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Learn the basics of object-oriented programming in Python: inheritance, polymorphism, creating classes, attributes and methods, and more.
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Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2023/01/6-predictions-for-web-design-in-2023/
Welcome to our annual guessing game of what the next twelve months will bring.
As ever, the design world isn’t isolated from the world in which it exists, so when events shape our lives, they impact our work, the work clients ask for, and the work that inspires us. According to Collins Dictionary, the word of the year for 2022 was permacrisis. And frankly, 2023 doesn’t look any less turbulent, with some good and some bad things already on the horizon.
Russia seems all but certain to retreat to Crimea and claim its objectives in Ukraine have been achieved; Ukraine may not accept that end, but it will probably be enough to end sanctions against Russia, which will significantly impact the economy worldwide. Brazil may have been forced to watch Argentina lift the FIFA World Cup, but it has a new (old) president and fresh hope for the survival of the Amazon rainforest. Crypto has weathered a series of storms (although there may be more to come), and historical precedence suggests the bear market has run its course; 2023 will see stagnation, with an upward trend taking hold toward the end of the year. The former Pope has died, potentially paving the way for the retirement of the current Pope and the election of a new Pope, bringing with it either renewed liberalism or renewed conservatism to the world’s largest religion. Oh, and the IMF thinks a third of the world will be in recession at some point in 2023; the UK and Russia already are, and policymakers in the US are looking nervous.
And that’s just the obvious. Of course, there will be surprises, too, because there always are.
Against this backdrop, designers must not only navigate a problematic jobs market but produce designs that respond to the needs and desires of their clients’ users.
How Did I Do in 2022?
Before diving into this year’s predictions, let’s take a look at how I thought 2022 would play out.
I predicted that 2022 would be the year of blockchain, with decentralized data storage taking over. Well, I got the decentralized part right, but not so much the blockchain aspect (feel free to tell me I’m wrong on Mastodon because I’m not checking Twitter anymore). I’ll call that half a point.
I said design would be positive, playful, and accessible. I think design did emerge from its obsession with corporate minimalism, but positive and playful? Unfortunately, I’m calling that a miss.
I said everything would be green. Again, that’s a miss. If there was a color for 2022, it was a pink-purple gradient.
I predicted hero text would replace hero images, and in the third quarter of 2022, that’s exactly the trend we saw; tick.
Finally, I suggested that illustration would adopt a grainy texture. Well, some designers did, but it was hardly a dominant trend, so I’m going to have to call that a miss.
So for my 2022 predictions, I scored 30%. Way worse than last year’s clean sweep. Let’s see if we can’t beat that in 2023…
1. We’ll Stop Freaking Out Over AI
By now, you’ve probably tried AI, freaked out, and Googled how to start a small holding in the mountains.
The truth is that AI is just a tool. And a good one at that. AI is really good at derivative work. But it’s entirely incapable of improvising, holding opinions, having an agenda, or thinking outside the box.
AI will not replace your job — unless your job is deleting the background from photos, in which case it already has. Since when did Stephen King get replaced by a spellchecker?
If you haven’t tried an AI tool yet, I’d encourage you to try it. It does the small repetitive tasks well.
2. We’ll Embrace the Real World
One of the reasons AI can’t be creative is that it doesn’t have the same number of input sensors we have. We can smell, hear, feel, and experience the world in a multitude of different ways.
Most of us spent a year in lockdown working remotely. Then rushed back to the office, only to discover that our teamwork didn’t actually improve. With the worsening economic outlook, big companies are looking to budget, and the simplest way to cut costs is to ask staff to work remotely.
When your commute is a five-second walk to the spare bedroom, you find yourself with more free time. Sure, you could probably learn Python, but wouldn’t you be happier learning to paddleboard?
As we open ourselves to new experiences, our design work will inevitably become more diverse and natural.
3. We’ll Reject Brutalism
It had a good run, but Brutalism isn’t a good fit for most UI projects. The trend of 2021–22 will vanish as quickly and as unexpectedly as it arrived.
4. We’ll Reject Darkmode
It has had a good run, and dark mode is a perfect fit for most UI projects. But we’re all kinda sick of it.
I hope I’m wrong about this one; not only is dark mode genuinely better for both your eyes and the environment, but the rich, warm blackness is the perfect antidote to sterile white corpo-minimalism.
Dark mode options are built into our OS, so it’s doubtful that it’s going to vanish anytime soon. However, dark mode as a design trend for its own sake is probably on the wane.
Typically trends come and go in symmetrical waves. Dark mode has been a dominant trend for years, so it should take as long to vanish completely.
