Archive for category: Random Stories

Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/02/interview-jorn-and-koen-of-framer-x/

The holy grail of web design used to be a three-column layout where every column had equal height. Now, the holy grail is making it so anyone can design a website or app. Visual design apps abound, one of the big names in the Mac community right now is Framer X.

Framer X isn’t staying on only the Mac platform, though. The team has big plans, and it involves more than making it easier to push pixels. They reached out to WDD to see if we wanted to get a sneak peek of what’s coming next, and since I am one of the resident app nerds, I had the pleasure of interviewing them.

WDD: Tell us about yourselves.

Framer: So Jorn and I (Koen) worked at our first company, Sofa, together in 2009. Things really took off after we won a few Apple Design Awards, when we got a call from Mark Zuckerberg. The rest is history, as they say — our company and team were acquired by Facebook in 2011, where we ended up doubling their product design team.

We spent two years there helping launch some major product features but eventually moved back to Amsterdam and co-founded Framer in 2013. It’s been both challenging and extremely rewarding to stick to our guns and build this company in the Netherlands, even raising our Series B last year.

WDD: I’m a Windows user, so I have to ask: when is Framer X coming to Windows?

Framer: It’s in the works! We have a team working hard on this and it’s part of our plan to open up Framer X to a wider audience. I can’t give you definitive dates but you can expect something in 2019. And until then, you can sign up for the waitlist here.

WDD: What inspired you to build Framer? What’s the origin story?

Framer: When we were working at Facebook, we found ourselves pitching these innovative product ideas using traditional presentation slides. It was really frustrating to try and convey responsive, interactive design ideas to board members through static imagery – it’s just counter-intuitive.

As design has evolved, so has our thinking around tooling

Unfortunately, that’s just how things were done at the time, as interactive design was still relatively new and static images were the norm. Which is why, shortly after leaving Facebook, we co-founded Framer to focus on helping everyone better express digital product ideas.

As design has evolved, so has our thinking around tooling. While Framer Classic captured a large share of the very best designers in the world, it was only accessible to a small subset of all designers, as it used code to express ideas.

So we launched a whole new product, Framer X, which opens up interactive design to everyone, regardless of coding ability and offers interfaces for everyday design tasks like wireframing, visual design and interactive work.

WDD: What other design apps most inspired your feature choices and design?

Framer: I’ve always been very inspired by Unity – especially how accessible it is. In a sense, we are building an interactive IDE for product design that anyone can use, much like Unity has done for the gaming industry.

WDD: Your software is big on sharing and centralizing libraries of design assets, and by extension, design systems. How do you, as designers, balance the benefits of design systems (consistency and speed) with the desire for experimentation most designers feel at some point?

Framer: It is definitely a tricky balance. As a company, we have a big maker culture, with a huge emphasis on shipping. A lot of of this is because we genuinely love solving hard product problems, but just as much because our community has come to expect this of us.

As we’ve grown, we’ve come to see the value of adding some structure to this process, including creating our own React-based design system, Fraction. Everyone is still very much empowered to try and test — we even have an R&D team and leave time on Fridays for more experimental projects.

WDD: Out of all the features currently on Framer X, which are you most proud of?

Framer: We’re most proud of the features that make our app so collaborative. For example, Framer X contains a built-in store where users can publish components that can do practically anything, from media players to advanced interactive controls to entire design systems.

This means that new users can instantly leverage the work of advanced users, which provides immediate value to all users and offers incredible network effects. Our community has always been at the core of our product, and the store allows us to bring that into our product in a meaningful way.

WDD: Which feature do you most wish you’d done better with on the first try?

Framer: Interactive design is always evolving, so of course our platform is as well. Framer X’s Interactive tools — Link, Page, and Scroll — have undergone the most changes, thanks in part to the feedback we got from our beta users.

Everything that used to require lines of code in Framer Classic can now be created using the canvas tools we have. I’m not sure we would do anything differently, but hindsight being 20/20, perhaps we could have done some things sooner.

WDD: You can export elements as CSS and SVG code in Framer X. Any plans to support CSS Grid for layout?

Framer: We are planning to launch a grid tool in 2019! Stay tuned.

WDD: Where do you see Framer going in 2019?

Framer: We’re going to bring Framer X to Windows and the Web to give more people access to our interactive design tool. We’ll still be focused on making it the best tool for interactive design and with that, the best place for your team to build out your design systems.

