Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/01/exciting-new-tools-for-designers-january-2020/

We typically start the month with a roundup of new tools and resources for designers, but with the start of a new year (and new decade), we thought a roundup of things to help you get more organized would be appropriate.

Some of these tools have been around for a while with features you might not be using. Other tools are on the new side and offer great functionality. How many of these tools are part of your kit? Which ones will you resolve to use this year?

Here’s what you need to get organized this month and start 2020 off right.

Dropbox

Dropbox is one tool that’s hard to live without. Not only can you use it to manage files and share, you can also use it to run presentations directly with Zoom conferencing or in Slack. Free plans are enough to get started and upgraded plans provide greater storage capability for individuals or teams.

Working from multiple locations with desktop sync and sharing client files are features that make this tool something I use every day.

Feature you need to be using: Shared link expiration dates. When you share files via link, set an expiration date to ensure files aren’t hanging out with access indefinitely.

Slack

Slack is probably a tool that you are already using, but are you making the most of it? Channels, hashtags, and integrations are the key to ensuring that Slack works for you in the way you need it. Take the time to set these up for an efficient, and organized, workflow across multiple teams.

Feature you need to be using: Sync Slack and your Google Calendar for real-time away statuses that work for you.

Cloud Libraries

We all work from a variety of locations—home, work, on desktops and laptops—so cloud-based libraries are a must. Save common files in a location that you can access from anywhere.

Feature you need to be using: Adobe Creative Cloud comes with a place to save libraries, but you can save and connect library files from any cloud-based tool.

Trello

Trello is a free organization and collaboration tool for just about any project. Think of it as a giant project checklist that allows you (or other team members) to keep an eye on how anything from a website build to planning a trip. It works cross devices and isn’t hard to figure out.

Feature you need to be using: Workflow automatons with due date commands and rule-based triggers to make tedious processes happen on their own.

Google Keep

Google Keep is the notetaking app you always wanted. Take notes from any device—sync across all devices—and share or keep notes to yourself. You can take notes by typing, with photos or audio (and it will transcribe messages for you). The best part is this notes app is free and pretty much makes anything else you are using obsolete.

Feature you need to be using: Location, and time-based reminders help keep you on task just when you need it.

Grammarly

Grammarly saves time and effort by checking your messages, everything from documents to website content to emails or social media posts, as you type. Use it to avoid embarrassing mistakes in your writing.

Feature you need to be using: Emojis help you track the tone of your message so that it’s on point and audience-appropriate.

ClickUp

ClickUp takes all your other apps and merges them into a single location and dashboard for easy organization. You can use it to manage your own workspace (free) or collaborate with teams (paid plan). There are multiple views—I’m a big fan of the list option—and templates help jumpstart using the tool.

Feature you need to be using: Use the messages option to create tasks or comments. Boom!

Filing System

Nothing beats a solid filing system. The key benefit of a system is that you store files and folders in the same way every time, making it easier to find things later.

I keep folders first by year. Within annual folders are folders by client name. Then by project name. When projects are complete, I end up with two folders: WORKING and FINAL. Use the same format for naming files. (I use Client Name-Project-Year.)

Feature you need to be using: Date project files. Relying on “date modified” settings isn’t enough if you resave an old file by mistake.

Invoicely

Invoicely makes it easy to work as a freelance designer. The platform is made for sending invoices, managing clients, and allows you to accept online payments. It’s secure and offers a free plan (as well as a paid option).

Feature you need to be using: If you are trying to get organized, time tracking tools help you know just what an individual client costs. You can enter time, expense per client, and mileage so you can get a realistic picture of revenue by project.

HelloSign

HelloSign is for anyone dealing with documents that need signatures. Send and sign online with a platform that’s secure and easy for users to understand. Plus, you can sign items right from common tools such as Gmail or other G-Suite apps.

Feature you need to be using: Store all your signed documents in the interface so you can find them later. (HelloSign will also automatically send reminders if someone hasn’t signed a form.)

Traditional Planner + Online Calendar

Pair a paper planner with your online calendar to keep track of tasks (paper planner as a checklist) as well as events and appointments (online calendar). Daily deadlines are best managed when you can jot them down and check them off throughout the day. Plus, that note is right in front of you to stay focused.