5. We’ll Embrace Personal Retro
Every year we get the exciting job of guessing which decade the zeitgeist will rip off next. Will 2023 be the year of ’80s retro, ’90s retro, ’00s retro, or maybe (somebody shoot me) ’10s retro?
The retro trends we’ve seen over the last few years have been poor pastiches of their associated decades. If last year’s ’90s retro was inspired by the ’90s, it was a ’90s someone else was living.
In 2023 we’ll move beyond someone else’s ideas of what the past was like, to a personal vision of what came before. One in which the sunbleached colors of eternal Summers in the suburbs dominate.
6. We’ll Fall For Borecore
We’re all guilty of designing with our egos from time to time, and there is a tendency to hit users between the eyes with the biggest type, the loudest gradient, and the flashiest animation.
If you truly want to impress users in 2023, stop inserting pop-ups, adverts, cookie notices, and the other extraneous detritus that stops them from doing whatever it is they arrived on your site for. Impressing users in 2023 means clean typography, low-distraction art direction, and helpful content. Boring design just isn’t as boring as it used to be.
In 2023, the best thing designers can do for their users is get out of the way.
Happy New year! We hope it’s a good one.
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Original Source: https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/shipnetwork-review
If you’ve been around the block of ecommerce, you likely know just how vital shipping is. After all, it’s inextricably linked with customer satisfaction – and unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Amazon Prime has set the standard of convenience. So, now customers expect shipping times of just a few days and often expect low-cost or even free shipping.
So, with that in mind, it’s no wonder that in 2022, 70% of online retailers were working to improve their tracking information to provide a better customer experience, and 38% worry about meeting their customer’s delivery expectations.
This is where fulfillment solutions for smoother, faster, and easier shipping come into their own.
One such option is ShipNetwork. So, here we’ll cover what services ShipNetwork provides, how much it costs, and what to consider before partnering with them.
There’s lots to sink our teeth into, so let’s get to it!
What is ShipNetwork?
ShipNetwork was formerly known as Rakuten Super Logistics before new ownership changed its name in the summer of 2022.
So what does ShipNetwork do?
In short, it handles everything to do with order fulfillment, including warehousing, kitting and packing, supply route optimization, warehouse technology, returns, and shipping. So, by partnering with a fulfillment service like ShipNetwork, you can focus on other aspects of your business, like marketing and customer service, and lean back whenever an order comes in.
Overall, ShipNetwork has over 20 years of experience in the fulfillment industry. During this time, it has established an impressive network of shipping and warehousing partners across the US. This ensures you benefit from 1-day fulfillment and that your customers enjoy 1-2 day delivery times.
On top of this, ShipNetwork offers US-based support and a 100% accuracy guarantee. So if anything goes wrong with product fulfillment on their end, rest assured you’re covered.
ShipNetwork’s setup process is simple. You start by integrating your shopping cart or ecommerce platform with ShipNetwork’s API. There’s no coding needed to do this – ShipNetwork comes with native integrations for major eCommerce platforms, which you can activate in just a few clicks.
Next, you’ll ship your inventory to ShipNetwork’s fulfillment center network. The smart software wires each order placed on your store to the most appropriate fulfillment center for processing.
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Shipnetwork Review: ShipNetwork’s Key Services
Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s take a closer look at how Shipnetwork sets out to help with your fulfillment:
Order Fulfillment
As we’ve already hinted, ShipNetwork offers speedy fulfillment services with a 100% order accuracy guarantee. In addition, the company also promises 100% order turnaround by the next business day. This might put your mind at ease where upholding your good reputation is concerned!
ShipNetwork stores your products in one of its many US warehouses. From there, your products are easily located, picked, and packed when an order comes through.
Incidentally, your order details are automatically routed through ShipNetwork’s SmartFill fulfillment management platform. This lets ShipNetwork’s team know which items to include in the order and where to locate them in the warehouse. Then, every order is carefully packed and receives a shipping label. This is then scanned, and automatically your inventory levels are updated accordingly.
ShipNetwork’s fulfillment centers reach over 98% of the US within two days with ground shipping. Their warehouses are located in key locations across the West Coast, East Coast, Southcentral states, and the midwest. Notable locations include Chicago, Las Vegas, Reno, Atlanta, Austin, Denver, and Salt Lake City.
Xparcel
As we’ve just said, ShipNetwork boasts a two-day delivery network, which, as you’ve probably guessed, means all ground orders across the US can reach their destination within 1-2 days.
