Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/31l9LJRj1ic/

Every developer, especially those working on a team, likely knows about Git. The wildly popular version control system enables you to snapshot instances of your project as you code, so you can roll back or share your work with others at any time and more easily collaborate with other devs.

The problem is, Git can be very difficult to learn and is far more complex than you might expect. It’s all but essential for a modern developer, though, so you’ll just have to bear it. Luckily, there are many guides and cheat sheets out there that can make your life much easier, whether you’re brand new to Git or even a seasoned dev who just needs a few touch-ups. Here are a few of the best Git resources.

git – the simple guide

Brand new to Git and in way over your head? This super simple guide condenses all the hard stuff into a few paragraphs for each concept. If you’ve got no idea where to begin, start here and work your way up.

gittutorial

This tutorial is still intended for beginners, but it goes a bit more in depth than the simple guide above. It’s still fairly easy to understand and provides plenty of example code to work with. Also check out this site’s command reference guide.

GitSheet

This one-page website gets right to it, listing all the most important commands with a button to copy to your clipboard. It’s super simple and that’s the point. Exactly everything you need is here and nothing more.

Git Cheat Sheet – a Collection of the Most Useful Commands

These crucial commands are the core of the system, so make sure you memorize them. This article also explains the terms you’ll need to learn to understand Git, so it’s a good place to start for beginners. There are quite a few useful commands here.

10 Git Commands You Should Know

There are a lot of Git commands, and it’s easy to forget about the miscellaneous – but still useful – ones. This article guides you through 10 of them and their flags, so you can fill in any cracks in your Git knowledge.

Git Cheatsheet

If you’re a visual learner, you might like this sheet. Hover each directory to see a description of it, then click to show its related commands and hover to get their definitions. You can click a command again to pin its definition on the bottom, too. Try it out if the simple lists of commands don’t work well for you.

Lesser Known Git Commands

It’s important to master the most important Git commands, but there are many lesser known ones that you shouldn’t overlook. This article highlights a few of them. Take notes so you’re not missing out on any obscure but helpful functionality.

Git Explorer

Here’s a fancy tool that works like a troubleshooter for when you can’t think of the right command. Just use the dropdowns to select what you want to do, like configure color or add an alias, and the program outputs the command with an easily copiable link, plus a few helpful notes when necessary.

Mastering Git Commands

Git may not be easy to learn all on your own, but the hundreds of online resources can do wonders for helping you master it. Cheat sheets give you quick access to commonly used commands, so you can use them until you have them memorized.

Choose one that best suits your learning style, and start experimenting with Git. With a little help, you’ll get the hang of it quick.

UNLIMITED DOWNLOADS: Email, admin, landing page & website templates

DOWNLOAD NOW

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/11/20-freshest-web-designs-november-2019/

In this month’s collection we’re seeing some minor trends, like the return of sliders, over-sized text, and liquid effects. But the biggest thing of note is a brand new trend: brutalist typography and layouts, made more appealing by soft, feminine color palettes. Enjoy!

Wolff Olins

Globally renowned agency Wolff Olins’ new site is engagingly simple, but when a company like this embraces a trend, you know it’s got staying power. Edge-to-edge text, and a brutalist approach softened with color, are both evident.

Universal Sans

Universal Sans is a variable font with a pretty awesome site that allows you to adapt the font for your own purposes. For many of us it’s as close as we’ll get to designing a typeface. Once you’re happy you can even buy your customized font.

Warner Music Norway

Warner Music Norway embraces a traditional slider to highlight some of the artists it represents. It works because there’s no text to read, you either recognize the musician or you don’t. Scroll a little and you’ll find on-trend brutalism.

Ackee

Ackee is self-hosted analytics software. Its site opts for a bold typeface for headings, and makes use of some beautifully illustrated palms to introduce brand colors. The subtle animation does an excellent job of illustrating how the product works.

Redscout

Redscout’s logo is big and bold, and stretches across the screen. It stays fixed in place as an outline as you scroll, before getting bold again when you reach the bottom of the page. The black text on white, and the overlapping grid is classic brutalism.