Feature you need to be using: Try a weekly paper planner, tear off sheets, or a dry erase board for task management that doesn’t seem overwhelming.

WeTransfer

WeTransfer makes sending large files a lot easier. There’s nothing worse than a file getting lost in cyberspace because it’s too big for email. WeTransfer allows you to send and receive big files with just a click. (And you don’t have to have an account to download files.)

Feature you need to be using: Integrate WeTransfer with other tools such as Slack, Sketch or Chrome for direct sharing from wherever you are working.

JotForm

JotForm is the ultimate tool for creating any type of online form, from simple surveys to signups to payment collection or image uploads. The service has free and paid plans, depending on usage and everything is customizable, so forms can be branded with ease.

Feature you need to be using: PDF Templates are ready-made forms for everything from a simple invoice to contracts or photo waivers. Start with a PDF and tweak as you need. Plus, you can set it up to be filled out digitally and returned to you. This is a huge timesaver, and you can save custom forms in your account to use over and over again.

 

Featured image via Unsplash.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tympanus/~3/Z1lfhz4c038/

Inspirational Website of the Week: Obys

A combination of unique layouts, beautiful elements and smooth animations make Obys stand out.

Get inspired

This content is sponsored via Thought Leaders
Manage projects better in 2020 – Clubhouse.io

“Clubhouse is like a fast and delightful version of Jira, a more purposeful version of Trello.” Free for up to 10 users.

Check it out

The End of Indie Web Browsers: You Can (Not) Compete

Samuel Maddock’s sobering article on the detrimental consequences of the introduction of Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) by the W3C, bringing with it the end of competitive Indie web browsers.

Read it

Smaller HTML Payloads with Service Workers

Philip Walton shares a great technique leveraging Service Workers to decrease HTML payloads.

Read it

All Design Conferences

A great project by Pablo Stanley: a list of all design and front-end conferences around the world in 2020.

Check it out

calcolor.co

A fantastic new way to find, modify and share digital colors. Created by Timon Weber.

Check it out

Let’s Learn Eleventy!

In this episode of “Learn With Jason”, Zach Leatherman shows how Eleventy makes building static sites fast and fun.

Watch it

Why You Should Choose HTML5 <article> Over <section>

In this article, Bruce Lawson explains what use we have of <section> and how authors should mark up headings that are hugely important to AT users.

Read it

EscherSketch

A really nice tool for drawing and exploring symmetrical patterns and designs. It can export pictures, pattern tiles for fabric and wallpaper design, and SVG for further editing.

Check it out

Awwwards Nominees of the Year 2019

Vote for the best of the web in the annual awards by Awwwards.

Check it out

Fun with CSS Motion Path

Michelle Barker shares some fun animations you can do with the new CSS Motion Path properties.

Check it out

Publish

A static site generator built specifically for Swift developers. It enables entire websites to be built using Swift, supporting themes, plugins and more customization options.

Check it out

Whack-a-mole!

Andrew Burton coded this offline-first PWA version of Whack-a-mole for his children. The source code can be found here.

Check it out

Mailchimp’s 2019 Annual Report

The beautiful annual report by Mailchimp that highlights some interesting stats.

Check it out

Multi-Thumb Sliders: Particular Two-Thumb Case

In this two part article, Ana Tudor makes her own version of a multi-thumb slider.

Read it

The Solar System 2010 – 2020

Rob DiMarzo explores the changes the solar system has gone through in the past decade.

Check it out

22120

An archivist browser controller that caches everything you browse, a library server with full text search to serve your archive.

Check it out

The Jam – Swissted

A fantastic GSAP 3 powered demo by Pete Barr where he brings a poster to life.

Check it out

7 CSS properties you had no idea about

A compilation of some really interesting and lesser known CSS properties.

Read it

13 ways to vertical center in 2020

The team of LogRocket shows 13 ways to vertically center an element in CSS. Check out the demos here.

Watch it

From Our Blog
Awesome Demos Roundup #12

A hand-picked collection of fantastic web experiments for your inspiration.

Check it out

From Our Blog
Playing with Texture Projection in Three.js

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to project a texture onto an object in Three.js with some interesting examples.