ShipNetwork’s Xparcel service helps you pick shipping carriers that can cut transit time and shipping costs. Carriers include FedEx, USPS, UPS, and DHL but regional and local carriers are also available. On top of this, all Xparcel carriers offer parcel tracking, so you can keep customers posted about their delivery status.
If orders have to travel further afield, Xparcel offers a range of shipping speeds. Standard ground shipping is usually completed within 3-8 days. Expedited shipping takes 2-5 days, and premium shipping takes 1-3 days. Faster shipping costs a premium, but you’ll need to contact the team for a quote.
Returns Management
Despite ShipNetwork offering 100% accuracy on their orders (meaning that no wrong or broken items will be packed and shipped), there will still be customers who want to return an item because it wasn’t quite what they were hoping for.
Fortunately, ShipNetwork also offers return management services, which include restocking returned items to your inventory when appropriate. Otherwise, damaged items will be discarded as instructed.
It’s also worth noting that ShipNetwork collects the returns and sends them to specific locations on a schedule to minimize transit costs.
Lastly, you can work with the Shipnetwork team to plan your eCommerce return management to suit your needs. The team can give you a quote for the specific services you require.
Kitting
Implementing product kits can be an excellent way to improve sales and make smart shipping decisions.
For the uninitiated, kitting allows you to bundle multiple items into a unique SKU to treat them as one shippable item. I.e., the products are packed and shipped together.
Kitting items can also increase order value. In terms of marketing, you need to demonstrate how certain products complement each other. This helps to justify to the customer why they should pay a little more for said extra items.
You can kit bundles virtually from your eCommerce platform. The ShipNetwork team can assemble the kits in the warehouse whenever a bundle is ordered. Or you can have ShipNetwork physically pre-package a ready-made kit to reduce human error and fulfillment times.
Subscription Boxes
Another way to secure regular sales and revenue is to sell subscription boxes. These might ship out once every month or at another pre-defined interval. ShipNetwork makes this easier by offering subscription fulfillment services. They’ll assemble and pack all the required elements of your subscription boxes and ship them at the right time.
Freight
ShipNetwork also offers assistance if you need to procure or move products from across the country or outside the US. Their SmartFreight service can handle the entire process from pick-up to drop-off and comes with door-to-door tracking.
ShipNetwork shops around for competitive rates for shipments of different sizes, like less-than-truckload (LTL) or full truckload (FTL), so you can pick the most cost-effective transportation for your freight needs.
ShipNetwork takes care of the following:
Preparing shipping rate quotes so you can pick the best carrier
Creating the bill of lading (This is crucial paperwork in ensuring international exporters receive payment and importers receive merchandise)
Booking the carrier
Scheduling pick-up
Alerting the shipper or consignee of estimated delivery dates
Providing customers with proof of delivery.
Additional Services
Finally, what do you do if your products have special requirements? For example, if items have to be kept at a specific temperature?
Fortunately, ShipNetwork offers essential additional services such as:
Lot tracking: You can track and fulfill products by expiration and freshness date. You can also recall products along the supply chain if they surpass their freshness or if any concerns arise.
Temperature control: Many products benefit from temperature control besides food and drink. For example, paper products, products with adhesives, musical instruments, electronics, and more. ShipNetwork has temperature-controlled order fulfillment center locations in the US.
Custom projects: ShipNetwork is willing to partner with eCommerce merchants to meet their unique business needs.
As before, you’ll need to discuss your business needs with ShipNetwork to create a fulfillment plan and receive an accurate quote.
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ShipNetwork Review: ShipNetwork’s Integrations
First, you should check that ShipNetwork integrates with your ecommerce platform for a smooth and straightforward setup. This allows orders to automatically transfer to your fulfillment solution.
Ecommerce integrations include:
Shopify
WooCommerce
eBay
Walmart Marketplace
CartRover
Volusion
BigCommerce
Channeladvisor
Magento
Amazon
Shipnetwork also integrates with various shipping platforms and carriers To streamline the shipping process and afford you special shipping discounts. It’s worth checking whether these carriers deliver in the regions you’re actively selling to.
Notable shipping integrations include:
DHL
First Mile
United States Postal Service
UPS
Shipstation
ShipNetwork Review: Pricing
ShipNetwork offers customized pricing as they believe no two businesses are identical, so no pricing structure will fit all. You’ll have to get in touch with ShipNetwork for a quote and discuss your unique needs.
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ShipNetwork Review: Customer Support
https://ecommerce-platforms.com/go/TryShipNetworkShipNetwork’s sales team can be contacted via phone. However, what support options they offer once you become a customer is a little less clear. With in-house representatives available on the East and West coasts, however, you should get quick responses from one of ShipNetwork’s industry professionals, no matter where you’re based.
