when you require your dependencies. Import the ImageAnnotatorClient next, to make use of the class. Define your projectId. If you aren't sure what this is, look it up in your Google Cloud Project console. Finally, create a new ImageAnnotatorClient object using your projectId and assign it to the $imageAnnotator variable.

12. Analyse image content

Start submitting the image to the API for analysis. You'll display the result as JSON to the screen for now but in practice you could assess the results and use them any way you wish. 

Add the following to submit the image to the API.

This submits the content from the submitted form to the imageAnnotator endpoint and stores the result in the $response variable. It specifies the labelDetection feature. You can also use faceDetection, logoDetection, textDetection and many other functions. For a full list, check here. 

Next, iterate over the list of labels. This is just an example to show how to use it: you could process it and react to the results however you need.

13. Detect faces

Using the faceDetection function of the Vision API, you can find the emotions and bounding boxes of faces in the image

Another quick example of how powerful the API is lies in the faceDetection function. This will return emotion data as well as location information of where in the image the faces are. Try out this code to see how it works.

You start out by using the faceDetection function of the Annotator and pass in the image like the previous example. Then you get the faceAnnotiatons. You use an array of response weights in more common language, so you can see the likelihood of certain emotions. Following this, you iterate the response like before. You check for two of several possible emotions, anger and joy, returning the results of those. This will also give you the corners of the bounding boxes that define each face found.

This article was originally published in issue 316 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 316 here or subscribe here.

Related articles:

Amazing AI tool reconstructs photos like magic17 top tools in Google AnalyticsThe best code editors

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/Er3ny0UjZqg/visual-identity-inspiration-monument

Visual Identity Inspiration: Monument

abduzeedoMay 02, 2019

Umer Ahmed shared an incredible visual identity project he worked for Monument, which was built around an online magazine (www.mnmt.no), a wide range of informative and entertaining podcasts, event series and club culture.

They aim to support the vast underground realm of Techno music by highlighting festivals, clubs and artists you otherwise wouldn’t hear about anywhere else.

Today, Monument is the only online platform that focuses exclusively on Techno music, its sub-genres, and the culture surrounding it, giving Monument the advantage to dig deep into underground stories and music to be shared worldwide with other electronic music enthusiasts. As a dedicated and inspirational platform Monument wanted a visual identity that appealed to the hardcore fans and the new audience who want to expand their music library.

Monument focuses on delivering uncompromising content, and to come across as an inspiring collective to their team members and their supporters. With this insight, the identity was built with minimal design elements while still creating room to experiment.

Old-school DIY rave flyers and posters inspire the color pink, while the color green is inspired by the nature where several events (raves) take place.

Redesigned logo features an experimental typographic hierarchy, obscure illustration style and minimal colors are the primary identity elements that express Monuments true values through diverse execution.

Logo features an experimental typographic hierarchy, obscure illustration style

Visual Identity

For more information check out:

www.mnmt.no
www.instagram.com/mnmt.no​​​​​​​

 

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/VV820Ts2Qf4/

Let’s Make A Design System! Live Coding at Smashing Conf

Watch Brad Frost live-code a design system on stage at Smashing Conf San Francisco.

Check it out

Moving from Gulp to Parcel

Ben Frain explains how to use Parcel instead of Gulp for application bundling.

Read it

Our Sponsor
Divi: The Powerful Visual Page Builder

Divi is a revolutionary WordPress theme and visual page builder for WordPress. With Divi, you can build your website visually. Add, arrange and design content and watch everything happen instantly right before your eyes.

Try it

Getting To Know The MutationObserver API

Louis Lazaris shows how to use the MutationObserver API to make observing for DOM changes relatively easy.

Read it

CSS Spatial Navigation Level 1

The first public working draft of the specification that defines a general model for navigating the focus using the arrow keys, as well as related CSS, JavaScript features and Events.

Read it

3D Projection

Jordan Santell writes about the fundamentals of 3D projection and frustums with lots of visuals and math cheats.

Read it

Using React Router for a Single Page Application

A tutorial by Tania Rascia on how to use the react-router-dom library.

Read it

Musical Bubble Sort (CPC Bubble Sort)

In this great demo by Stephen Sparling you can actually listen to Bubble sort!

Check it out

Line Drawing

A hypnotizing pattern demo that changes according to the mouse position. By Liam Egan.

Check it out

DRAG AND JUUUMP!! AND DROP

Have some fun with a click and drag interaction.

Check it out

Create an animated scroll cue

Learn how to add a subtle cue to the bottom of the page that lets people know that they can scroll to see more content.

Read it

The Billion Ways to Display an SVG

An exploration of the various ways there are across HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for getting a SVG to display in the browsers.

Read it

Angled Background CSS-only “Mixin”

A demo by Miriam Suzanne that shows how to create Sass-like “functions” and “mixins” in plain CSS.

Check it out

Base Web React Components

Base Web is the React implementation of Base, Uber’s design system comprised of modern, responsive, living components.

Check it out

Enriching Search Results Through Structured Data

Learn about the importance of structured data in this article by Daniel Waisberg on the Google Webmaster Central Blog.