Check it out

Collective #579 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/Smp75T6y8A0/

Among the top reasons to sell products or services online with WooCommerce is the WordPress plugin’s extensibility. Developers have extended it in all manner of ways. Everything from the look of your eCommerce shop to the types of products you sell can be changed and improved. And that’s just scratching the surface.

If you possess slightly more advanced development skills, there is a whole world of tweaks you can implement. They take place under the hood, so-to-speak, in your theme’s functions.php file or via custom plugins you can write yourself.

We’re talking about WordPress hooks. These are built in ways that you can interact with what a specific plugin, or WordPress itself, is doing. They’re highly useful for adding additional functionality or even changing the output of what’s displayed on the screen.

Luckily, WooCommerce has an extensive set of hooks available. You can use them to customize the shopping cart and tweak the user experience to match your needs.

Today, we’ll take a look at a few basic examples of how hooks can make WooCommerce that much better. But first, let’s explore why they’re often the best way to make customizations.

Why Use Hooks?

WordPress is nothing if not flexible. Thus, there are usually a number of different ways to accomplish the same thing. The same is true of WooCommerce.

For example, WooCommerce provides developers with the ability to override the various templates that the plugin utilizes. It might be a product page, a product category or even the checkout screen. If you need to add a custom bit of code, this is an easy enough way to do so.

However, the core versions of these templates are updated over time. If the particular template you’ve overridden is updated, you’ll need to reconcile that with any customizations. Otherwise, you run the risk of display errors or even the loss of functionality.

Hooks, on the other hand, don’t require you to directly edit a template. Instead, they allow you to insert code at a specific location and time. Since they are stored either in your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin, they remain largely unaffected by new versions of templates.

The sheer number of hooks built into WooCommerce often makes it a more effective and easier to maintain path to customization.

WooCommerce Hook Examples

Now that we know a bit more about why hooks are the preferred way to customize your cart, let’s take a look at a few examples of what they can do.

The following are basic code snippets that demonstrate the potential of hooks. They can add helpful information and functionality that improve the user experience. What’s more, these items can be added across the board or just in specific situations.

Add a Message to Product Pages

Imagine that you’re running an online store and you’re preparing for the holiday shopping season. You want to make sure that your customers know when the ordering deadline is for Christmas delivery.

While you could add a message to every individual product through the WordPress back end, that wouldn’t be very efficient. Instead, a hook could do the job in one shot.

Here’s the code, which goes into your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

What It Does
The hook, woocommerce_before_single_product, will place your code at the very top of each product’s page. Our custom function, my_product_notice_function, is the code that is added in and contains the special message.

Going Further
The above example would apply to ALL products within your shop. But what if you wanted to target only products within a specific category? There is a way accomplish that:

Now, we’ve managed to target just the products in the “Toys” category. Of course, there are a number of other possibilities here. You could, for example, display different messages based on a product’s category by adding in some conditional tags. Hooks really can be customized to match your exact needs.

Remove Related Products

By default, WooCommerce will show a listing of related products at the bottom of your product pages. But there may be times when you’d rather not show this information. A super-simple hook can take care of it.

Once again, the following code goes into your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

What It Does
As the name indicates, the remove_action() function is used to remove the function (woocommerce_output_related_products) attached to the specific hook (woocommerce_after_single_product_summary) we’re targeting.

Also note the number 20 in the code. This is the priority of our function and determines when it runs. The default priority is 10, so, the higher number indicates that it will run after the default. This ensures that the hook won’t be overridden by WooCommerce itself.

Rename a Product Tab

Hooks can also change the default output of WooCommerce. In this example from the WooCommerce Snippet Library, a filter will rename each of the three default tabs shown on product pages.

This code (you guessed it) should be placed into your theme’s functions.php file or a custom plugin:

What It Does
This function retrieves the title of each product tab (“Description”, “Reviews”, “Additional Information”) and changes their titles to “More Information”, “Ratings” and “Product Data”, respectively. You could, of course, change any of those titles to match your needs.

Creating a Better Shopping Experience

Just about every WooCommerce shop could benefit from some customizations. Each business is different and a default install simply can’t reflect all of the potential nuances.