My belief is that people are way more creative than they think and with the right platform, anyone can design. So I’d love to head toward a direction where Framer X becomes accessible enough to appeal even to people who use Powerpoint.

Thanks to Jorn and Koen for taking the time to answer our questions.

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Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/1stwebdesigner/~3/RlLDBhI0KgI/

After months of development, New ActiveCollab, a pioneer of project management software with over a decade of experience, is finally here – the perfect start to 2019.

ActiveCollab is a project management software that serves as a central hub for team communication, collaboration, and project planning. It enables complete management of projects by breaking them down into more actionable tasks. When tasks are assigned to team members and a date with automatic reminders is set, it ensures that missed deadlines will be a thing of the past – since everyone knows exactly what they are working on and when it needs to be done. The option to track time is invaluable in dealing with clients – they will be able to see precisely how much time was spent working on their projects, and those tracked time reports can be used to issue custom invoices.

Their mission – to eliminate busywork and to help make Real Work happen.

New ActiveCollab is a product that immeasurable love and care have been poured into, with every change, tweak, upgrade, new feature and addition being the result of careful planning and communication with customers.

It is the collaborative success of dozens of people – developers, designers, marketers, customer care, etc. – each contributing their unique perspectives and special skills. Because of this, we can safely say that New ActiveCollab is not just the best-looking, most powerful version yet, but also – the most personal.

Apart from the fresh, sleek, redesigned look, there are many other substantial improvements and changes all across the board. Here is a list of the most significant ones:

A Brand New Look & Feel

In new ActiveCollab, dozens of refinements that fix and improve the design were added – making the software much smoother and more enjoyable to use. There are also several new themes to choose from.

This is much more than just a simple visual redesign – it is an evolution of ActiveCollab. A sleek, fluid tool that’s wonderful to behold and a joy to use.

Task Dependencies With Automatic Rescheduling

The biggest and most important – as well as most requested – New ActiveCollab feature. Using Task Dependencies, child tasks that are dependent on parent tasks can be set. This allows for greater control over tasks – in which order and when they will be completed, and it opens up a range of advanced management options in every step of the work process.

This addition will eliminate confusion over the exact turn in which tasks have to be finished, since they will no longer be done out of sequence. Everyone has had work experiences when the projects worked on would slow down because people couldn’t work on their own tasks until another segment was done. Automatic rescheduling means that when a parent task is moved around, their child tasks will automatically adjust their dates as well, and they also take weekends and days off into account.

Since Your Last Visit

All the projects and tasks we are involved in continue to make progress even in our absence. Which means that a lot of time catching up on everything that happened is required. This feature highlights all the comments that were made since the last time the software was visited.

Wasting time sorting new information from the old will no longer be an issue, and Project Managers will be able to devote their time to other more pressing concerns, instead of helping everyone catch up to speed.

Reactions

Communication is vital to collaboration, and a single thumbs up is often all you really need to do to get the conversation moving. We took a cue from to-the-point communication of social media, where you can express so much with an emoticon. So now, one of seven reactions can be used instead of typing out an entire lengthy reply. They are: thumbs up, thumbs down, smiley face, clapping hands, heart, party popper, and thinking face.

Live Comments

New ActiveCollab is now entirely in real time. Often, more than one user would comment a task at the same time, and they would have to refresh the page to see those other comments.

But now, all the comments – and the user(s) writing them – are visible in real time, meaning that confusion and the busywork of manually refreshing a page to see those new comments are a thing of the past.

Improved Attachment Navigation

A small change, but one that saves a lot of time, especially for designers, or those that have to deal with a lot of attachments. Before, the attachments would have to be navigated individually, one by one – by leaving and reentering the navigation window every time.

Now, all the attachments can be comfortably scrolled through with the left and right arrow keys, or by clicking the left and right icon buttons. The attachments are sorted according to the time they were added, so the newest file will be shown first.

Experience Real Work With New ActiveCollab

Regardless if you’re a project management pro, or are completely new to it, New ActiveCollab is the way to go. With so many new and exciting additions, ActiveCollab is now more powerful and versatile than ever before, and is so much more than just another Project Management Tool – it’s the proper way to do your Real Work.

Try out New ActiveCollab for a completely free 14-day trial to make Real Work happen.