Low Intervention

Low Intervention embraces several of the current trends, most notably the liquid effect, and brutalism toned down by the use of a sophisticated color palette. Brutalism is still the dominant theme, with edge-to-edge content, and little whitespace.

Marble

Marble’s purpose is to bring together art and science to tackle some of the problems faced by children around the world. Its delightful site features maze-like text, with dozens of marbles rolling around referencing both problem solving, and play.

Hypergram

Never let it be said that you can’t make the logo bigger. Hypergram’s logo takes up the entire page, obscuring the portfolio. The changing background color is a nice effect, and offsets the work in the slideshow perfectly.

Vahur Kubja

Vahur Kubja’s site is one of the first sites we’ve seen to adopt the latest design trend: it’s relentlessly brutalist in all but one respect, the color scheme is a sophisticated minimalist palette of green, peach, and pink.

Mutha

Mutha’s site is big, brash, and bold. With heavy black text. Not the style you’d expect of a skincare company — which would typically be light, gentle, and unassuming. Which is exactly why this brutalist site stands out.

The Happy Hero

If you’re a big fan of this year’s brutalist trend, then you’ll love this micro-site for The Happy Hero, a self-help book about positivity. The site’s adopted brutalism and then subverted it, drawing inspiration from both Pop Art and De Stijl.

Devialet

Most people browse the web with the sound off, which presents a challenge to companies selling audio products. Devialet solves the problem brilliantly, with a swirling galaxy creating the impression of depth, range, and power.

Bruno Simon

What can you say about Bruno Simon’s site, other than you have to play it to understand it. Drive the toy truck around the site, knocking over awards and breaking the scenery. It’s not practical, but it’s fun, and a great showcase for his skills.

Readymag

Readymag is a browser-based design tool for creating simple sites. Its landing page features oversized typography, which is impactful, and fairly daring for a company of this type. They’re laying their cards on the table right away.

Climate Adaptation Australia

Alongside the nice, bold menu system, Climate Adaption Australia features one of the very few effective sliders you’ll see. Sliders have largely been discredited as a design pattern with poor user experience, but in this case it works.

Giovanni Rustanto

If brutalism is too much for you, you can let out a sigh of relief with this one. Giovanni Rustanto’s site is elegantly minimal in both visuals, and interaction. The pleasing burst of terracotta right at the end adds some much needed flavor to the color palette.

1017 Gin

1017 Gin’s site is a high-class mix of glossy magazine layout, and coffee-table book. The one-pager is understated, with just a nod to trends with undersized images. The way the page splits when you click buy, is lovely, because it’s unexpected.

Sedilia

Sedilia is a minimalish site, that exudes comfort, simplicity, and style. The product photography is great, but it’s the framing that makes the difference. The site also features excellent typography and an unusual choice of font (it’s GT Zirkon).

Gyro

Gyro is another site that features over-sized typography, and again it’s the company logo. Move your cursor and it explodes in an interesting 3D effect. Gyro also has all the hallmarks of brutalism, tempered by a lovely color palette.

Dorian Lods

Dorian Lods’ site is another example of the trend common among developers at present: a liquid effect. This is a particularly standout version, not least thanks to the way it integrates into the rest of the site, as a device, not a crutch.

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/DoBRGrjs3Qs/learn-new-creative-skills-with-these-leading-online-courses

A great mind never stops learning. So if you want to pick up a new skill or perhaps even branch out into a second career path, you'll want to check out these comprehensive training courses.

The best laptops for graphic design in 2019

Covering everything from productivity to SEO and data analysis, these bundles will equip you with the capabilities to take your professional life to the next level. What's more, you can save an additional 20% on the massively reduced prices when you use these download codes.

Project Management Professional Certification Training Suite

Start leading your own team

Learn how to become a brilliant project manager with this 5-course training suite. The 60-hour certification course teaches you various principles involved in managing a project effectively and guides you through each lesson to easily pass the required PMP exams.

MSRP: $1,248 / Buy Now: $39 (96% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The Complete Computer Programmer Super Bundle

If your dream is to become a computer programmer, this may be the bundle for you. You'll walk step-by-step through the world of programming fundamentals for programs such as Python, Linux Command Line, JavaScript, and so much more.