On top of this, ShipNetwork has warehouse liaisons whose job is to ensure prompt communication between warehousing and fulfillment.
Additionally, ShipNetwork provides a wide range of resources to help you learn more about shipping and fulfillment. Resources include eBooks, case studies, webinars, and podcasts. There’s also a ShipNetwork blog covering eCommerce, fulfillment, and shipping topics.
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ShipNetwork Review: Pros and Cons
Before we wrap up, here’s a quick summary of the key pros and cons we’ve noticed about ShipNetwork:
Pros 👍
Cons 👎
Pros 👍
Many custom services are available, such as kitting, subscription fulfillment, lot tracking, and temperature control.
With the Xparcel service, you can optimize delivery time and costs and track your parcels.
100% accuracy guarantee
Provides complete return management, including restocking your inventory
Integrates with many popular ecommerce platforms
You can get shipping discounts on major carriers like DHL, USP, and USPS.
Based wholly in the US with a wide range of warehouse locations, ensuring faster delivery times.
Cons 👎
Pricing isn’t transparent.
There isn’t a help center dedicated to answering more specific FAQs or resources that speak in depth about any feature.
We couldn’t find an exact definition of their 100% accuracy guarantee.
It’s unclear how they enable customers to contact them for support queries, as online resources are primarily geared toward sales.
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ShipNetwork Review: Our Final Verdict
ShipNetwork promises reliable, accurate, and fast fulfillment services for ecommerce merchants in the US. This is possible thanks to their extensive network of warehouses and shipping carriers. In addition, they guarantee fast ground shipping, parcel tracking, fully managed returns, and a range of custom services.
If you’re a US merchant, getting a quote directly from ShipNetwork might be a good idea to understand their pricing.
The big downside to ShipNetwork is that there’s little information out there at the moment to fully comprehend their services. It looks good on paper. But as they’ve taken over from Rakuten Super Logistics, it’s yet to be seen whether they’ll turn the poor reviews the company received under previous ownership around.
At the moment, it’s obvious the website design is finding its feet. Unfortunately, there’s insufficient transparency on their website concerning customer support, what’s included in their pricing, and who bears the costs of returns or shipment mistakes.
That brings us to the end of this ShipNetwork review. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
The post ShipNetwork Review: Is This Fulfillment Service for You? appeared first on Ecommerce Platforms.
Original Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/buying-guides/best-trail-cameras
Find the best trail cameras for unbeatable wildlife photos and video.
Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/web-desing-trends-2023/?utm_source=rss
Curious to see what kinds of new web design trends 2023 will bring? In this post, we’ll look at 5 of them and explain how each will help you build better websites for users.
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5 Web Design Trends to Watch in 2023
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Original Source: https://designrfix.com/tutorials/unveiling-process-playing-videos-html5
Since years videos have been considered to be the best means of communicating with the website visitors. Whether you’ve a business website or run an informative website, placing videos on web pages can act as a convenient tool for gathering the attention of maximum web users residing in different parts of the world. Nowadays, a majority […]
Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2022/12/why-web-design-still-matters-in-2023/
As we move into 2023, there are an increasing number of ways companies can engage with their customers. And as the number of apps, browser extensions, social media feeds, newsletters, vlogs, and podcasts grows, you can be forgiven for thinking that websites are a little less essential than they were in say, 2021.
However, the truth is that websites remain an irreplaceable part of the digital landscape and they will continue to be into 2023 and beyond.
Websites, as the keystone of a centralized, privately run digital experience couldn’t be more relevant. Unlike competing technologies, websites allow almost total control of their source code, and that provides an opportunity for skilled designers and developers to compete against the biggest names in their clients’ industries in a way that simply isn’t possible in tightly governed systems like social media.
Not only does quality web design help businesses increase their traffic, but it can increase the quality of that traffic; an attractive and user-friendly web page will encourage web users to stay on the page longer, and explore more of the content it links to.
Websites vs. Social Media
For many brands, the option they turn to for connecting with customers is social media. Particularly platforms like Facebook and Instagram. While billions of us are happy to while away our free time on social media, it’s not a great platform for informed decision-making or task fulfillment. For any form of productivity, websites are superior:
Flexibility: Websites can be customized to suit a company’s vision and values, whereas social media tends to magnify accounts that reflect its own values.
Ownership: When you publish on your website you own your content, when you post to social media the platform tends to own your content.
Investment: As we’ve seen recently with a certain bird-themed social network, you can spend years investing time in your social media channel only to have it canceled by an individual with his own agenda.
