Archive for category: Random Stories

Original Source: https://www.sitepoint.com/date-fns-javascript-date-library/?utm_source=rss

Working with dates in JavaScript is a pain. Native date methods are often verbose and occasionally inconsistent — something which also makes them error-prone. But good news is at hand. There are several libraries that exist to take the pain out of date manipulation. These libraries are to JavaScript dates, what jQuery is to the native DOM API.

Let me give you an example. This is the accepted answer to a Stack Overflow question asking how to get last day of the month:

var t = new Date();
alert( new Date(t.getFullYear(), t.getMonth() + 1, 0, 23, 59, 59) );

Of course that works, but it’s not immediately obvious what the numbers after getMonth represent. Now contrast that with the considerably more readable:

const today = new Date();
console.log( lastDayOfMonth(today) );

That lastDayOfMonth method is one provided by date-fns, a self-proclaimed comprehensive toolset for manipulating JavaScript dates in the browser and Node.js.

In this article I’m going to show you how to get up and running with date-fns. After reading you’ll be able to drop it into your projects and take advantage of its many helper methods to manipulate dates with ease. This will make code like t.getMonth() + 1, 0, 23, 59, 59 a thing of the past.

So, Why Not Just Use Moment.js?

The elephant in the room is Moment.js. This library has undoubtedly become the de-facto standard for working with dates in JavaScript. So why not use that? Why do we need another JavaScript date library?

Well, according to Sasha Koss, the creator of date-fns, Moment.js has a few inherent problems which motivated him to create date-fns. Sasha expands on what these problems are on the project’s GitHub page, but in a nutshell:

Moment.js is mutable which can cause bugs.
It has a complex OOP API (which doubles the mutability problem).
It has a performance overhead due to the complex API.
Its build size is large when used with Webpack, as locale files are included as part of the bundle.

Let’s contrast that with date-fns (taken from the project’s homepage):

Date-fns is immutable, always returning a new date instead of changing the one you pass in.
It has a simple API. You always have one function that does one thing.
It is fast. You can be sure that your users will have the best user experience.
It is the perfect companion for Webpack. With the function-per-file style you can pick just what you need and stop bloating your project with useless functionality.

For me, the feature that makes it shine is its ease of use. When using it on a web-based project, you can just grab date-fns from a CDN, drop it into your page and profit. More about that next…

Installation

There are a variety of ways to install the library.

It’s available as an npm package:

npm install date-fns –save

Or via Yarn:

yarn add date-fns

Or Bower:

bower install date-fns

Or from a CDN:

<script type=”text/javascript” src=”https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/date-fns/1.28.5/date_fns.min.js”/>

If you chose this method, please note that the library is namespaced under a dateFns object, in the same way that jQuery is namespaced under $.

<script>
console.log(
dateFns.isToday(new Date())
);
</script>

Date-fns Basic Usage

Assuming you’re using a module loader you can require only those parts you need. The following example shows you how to format a date.

const format = require(‘date-fns/format’);
console.log(
format(new Date(2017, 6, 6), ‘MM/DD/YYYY’)
);

// ’06/07/2017′

Want to change the locale? No problem:

Continue reading
Learn date-fns: A Lightweight JavaScript Date Library
on SitePoint.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/aHbj9IqybfU/hometime-minimalist-branding-redesign

Hometime Minimalist Branding Redesign

abduzeedo09.21.20

Bruno Canales shared a  new project, this time it’s the branding redesign for Hometime, a residential management company in Dallas, Texas. Their main objective is to be a one stop shop for home maintenance, reparation and remodels. The visual solution emerges from paying attention to the tradition found in residential homes, but imbuing with a contemporary and vibrant twist.

The marks, typography and applications are inspired in an architectural element that is central to American residences: the vinyl siding. Chromatically, the branding draws inspiration from construction sites and handyman’s tools. The tension between the new and the old is also represented in the typefaces; a combination between a modernist sans serif and an older transitional serif.

LInks

Instagram
Behance

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/abduzeedo/~3/7c2hlb3Ag70/mastercard-believe-experiences

MasterCard – Believe in Experiences

abduzeedo09.17.20

Wernersam Studio and Latina Studio shared their beautiful work brand work for MasterCard. The campaign is focused on the message that at MasterCard, they believe in experiences, in the awe of the simple things. They use moments, in different situations like gastronomy, tourism, soccer competitions to illustrate that with super smart photos recreating the MasterCard logo. 

Credits

McCann Colombia
Creative Director: Andres Salamanca Soler
Art Director: Felipe Álvarez C. – Andrés V. De la Hoz
Copywriter: Laura Garzón – Julian Triana
Photographers: Wernersam Studio
Post-production: Latina Studio – Andrés V. De la Hoz

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2020/09/5-tips-for-designing-one-page-websites-that-work/

Smart design choices can help reduce the fatigue and frustration people would otherwise feel when using the web.

There are a lot of ways web designers can minimize distractions, information overload, and analysis paralysis. For instance, designing with abundant white space, shorter snippets of text, and calming color palettes all work.

One-page websites might be another design choice worth exploring.

When done right, a single-page website could be very useful in creating a simpler and more welcoming environment for today’s overwhelmed consumers.

With its diminutive structure, it would leave a unique and memorable impression on visitors. What’s more, a well-crafted one-page website would provide visitors with a clean, narrow, and logical pathway to conversion.

For those of you who use BeTheme’s pre-built sites (or are thinking about adopting them for your next site), there’s good news. In addition to the great selection of traditionally structured sites available, Be also has single-page websites for you to work with.

So, the technical aspects you’d need to master to get the one-page formula right are already taken care of.