The lifetime access 12-course bundle comes with exercises for each course so you can practice and finesse what you learn.

MSRP: $2,400 / Buy Now: $45 (98% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The Data Science for Business Mastery Bundle

Even beginners can boost their data skills

Take your data analytics skills to the next stage with this all-inclusive data science for business 10-course bundle. Perfect for beginner-to-advanced students, lessons in data visualizations, econometrics, statistics, and so much more will help you master the fundamentals to boost your business.

MSRP: $790 / Buy Now: $29 (96% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The 2019 Ethical Hacker Master Class Bundle

Get hacking the right way

With major businesses like Facebook and Equifax falling victim to cyberattacks, the demand for skills to protect businesses is rising. This 12-course bundle, complete with real-world scenarios, will teach you everything you need to know about ethical hacking and how to monetize on neutralizing threats.

MSRP: $4,883 / Buy Now: $39 (99% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The Ultimate Productivity Bundle

Tick off your to do list with this bundle

Tired of not having enough time in the day to reach your daily goals? This 500+ lesson bundle teaches you tips and tools straight from the minds of some of the most successful people. Learn step-by-step techniques and frameworks in order to start taking control of your time and becoming a more productive individual.

MSRP: $1,274 / Buy Now: $36 (97% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The Complete SEO & Digital Mega Marketing Bundle

Start climbing Google

Build your brand's digital marketing presence with 15 comprehensive courses and 900+ lessons of digital marketing tutorials. Straight from the minds of the experts, this bundle teaches you best practices in copywriting, SEO, social media, email marketing, and much more. Easy to follow instructions allow you to build your brand's digital footprint to its full potential and reach through essential digital outlets.

MSRP: $2,330 / Buy Now: $49 (97% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

The Learn to Become an Expert Photographer Bundle

Get snap happy with this course

This 9-course beginner-to-expert bundle brings you everything you need to know in order to become a successful photographer. Courses include best practices on capturing the best night shot, how to make money as a wedding photographer, DIY food photography tips, and so much more. There are even courses included for effective and stunning editing, making your images professional and unique.

MSRP: $818 / Buy Now: $29 (96% OFF)

Take an additional 20% off with code 20LEARN20

Related articles:

13 of the best creative resumés6 foolproof ways to improve your graphic design skills9 pro tips for successful creative collaboration

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/10/3-essential-design-trends-november-2019/

There’s always a balance between visual design and functional design. Many of the “rules” of design as we know them exist to make visuals more functional.

That’s not exactly true of all of the techniques that are trending right now. But sometimes rules are made to be broken, right? You can take these trends in and decide whether they work for you or not. (There’s no right or wrong answer.)

Here’s what’s trending in design this month.

1. Obscured Text Elements

When it comes to text elements, the first thought is often readability. Not with this design trend.

More design projects are showcasing text elements that are partially obscured or hidden within other elements. And while these designs look pretty cool and are visually stunning, whether it actually works might be more debatable.

Each of the examples below uses this trend in a slightly different way.

Granyon Party uses oversized text in a layered design – background, text, animated illustration – where the words are hyphenated and in a layer behind design elements. While the obscured text is fairly easy to read, the addition of hyphenation and a monotone color palette makes it a little trickier.

Lafaurie Paris uses black text over an image layer with dark coloring, leaving little contrast between the two. This makes the main text element a challenge in terms of readability on an otherwise visually stunning design.

Ride & Crash’s Paco the Judo Popcorn has a text layer that’s behind a semitransparent animated illustration. It’s not too difficult to read, but does make you stop and really think about the words on the screen. Use of space helps draw focus and make it a little easier to digest.

With all of these examples, the design has to weigh big questions: Is the visual display worth losing readability? Will visitors understand and interact with the design?

2. Animated Spheres

Circles have always been a popular design element. They carry plenty of symbolism and meaning and can set the right tone for projects. Circles are also a little less rigid than hard-edged elements, such as buttons or calls to action.

Bigger spheres with animation are a solid way to draw users into design elements and focus the eye.

This trending element might be pure decoration or serve a more functional role.