Findability: Websites are discoverable on search engines, and although algorithms govern these search engines, competition across different search engines keeps search algorithms honest. Social media networks each use a single algorithm making them free to skew browsing any way they choose.
Scaleability: Websites can take advantage of the latest technologies to improve user experience, on social media user experience is governed by the network’s decisions.
Websites vs. Apps
When it comes to owning a piece of the internet, a connected app feels like ownership. However, websites have a number of benefits over an app, from a superior user experience to lower development costs. And ultimately, apps are also controlled by 3rd parties.
Accessibility: Websites are universally accessible, while apps are usually limited to certain operating systems or platforms. If you want to distribute to devices, you’ll need to be approved by the store owner who can (and will) change the terms and conditions of store distribution without consulting you.
Flexibility: Websites provide a greater level of flexibility and scalability than apps.
Cost-effective: A simple website can be created and launched in a weekend, they are considerably more cost-effective to develop and maintain than apps.
Findability: Search engines have evolved around website technologies, and it is far easier to create a discoverable website than an app that ranks high in an app store.
Universality: Websites have lower entry costs for users, and there aren’t any downloads or purchases required.
3rd-party features: Websites can integrate 3rd-party content like chatbots, payment gateways, and forms, that generally require licensing to include in an app.
Websites vs. Podcasts and Vlogs
There’s no question that podcasts and vlogs are engaging types of content. However, they are very limited when it comes to different kinds of experience. These tend to be passive, linear experiences. Even if your podcast opens itself up to listener interaction, your customers are still passive consumers.
Cost-effective: Websites can be set up very cheaply, podcasts and vlogs on the other hand require high-production values to compete.
Longevity: Well-written website content can remain relevant for years, the lifespan of a vlog or podcast is often just a few months.
Flexibility: Websites can embed podcasts and vlogs, as well as virtually any other content; podcasts and vlogs can only ever be podcasts and vlogs. Websites will continue to evolve long after podcasts are obsolete.
Simple: There is now a range of no-code options for creating a reliable website, meaning it can be done with little to no skills or experience. Podcasts and vlogs require a great deal of technical knowledge to produce.
Findability: As with other technologies, podcasts and vlogs can’t compete with websites when it comes to search engine optimization.
Faster: A well-designed website is much smaller than a podcast or vlog, making it cheaper and easier to access, especially on a cellular network.
Websites in 2023 and Beyond
In 2023 websites will still be a critical part of a successful business strategy and web designers will continue to be essential members of any team.
Websites continue to offer numerous benefits over other technologies including increased flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and superior search engine opportunities.
Unlike social media platforms that allow you to customize a few assets like avatars and colors, websites can be completely customized to fit the tone and style of a brand. Additionally, websites have a far lower barrier to entry than podcasts, vlogs, or apps. While apps may offer a richer set of features than a website, that is offset by the restrictions on platform and device capabilities that apps impose.
Websites will continue to evolve as the tech landscape changes. New ideas for consuming digital media will appear over time, offering unique new experiences — for example, mass adoption of AR (Augmented Reality) is just around the corner. However, the website is perfectly evolved for the types of simple customer interaction that businesses rely on, and will continue to matter in 2023 and beyond.
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Original Source: https://1stwebdesigner.com/shared-vs-managed-vs-vps-hosting-which-is-right-for-you/
There are a lot of different options out there when it comes to hosting your website. And it can be tough to decide which one is right for you, but don’t worry – we’re here to help!
In this article, we’ll compare three popular hosting options: shared, managed, and VPS. And by the end, you should have a good idea of which solution is right for your needs.
We’ll break down each host type into a few key areas, including a broad description of how it works, key features, benefits, who the type would best serve, and rough pricing estimates.
Now, let’s get down to the comparisons.
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Shared Hosting
Shared hosting is an excellent option for most people because it is budget-friendly and easy to set up – no technical skills needed! With a shared host, your website will be on the same server as other websites. This means that features like bandwidth and storage are divided between all of the sites on the server.
It works well for small enterprises and personal websites that receive minimal traffic. It’s also a smart option if you’re just getting started and don’t want to spend money on a more expensive web host.
Key Features
Affordable
Easy to set up
Can be used for small businesses or personal websites
Shared resources between all websites on the server
Benefits
The biggest benefit of a shared web host is the cost – it’s much cheaper than other types of plans. Shared hosting is also very easy to set up, which is great for people who are new to web design and not all that technically-oriented.
Who is it Best For?