Read it

Building a pure CSS animated SVG spinner

Glenn McComb’s tutorial on to create a SVG spinner powered by CSS animations.

Read it

Lorem Picsum

Easy to use, stylish placeholders where you just need to add your desired image size after the URL, and you get a random image.

Check it out

Free Font: Pippa Handwriting

A playful handwriting font made by Queenie Appleyard.

Get it

Rushing rapid in a forest by Three.js

A beautiful Three.js demo by Yiting Liu.

Check it out

Mirrorball

A very creative way of showcasing projects.

Check it out

A Designer’s Guide to Animating Icons with CSS

Shannon Thomann shows how to approach CSS animations for animating SVG icons.

Read it

City Life Icons Collection

50 SVG and PNG icons with a city theme by Freepik. Free for a subscription.

Get it

Collective #512 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/O4jAGc1SW2A/

Did you know that you can learn computer science and programming online from institutions like Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and Microsoft on edX.org? The nonprofit site offers 2,000 online courses from 140 institutions worldwide. Courses are free to try.

Popular Courses

Here are some of the most popular courses and programs offered on edX:

CS50 from Harvard

The most popular course on edX gives you an introduction to computer science and programming. Learn how to think algorithmically and solve programming problems efficiently. Gain familiarity in a number of programming languages including C, Python, SQL, JavaScript, CSS and HTML.

Front End Web Developer from W3C

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) is the organization that develops web standards. It was founded by the inventor of the web, Tim Berners-Lee. In this 5 course program, learn how to code with modern HTML5 tags, draw and animate fun web graphics, and play audio and video elements. Learn CSS best practices for web page design and the fundamentals of JavaScript to help you develop interactive web apps.

Introduction to Computing in Python from Georgia Tech

In this 4 course program, learn the fundamentals of computer science in one of the field’s most popular programming languages, Python 3, including writing code, executing it, interpreting the results, and revising the code based on the outcomes. Rated as one of the most in-demand and beginner-friendly programming languages, a background in Python will give you a solid foundation to build your career. Short videos (2-3 minutes each) are rapidly interwoven with live programming problems and multiple-choice questions to give you constant feedback on your progress and understanding.

C Programming with Linux from Dartmouth

Did you know that smartphones, your car’s navigation system, robots, drones, trains, and almost all electronic devices have some C-code running under the hood? Along with the C programming language comes Linux, an essential operating system that powers almost all supercomputers and most of the servers worldwide, as well as all Android devices and most “Internet of Things” devices.

In this 7-course program, develop and debug code in the C programming language. Discover the foundations of computer programming and Linux, manipulate the command line, manage processes, files and memory, and compile C code with Linux.

Data Science from Harvard

Data science is one of the hottest fields in programming. Learn key data science essentials in this 9-course program, including R and machine learning, through real-world case studies to jumpstart your career as a data scientist. Also learn statistical concepts such as probability, inference, and modeling and how to apply them in practice. Gain experience with data visualization with ggplot2 and data wrangling with dplyr. Become familiar with essential tools for practicing data scientists such as Unix/Linux, git and GitHub, and RStudio. This is one of the most popular programs on edX.

Blockchain for Business from the Linux Foundation

Everyone has heard of blockchain, but most don’t understand how it can apply to their business. Learn exactly what a blockchain is, its impact and potential for change around the world, and analyze use cases in technology, business, and enterprise products and institutions in this fundamental course from the experts at the Linux Foundation.

Microsoft Courses

Some of the popular Microsoft courses include:

Introduction to Typescript

Want to write organized code for your website that you can easily manage and maintain? TypeScript is the answer to building scalable web applications. TypeScript lets you write JavaScript the way you want to. TypeScript is a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain JavaScript. It works on any browser. Any host. Any OS.

Introduction to Bootstrap

Bootstrap is an open source project originally created by Twitter to enable creation of responsive, mobile first web pages. Bootstrap has a standard set of classes that allow developers to quickly create applications that scale to devices of all sizes, and incorporate common components such as dialog boxes and validation. Bootstrap has become a de facto standard for web design.

Introduction to jQuery

jQuery is the most popular library for JavaScript. In this course, you will learn how to use jQuery to add additional power and interactivity to your web pages. You’ll see how to take advantage of jQuery in your web pages, how to work with the HTML document, and even make server-side calls.

Introduction to Angular

In this course, you will learn about the basics of how Angular works, and why Angular has emerged as a popular framework for JavaScript/TypeScript application development. You will also learn how to properly set up your development environment for creating an Angular app, including installing VS Code, Node.JS, TypeScript, and the Angular CLI.

Introduction to ReactJS

ReactJS is the latest JavaScript framework to capture the hearts and attention of the frontend developer community. Developers love ReactJS because it’s highly performant and renders changes almost instantly. The best part about ReactJS is that it is a relatively small framework and does not take too much time to learn!

Start Learning Today

If you are looking for something else, edX offers beginner to advanced programming courses in C++, C#, Java, Power BI, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Cybersecurity, IoT, Cloud Computing, AWS, Azure, DevOps, and more. View more courses here.