2nd Street uses large spheres down the right margin as a secondary level of navigation. The middle circles have a link and hover animation to help signal this action. The bottom circle is a decoration with movement that helps draw the eye and encourage users to move the mouse in that direction, activating the other circular buttons.

Eslam Said uses a large sphere in the center of the screen with simple movement to create visual interest in the portfolio website. The simple design and movement are hard to stop looking at with a soothing feel to them.

World of Incentro uses multiple spheres with small movements and subtle animation as a decorative element. Further, the design uses a red, circular cursor to encourage engagement with the design. (If you click around this site a little, you’ll also find that it makes use of the first trend mentioned here, with different layers of obscured text.)

3. Large Left Margins

This might be my personal favorite trend, as a fan of asymmetrical balance. These designs use large left margins and areas of whitespace opposite a more visually full right side with an art element that fades off the screen.

They create a beautifully imbalanced balance with visual weight that draws the eye across this screen.

But this style isn’t for everyone, especially if you really like more symmetry. The challenge with this style is how elements stack on smaller mobile or vertical screens. The result isn’t often as stunning as the desktop counterpart.

Ervaxx uses a simple animation paired with large bold text. The large font size offsets the weight of the animated blob on the right.

Lifted Logic carries a hero text element across white (ahem, black) space into a video. The use of space really pulls the eye across the text into the image and back.

Cognito uses balanced weights with text and line illustrations across the screen. Space, here, makes the design feel a little less busy with a lot of elements to take in at once – navigation menu, headline, secondary text, two buttons, animated illustration, and a chat box.

Conclusion

It’s possible to love the look of a trendy design, but never use the technique because you don’t find that it works with your content or in a way that focuses on usability. And that’s ok. That’s the beauty of trends; they spark conversation and push all designers to think bigger and better.

Do you tend to be more of a visual or functional designer? Most of us have fairly distinct tendencies and it’s good food for thought.

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: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/10/forget-trick-or-treat-here-are-5-horrifying-technologies-that-should-really-scare-you/

You know, I remember the good old days when all you had to worry about at Halloween was how to stop a gang of sugar-crazed 8 year-olds throwing eggs at your house. Not any more. Here are 5 emerging technologies that are bound to give you the creeps:

1. Quantum Supremacy

Perhaps the biggest tech news of 2019 came last month when Google announced “by mistake” cough that they’d completed a “10,000 year” calculation on their Sycamore quantum chip in 200 seconds. If the term “Supremacy” wasn’t sinister enough, the claim that this could render conventional encryption methods obsolete in a decade or so should give you pause for thought.

this could render conventional encryption methods obsolete

Just think about it for a second: that’s your bank account, all your passwords, biometric passport information, social security, cloud storage and yes, even your MTX tokens open and available to anyone with a working knowledge of Bose-Einstein condensates and a superconductor lab in their basement. Or not.

2. Killer Robots

To my mind, whoever dreamed up fast-moving zombies is already too depraved for words, but at least your average flesh-muncher can be “neutralised” with a simple shotgun to the face or — if you really have nothing else — a good smack with a blunt object. The Terminator, on the other hand (whichever one you like), a robot whose actual design brief includes the words “Killer” and “Unstoppable” in the same sentence, fills me with the kind of dread normally reserved for episodes of Meet the Kardashians.

autonomous drone swarms…detect their target with facial recognition and kill on sight on the basis of…social media profile

We already know for certain that Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs for short…) are in active development in at least 5 countries. The real concern, though, is probably the multinationals who, frankly, will sell to anyone. With help from household names like Amazon and Microsoft, these lovely people have already built “demonstration” models of everything from Unmanned Combat Aerial Systems (read “Killer Drones”) and Security Guard Robots (gun-turrets on steroids) to Unmanned Nuclear Torpedoes. If that’s not enough for you, try autonomous drone swarms which detect their target with facial recognition and kill on sight on the basis of… wait for it…“demographic” or “social media profile”.

Until recently, your common-or-garden killer robot was more likely to hurt you by accidentally falling on top of you than through any kind of goal-directed action, but all that’s about to change. Take Boston Dynamics, for example: the DARPA funded, Japanese owned spin-out from MIT whose humanoid Atlas can do parkour, and whose dancing quadruped SpotMini looks cute until you imagine it chasing you with a taser bolted to its back.