Small businesses, personal websites, and anyone who is just starting out with web design would find a shared host to be suitable. It’s also a good option if your site doesn’t receive a lot of traffic yet.
Pricing
Shared host plans start at around $5 per month.
Managed Hosting
Managed hosting is a step up from shared, and it’s designed for businesses that are ready to invest in a more premium solution. With a managed web host, you still share a server with other websites. But, you also get a dedicated team of experts who proactively manage your website and can help you with any technical issues that come up.
Managed hosting is a great option for businesses that want peace of mind knowing that their website is in good hands. It’s also a good option for those who have outgrown a shared host and need a more robust solution.
Key Features
Dedicated team of support experts
Proactively manage your website
Can help with any technical issues that come up
More expensive than shared plans
Benefits
The biggest benefit of a managed web host is the dedicated team of experts who will proactively manage your website, perform backups, pay attention to security, and perform regular updates. This can be a great peace of mind for businesses that want to make sure their website is always running smoothly.
Who is it Best For?
Anyone that’s ready to invest in a more premium web host solution, businesses that have outgrown shared servers, and those that want peace of mind knowing their website is well-supported will find managed hosting to be a good fit.
Pricing
Managed web host plans start at around $25 per month.
VPS Hosting
VPS hosting is a type of web host that gives you your own virtual server. This means that you don’t share any resources with other websites – everything on your server is just for you.
It’s also a great option for businesses that need more control over their host environment. Businesses that get a lot of traffic or have very specific requirements will find it beneficial, too.
Key Features
Your own virtual server
Dedicated resources
More expensive than shared and managed plans
Benefits
The most significant advantage of VPS hosting is that it gives you your own virtual server. This means you won’t have to share any resources with other websites, and you’ll be able to customize your server to meet your site’s specific requirements.
Who is it Best For?
Businesses that require more control over their hosting environment, those with a lot of traffic, and those with very specific hosting requirements are those best suited for using VPS hosting.
Pricing
VPS hosting plans start at around $50 per month.
Assess Your Situation to Pick the Right Hosting Option
Now that you know a little bit more about the different types of hosting, it’s time to decide which one is right for you. If you’re just starting out, shared hosting is a great option. If you’re ready to invest in a more premium solution, managed hosting might be a better fit. And if you need complete control over your hosting environment, VPS hosting is the way to go.
Which you choose will depend on your site’s needs, your technical acumen, and your budget. But you hopefully now have a better sense of what’s available. Good luck!
Original Source: https://abduzeedo.com/fever-vizualizes-trajectories-goals-world-cup-22
Fever vizualizes the trajectories of the goals in the World Cup 22
abduzeedo1227—22
The project is manifested as a combination of different passions: football, coding, motion & graphic design. Offering a different viewing perspective on the most prestigious football tournament in the world.Design is minimal, and the story is told by using simple geometry and the team’s recognizable flag colors, Match duration and timeline is represented by a sphere, displaying every goal in time as an arc in the globe.
Motion is driving the excitement – rapid & intense movement.
Every goal is celebrated, and the moves preceding the ball hitting the net is what makes spectators burst with anxiety, momentum and finally a fever pitch of excitement.
A real-time editor was developed to create each replay, setting every move of the ball in the field, and adding different motion & visual styles to compose the uniqueness of the goal.
Stills
Original Source: https://smashingmagazine.com/2022/12/deploying-css-logical-properties-on-web-apps/
Localization is one of the most interesting fields in terms of user interface: text length may be different depending on the language, default alignments for text might vary, reading direction can be mirrored or vertical, and so many other different cases. In short, it’s an incredible source of diversity, which makes our interfaces and our front-end work way stronger, more reliable, and more challenging.
The Need For Right-To-Left Interfaces
Most languages, like French or English, are meant to be read for Left-To-Right (LTR). However, in these cases, some languages like Farsi (Persian), Arabic, and Hebrew have a different reading direction — Right-To-Left (RTL).
The question is how can we adapt our interfaces to this huge change?
Before CSS Logical Properties
Before CSS Logical Properties, we could make RTL adaptations with different methods:
Adding a dedicated CSS file only for RTL surcharge/layout;
Surcharging only parts that need to be adapted in the same CSS, e.g. [dir=”rtl”] .float-left { float: right; }.
Even if these methods are doing the work — I used the second one to create an Arabic version of the Stand Up for Human rights website a few years ago — both of them are quite sub-optimal:
You need to maintain another file for the first one;
The CSS file for the second one is a bit heavier, and there might be some issues to deal with (specificity, more properties to add, and so on).