Hooks are what can take a website from generic to a true reflection of a company’s brand and way of doing business. They allow us to add those little details that make for a unique user experience.

And, you don’t have to be a master developer to start using them. The examples above, basic as they are, can provide a great starting point. The best way to learn is often to take what’s already been done and experiment. Soon, you’ll find all sorts of situations where a hook can be just the thing your project needs.

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/01/take-off-with-aviationstacks-real-time-flight-api/

In our increasingly global world, people travel by airplane…a lot. With rapid turnaround times, unpredictable weather, and unexpected delays, airlines both domestic and international frequently adjust their flight schedules to keep us moving.

If you’re building a website, a progressive web app, or even a native app that involves any kind of travel, the last thing you want to do is give users out-of-date information, and when it comes to air travel, information is out of date almost as soon as its published. Turbulence en route to Bangkok, can have a devastating impact on queues in Denver. A reliable flight tracker should be one of the first must-haves on your feature list.

aviationstack is an incredibly powerful API that delivers comprehensive data about flights worldwide

Of course, any flight tracker is only as useful as the data that powers it. The minimum standard is access to a dataset that covers the information you need, reports data accurately, and boasts a solid uptime.

For those reasons, if you’re looking to introduce flight data to your site, then one of the best ways to go about it, is integrating with aviationstack.

aviationstack is an incredibly powerful API that delivers comprehensive data about flights worldwide, in a simple-to-use format.

Why Track Flights

Let’s say you’re building a ride-booking app, you absolutely want to be able to track flights in order to minimise disruption, coordinate with drivers right across the fleet, and maximise your profits. Or imagine you’re building a website for a train operator, wouldn’t it be nice to let passengers know whether they’re going to make their connecting flight. And of course, if you’re operating an airline it’s common sense that your users will benefit from this kind of rich data.

But companies that service airline customers aren’t the only ones that benefit from tracking airplanes. If you’re running any kind of business that people may travel to, whether that’s a hotel in Madrid, or a tech conference in Las Vegas, showing people their flight options is one way to remove friction when potential attendees are deciding whether to purchase a ticket.

Sometimes, people need to travel at a moment’s notice, and on unfamiliar routes. It may be that there are unexpectedly great waves off the coast of Big Sur; it might be that a bird, previously thought extinct has been spotted in Iceland; it might be that you’ve accidentally left your son Kevin at home in Chicago while you flew to Paris for the holidays. Whatever niche-interest your site or app caters to, if travel’s involved, then a flight tracker is essential.

Why Use aviationstack

If you’re comparing flight data APIs, then here are a few of the reasons we think aviationstack deserves to be at the top of your shortlist:

more than 13,000 airlines are represented across over 10,000 airports

Firstly, aviationstack’s data is amongst the most extensive available, because it’s drawn from high-quality sources. Using aviationstack you can easily look up flights across airports, cities, and countries; you can check historical flight data; you can even check live flights in real-time. The API covers over 9,000 cities in more than 250 countries; over 19,000 airplanes are divided into more than 300 different types; more than 13,000 airlines are represented across over 10,000 airports. For comprehensive data, aviationstack is hard to beat.

Secondly, aviationstack’s data is accurate to the minute. Many of us get a little anxious when we travel, not least when we’re rushing to catch a connecting flight. When your app or site is providing advice and information to potentially fraught customers, accurate information is invaluable, and can often transform a stressful situation into an exceptional user experience that wins you a loyal customer for life.

Thirdly, aviationstack is built on an incredibly reliable infrastructure. It’s owned and operated by apilayer, one of the best-known names in APIs, which means you can be confident that the API won’t buckle under the pressure. The API is incredibly simple to access, with code examples provided in PHP, Python, Go, Ruby, Nodejs, and even jQuery. It’s so simple that even novice front-end coders will get it up and running quickly, without any difficulty.

Last, and by no means least, aviationstack offers an entirely free plan that grants you 500 requests to the API per month, with full aviation, and real-time flight data. Which means you can try it out with zero risk. Once you’re happy, subscriptions start from just $39.99 (billed annually) and you can cancel at any time.

Head over to aviationstack.com today to see the API in action, and claim your free API key.

 

[– This is a sponsored post on behald of aviationstack –]

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