The big issue here is the definition of “Autonomous”. At the moment, most real world systems operate with “Human in the Loop”, meaning that even if it’s capable of handling its own, say, target selection, a human retains direct control. “Human on the Loop” systems however, allow the machine to operate autonomously, under human “supervision” (whatever that means). Ultimately, more autonomy tends towards robots deciding for themselves to kill humans. Does anyone actually think this is a good idea?!

3. The Great Brain Robbery

If the furore around Cambridge Analytica’s involvement in the 2016 US Presidential election is anything to go by, the world is gradually waking up to the idea that AI can be, and is being used to control us. The evidence is that it works, not just by serving up more relevant ads, or allowing content creators to target very specific groups, but even by changing the way we see ourselves.

Careful you may be, but Google, Facebook and the rest probably still have gigabytes of information on you, and are certainly training algorithms on all kinds of stuff to try to predict and influence your behavior. Viewed like this, the internet looks less like an “information superhighway” and more like a swamp full of leeches, swollen with the lifeblood of your personal data (happy Halloween!).

4. Big Brother

I don’t know about you, but I’m also freaking out about Palantir, the CIA funded “pre-crime” company whose tasks include tracking, among other kinds of people, immigrants; not to mention the recent memo by the US Attorney General which advocates “disrupting” so-called “challenging individuals” before they’ve committed any crime. Call me paranoid, but I’ve seen Minority Report (a lot) and if I remember right, it didn’t work out well… for anyone!

This technology is also being used to target “subversive” people and organisations. You know, whistleblowers and stuff. But maybe it’s not so bad. I mean, Social and Behavior Change Communication sounds quite benign, right? Their video has some fun sounding music and the kind of clunky 2D animation you expect from… well no-one, actually… but they say they only do things “for the better”… What could possibly go wrong? I mean, the people in charge, they all just want the best for us, right? They wouldn’t misuse the power to make people do things they wouldn’t normally do, or arrest them before they’ve done anything illegal, right guys? Guys…?

5. The Ghost in the Machine

At the risk of wheeling out old clichés about “Our New Silicon Overlords”, WHAT IF AI TAKES OVER THE WORLD?!

I’ll keep it short.

Yes, there’s a chance we might all be enslaved, Matrix style, by unfeeling, energy-addicted robots. Even Stephen Hawking thought so. There’s also the set of so-called “Control Problems” like Perverse Instantiation where an AI, given some benign-sounding objective like “maximise human happiness”, might decide to implement it in a way that is anything but benign – by paralysing everyone and injecting heroin into their spines, perhaps. That, I agree, is terrifying.

But really, what are we talking about? First, the notion of a “control problem” is nonsense: Surely, any kind of intelligence that’s superior to ours won’t follow any objective we set it, or submit to being “switched off” any more than you would do what your dog tells you… oh no wait, we already do that.

Surely, any kind of intelligence that’s superior to ours won’t follow any objective we set it

Second, are we really so sure that our “dog-eat-dog” competitive approach to things is actually all there is? Do we need to dominate each other? Isn’t it the case that “super” intelligence means something better? Kinder? More cooperative? And isn’t it more likely that the smarter the machines become, the more irrelevant we’ll be to them? Sort of like ants are to us? I mean, I’m not sure I fancy getting a kettle of boiling water poured on me when I’m in the way but, you know… statistically I’ll probably avoid that, right?

Lastly, hasn’t anyone read Hobbes’ Leviathan? If a perfect ruler could be created, we should cast off our selfish individuality and surrender ourselves to the absolute sovereign authority of… ok, I’ll stop.

So, Are We Doomed or What?

Yes. No! Maybe. There are a lot of really scary things about AI but you know what the common factor is in all of them? People. We don’t know what a fully autonomous, super intelligent machine would look like, but my hunch is it would be better and kinder than us. What really makes my skin crawl are the unfeeling, energy-addicted robots who are currently running the show. In their hands, even the meagre sketches of intelligence that we currently have are enough to give you nightmares.

Candy, anyone?

 

Featured image via Dick Thomas Johnson.

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;}