For sure, we can create huge machinery with Sass to produce several builds and use some tools like UnCSS to remove what is not needed, but let’s be honest: this is boring, and it can lead to “non-natural” pieces of code, like in the previous example.
Why CSS Logical Properties Are A Perfect Fit/Promising
This is where the CSS Logical Properties module comes into the game. The main idea of this CSS module is to have a logical abstraction that enables us to produce one layout that will adapt itself depending on the text direction and writing mode (properties like writing-mode, direction, and text-orientation, or dir attribute in HTML). This gives us possibilities like horizontal right-to-left or left-to-right, vertical RTL, and so on.
Implementation In Practice
How It Works
There are a few concepts to understand, already explained by Rachel Andrews here in “Understanding Logical Properties And Values”:
We no longer think in terms of left/right but start/end (the same goes for top/bottom):
We no longer say width or height but instead inline and block — quite classical. (You’ve probably heard of default inline or block elements. 😉)
This idea of start/end is not new. You use it probably every day with things like justify-content: start.
Congratulations, you now know — almost — everything! 🎉 Let’s see some practical examples.
Examples
Let’s start with the basics:
Classical Property
Logical Property
width
inline-size
height
block-size
min-width
min-inline-size
min-height
min-block-size
max-width
max-inline-size
max-height
max-block-size
Margins follow the same logic:
Classical Property
Logical Property
margin-top
margin-block-start
margin-bottom
margin-block-end
margin-left
margin-inline-start
margin-right
margin-inline-end
The same goes for padding. Let’s move to the positioning:
Classical Property
Logical Property
top
inset-block-start
bottom
inset-block-end
left
inset-inline-start
right
inset-inline-end
Simple, isn’t it? float, text-align, and border follow the same path:
Classical Property/Value
Logical Property
float: left;
float: inline-start;
float: right;
float: inline-end;
text-align: left;
text-align: start;
text-align: right;
text-align: end;
border-top
border-block-start
border-bottom
border-block-end
border-left
border-inline-start
border-right
border-inline-end
I won’t detail some others like resize or scroll-margin-top, but instead, let’s look at the particular case of border-radius:
Classical Property
Logical Property
border-top-left-radius
border-start-start-radius
border-top-right-radius
border-start-end-radius
border-bottom-left-radius
border-end-start-radius
border-bottom-right-radius
border-end-end-radius
A bit different, but easily understandable anyway.
Some possibilities with values are really cool — you can simplify some notations. Here are some further examples:
Classical Property/Value
Logical Property
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
margin-inline: auto;
margin-top: 0;
margin-bottom: 0;
margin-block: 0;
margin-top: 1em;
margin-bottom: 2em;
margin-block: 1em 2em;
top: 0;
left: 0;
bottom: 0;
right: 0;
inset: 0; 🎉
left: 10%;
right: 10%;
inset-inline: 10%;
This is pure gold in the best world, right? Less code for perfect support of RTL languages! 🎉
Now I’m sorry to brush away some of the stars in your eyes — there are indeed some limitations.
Some Limitations
Missing Syntaxes
CSS Logical Properties are quite new, even if the support is good on recent browsers. However, the CSS Logical Properties module is kind of “young” and needs a level 2.
To give a simple example: our toggle component is using CSS transforms between different states (loading, active, and so on), mostly because transform is a reliable way to have fluid transitions or animations.
So, we have something like this:
.element {
transform: translateX(#{$toggle-width – $toggle-width-button});
}
Unfortunately, there is no flow-relative syntax for transform. So, we have to do something like the following:
[dir=’rtl’] .element {
transform: translateX(-#{$toggle-width – $toggle-width-button});
}
If you want to get an idea of missing stuff like this, you can check opened issues on CSS logical props.
Shorthand Properties
Some shorthand notations are not supported for the moment, like the 2, 3, or 4 values for margin:
Classical Property/Value
Logical Property
margin: 1em 2em;
margin-block: 1em; / top and bottom /
margin-inline: 2em / left and right /
margin: 1em 2em 3em;
margin-block: 1em 3em; / top, bottom /
margin-inline: 2em / left, right /
margin: 1em 2em 3em 4em;
margin-block: 1em 3em; / top, bottom /
margin-inline: 4em 2em / left, right /
Don’t use these classic examples with logical needs. You will encounter issues as it’s actually not working. It’s better to be explicit. Also, it’s more readable, in my opinion.
Showing Some Real Issues And Some Solutions
Images Where Reading Direction Is Important
Some images have a direct meaning. Let’s take the example of theme cards:
In this case, if we just apply RTL stuff to this, we would get this:
The order is RTL, but each image does not look like the interface of an RTL user. It’s the LTR version! In this case, it’s because the image reading direction conveys information.