Let’s have a look at some of the features that make single-page websites shine and how you can design them:

1. Give Visitors a Succinct Journey Through the Website and Brand’s Story

The typical business websites you design include pages like Home, About, and Contact, as well as pages that explain the company’s services or sell their products. Unless you’re building really long sales landing pages, there’s usually about 400 to 600 words on each page.

That’s still a lot of content for your visitors to get through and it can make perusing a single website an overwhelming experience. Imagine how they feel about reading through all that content when they have to do it multiple times when comparing other websites and options.

In some cases, this multi-page website structure is overkill. The information you’d otherwise fill a full page with can easily be edited down to fit a single pane or block on a one-page website and still be as useful.

Like how design and development studio Pixel Lab does it:

Notice how all the key points are hit in a concise and visually attractive manner:

The Featured Work portfolio
The About Us introduction
The FAQs
The contact form

The BeCV pre-built site is built in a similar manner (and for a similar purpose, too):

Just remember to keep a sticky navigation bar present at all times so visitors know exactly how much content there is on the page.

2. Opt For a Non-Traditional Navigation for a Uniquely Memorable Experience

Typically, the rule is that website navigation should follow one of two patterns:

Logo on the left, navigation links on the right.
Logo on the left, hamburger menu storing the navigation on the right (for mobile or desktop).

There are a number of reasons why this layout is beneficial. Ultimately, it comes down to the predictability and comfort of having a navigation be right where visitors expect it, no matter where they end up on your website.

However, with a single-page website, this is one of those rules you can bend, so long as you have a way to keep the navigation ever-present and easy to use.

There are some great examples of one-page sites that have done this, usually opting for a stylized left-aligned sidebar that contains links to the various parts of the page. Purple Orange is just one of them:

And you can use a Be pre-built site like BeHairdresser to create a similar navigation for your website:

If you’re trying to make a bold brand stand out, this is a neat layout option to experiment with.

3. Tell a More Visually Striking Story

One of the problems with building a website with WordPress is that you always have to worry about how your design decisions affect speed. Even once the code is optimized, images are usually the low-hanging fruit that have to be dealt with.

But when your website only contains one page, this means images aren’t as much of a problem (so long as you compress and resize them). It’s only when you continue to add pages, products, and galleries that you have to scale back your visual content.

So, if your brand has a strong visual identity and you want the website to show that off through images, a one-page website is a great place to do it.

Just remember to keep a good balance between text and images as Vodka A does:

There’s no reason for a liquor distribution company to mince words when the elegant product photos effectively communicate to consumers what it’s all about.

In fact, this image-heavy, single-page style would work well for any vendor selling a small inventory of products: food, beverages, subscription boxes, health and beauty products, etc. And you can use the pre-built BeBistro to carefully craft it:

4. Turn a Complex Business Idea or Offering into Something Simple to Understand

When a company sells a technical or complex solution to consumers, it can be a real struggle to explain what it does and why they should buy it.

But here’s the thing: Consumers don’t really care about all that technical stuff. Even if you were to explain how an app worked or how you use a software like Sketch or WordPress to design a website, their eyes would glaze over.

What matters most to them is that you have an effective and affordable solution that they can trust. So, why bog them down with page after page of technical specs and sales jargon?

A one-page website enables you to simplify even the most complex of solutions.

Take Critical TechWorks, for instance. It offers an advanced technological solution for the automobile industry…and, yet, this is all it needs to explain the technology at work:

If your website’s visitors are more concerned with the outcomes rather than the “how”, you’d do well to make the website and content as easy to digest as possible. And you can use a pre-built site like BeCourse to do that:

Notice how both of these sites take visitors through a small handful of sections (pages) before delivering them to the main attraction: the contact or sign-up form.

5. Capture Leads and Sales at Different Stages of the Sales Funnel

Some of your visitors will be brand new to the site and need more information before they pull the trigger. Others will already have a good idea of what they’re getting into and just need one small push to get them to take action.

With a single-page website, you can design each section to cater to the different kinds of leads and prospects that arrive there.

The top sections should be introductory in nature, providing new visitors with information they need to decide if this is an option worth pursuing. The sections further below should drill down into the remaining questions or concerns that interested prospects have.

Regardless of which section they’re looking at, your one-page site will have CTA buttons built in along the way that drive them to conversion the second they’re ready.

This will enable your site to always be prepared to convert leads, whether visitors read the first two sections or make their way through all of them until they reach the conversion point (e.g. a contact form, a checkout page, etc.).

You’ll find a nice example of this on the Cycle website, with CTAs strategically placed along the single-page’s design:

BePersonalTrainer is a good pre-built site option if you want to ensure that you include a CTA button at the perfect stopping points throughout your page:

You won’t find them at the bottom of every section, but that’s okay. You just need them whenever your visitors are seriously thinking about taking action.

What Should You Build: A Multi-Page or One-Page Website?

Although a single-page website won’t work for larger websites (especially in ecommerce), it could work well for business websites that are on the smaller side to begin with.

By centralizing all of that information into a single page, you’ll create a fresh experience that wows visitors with how succinct yet powerful both the message and offering are.

Just be careful. Many single-page websites are poorly done (which is probably why they fell out of fashion for a while).

Remember: This is not your chance to throw web design rules out the window. In fact, this will be an opportunity to clear out the fluff and the clutter that’s accumulated over the years and to return to a more scaled-back and classic approach to design.

And with the help of Be’s pre-built one-page websites, it won’t require much work on your part to make that happen.

[– This is a sponsored post on behalf of BeTheme –]

Source

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