We have a CSS class helper that makes it really simple to achieve this fix:
[dir=”rtl”] .on-rtl-mirror {
transform: rotateY(180deg);
}
This also applies to any image with a reading direction, like an arrow or double chevron icon showing or pointing to something.
Styles/Values Computed Via JavaScript
Let’s imagine you have a plugin that calculates some positioning in JavaScript and provides the value you can use in JS or CSS. The dropdown library that we’re using provides only the left value in both RTL/LTR contexts, and we transfer to CSS using a CSS Custom property.
So, if we were using this with Logical Properties, i.e. inset-inline-start: calc(var(–left) * 1px);, we would get the following by clicking on the user dropdown:
The solution is simple here. We keep the non-logical property:
/* stylelint-disable */
top: calc(var(–top) * 1px);
left: calc(var(–left) * 1px); // JS provide left value only
/* stylelint-enable */
And we disable our linting for this particular case.
Mixing RTL And LTR content
Even with the best CSS modules, anyone who has already made some RTL adaptations will say that mixing RTL and LTR content sometimes (often) gives crazy stuff.
Let’s take an example on Proton Drive with a component called MiddleEllipsis. The goal of this component is to apply ellipsis before the extension of the file to get something like my-filename-blahblahblah…blah.jpg.
Nothing crazy: we split the content into two parts and apply text-overflow: ellipsis on the first one. You can check the source of this MiddleEllipsis component.
Let’s apply some good ol’ RTL — we should then get the following:
Strange, right? This is simple to explain, however:
MiddleEllipsis structure is RTL;
And we inject LTR content. (Remember, we did RTL-cut this LTR content.)
The browser does its best, and what is displayed is not wrong from its point of view, but this makes no sense to a person. In this case, we chose to keep the LTR display to keep the purpose of the filenames but aligned it to the right:
Searching For Native LTR Patterns
The MiddleEllipsis example showed that if user-generated content is LTR, then it’s better to display it as LTR.
But we can wonder if there are some patterns that are naturally LTR. The short answer is yes. Below you can find an example.
Phone Number
The phone number might be the most obvious case here as it’s usually using western numbers, which are meant to be read LTR.
If we apply Logical props directly to it, it might give the following:
While it’s technically not false, it’s a bit weird to display +33 6 12 34 56 78 like this. In this case, we decided to keep the LTR alignment by default to avoid this strange result.
We have the same case for a 2FA input using western numbers. We don’t yet have the case but imagine a 4-part input to enter an IP address. This would not make sense to display it fully RTL as people would understand 1.0.163.192 instead of 192.163.0.1.
Compatibility
The biggest issue we faced was mostly in regards to compatibility. This can be seen on Can I Use tables for Logical Props:
If the target is only recent modern browsers, there is no problem. But if there is a need for older versions of Safari, for example, the support is pretty bad. And in this case, CSS Logical Properties are not gracefully degraded. Thus everything might look broken.
Several options are possible:
Serve a CSS build for modern browsers and another one for older ones;
Transpile everything for each case.
In Proton’s case, as we were not totally ready to ship an RTL language when we merged it, and for other reasons, the decision was taken to transpile everything to good ol’ classical CSS properties. Recently, we found a solution for one case that did need RTL support for Farsi language (VPN account):
We build two CSS files: one modern with Logical props and one legacy;
We load the modern one;
We test the correct support of border-start-start-radius;
If it’s not supported, we fall back to legacy.
Conclusion
Even if absolute perfection is out of this world, moving to CSS Logical properties is a really interesting move and a good bet for the future: we write less code with these CSS Logical Props, and we reduce the amount of future work by using them, so it really goes in an exciting direction.
As the last takeaway, and even if it would need more work, we did some tests of a vertical RTL display to test further CSS Logical properties.
Looks quite interesting, doesn’t it? 😉
Related Resources
“W3C i18n resources”, W3C.org
“RTL Styling 101”, Ahmad Shadeed
“What Languages Use RTL Scripts?”, Richard Ishida, W3C
“Opened Issues On CSS Logical Props”, W3C, GitHub
“CSS Logical Properties and Values”, MDN Web Docs
“Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm Basics”, Richard Ishida, W3C
“CSS Logical Properties and Values Level 1,” W3C Working Draft
“Multilingual Desktop Publishing: Tips & Tricks #3”, Kirill Fedotov, InText
“Understanding Logical Properties And Values”, Rachel Andrew