Original Source: https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/wordpress-custom-template-tags/

Building a WordPress Theme is so easy with template tags. You can add the_title() to display the post or page title, and you can use the_content() to display post or page contents. There are many…

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Original Source: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/02/how-to-design-for-3d-printing/

3D Printing is a revolutionary new technology that allows you to realize, well, just about anything. The most common form of 3D printers use a special form of plastic filament to print durable, hard ABS plastic components or items.

However, there are 3D printers—industrial mostly—that can work with materials like concrete, glass, titanium, steel and more. The tougher materials aren’t really necessary for design, but it’s still a great thing to know especially when you need to consider material design guidelines.

In design and graphic art, you mostly work with hand sketches, digital content and imaging software, and flat, 2D-style designs. How would a 3D printer offer you anything new? Maybe you dabble in the occasional 3D modeling from time to time, or maybe you don’t. Whatever the case, the two mediums just don’t seem to correlate.

We’re going to explain some design tips you should be aware of and how that applies to your particular industry: graphic and visual design.

Major Brands Are Already Using 3D Printing for Design

A variety of large corporations and organizations have not only realized the potential of 3D printing technology — they’ve implemented it in their regular routines.

Nike, Nokia, Ittala, Coca-Cola and even Volkswagen have all been creating and designing with 3D printing tools. Nike even took their 3D printed concepts and rolled them into manufactured products, some of which you can buy on store shelves right now.

If the bigger companies and organizations are starting to adopt and utilize this technology, that will soon trickle down to smaller companies

The reason they’ve taken to this technology is because it streamlines their design and manufacturing processes. All product designs or prototypes can be constructed in-house, and then when it’s time to ship something, they can be manufactured internally as well.

This doesn’t relate to graphic design, but it does point out one obvious thing. If the bigger companies and organizations are starting to adopt and utilize this technology, that will soon trickle down to smaller companies, including you.

More companies will desire 3D printing compatible concepts and visuals, which means turning to professionals who can work with the necessary tools and software. If you haven’t already begun training with these technologies and tools, now is the ideal time.

Learn Printing Technologies

Before diving into the design process, you need to spend some time researching and getting to know the various 3D printing technologies and hardware you’ll be working with. Why? Because depending on the materials and the printer used, you’ll need to work with unique specifications.

ABS, alumide, polyamide, and rubber-like materials all allow you to create components and designs that incorporate interlocking parts. That is, you can build snap-together components that are incredibly easy to assemble. Unfortunately, this is not possible with materials like bronze, gold, silver and resin, but it’s not the consistency of the materials or even textures to blame. It’s really the hardware and 3D printers used during these processes. The latter materials aren’t compatible with the types of printers that can create interlocking parts.

In addition, the way in which these printers create components also differs depending on the material. Be sure to do the research so that you understand how they are all different and how this will influence your design.

Mind the Wall Thickness

When working with traditional 2D-based designs, dimensions are important, but you don’t necessarily have to worry about the thickness of your models. You can use specifications and number measurements to indicate true size, but you don’t actually have to design to scale — at least in many cases.

That’s not so with 3D printing, as you’ll always want to mind the wall thickness of the items you’re creating. Walls that are too thick can generate too much internal stress, causing the item itself to collapse or the surfaces to crack. If the walls are too thin, it can make the concept or prototype fragile and easy to break.

Considering you’ll likely be designing and planning the dimensions so that you end up with a durable, reliable product this is one feature you’ll want to brush up on.

File Resolution Is Still Important

With 3D printing, the designs are still parsed and transferred via digital files or blueprints, if you will. In graphic and visual design, file resolution is extremely important especially when working with larger products or prints.

If you stretch a smaller resolution file too much, it ends up looking grainy and pixelated. That’s why it’s important you always design in larger environments and dimensions because scaling down is more accurate than scaling back up.

The common file format for 3D printing designs is STL, or standard triangle language format. The design—when printed—is translated into triangles in a wider 3D space, which makes it easier for the printers and related hardware to construct the resulting item.

Similar to visual design, you don’t want the resolution or file size of your blueprint to be too big, or too small. Too big means the internal content will be too much for machines and other designers to handle. Too small means no one will ever be able to get a quality print out of your STL.

The solution is to consider not just the file resolution, but something called “tolerance” in the world of 3D modeling.

3D Printing Is Not So Different

At a glance, it seems as though 3D printing, and designing for the medium, are much different than the current work you do in graphic and visual design. That’s not necessarily the case though, as both forms of design require you to have working knowledge of modern digital software and tools.

Sure, you might use a different tool to design say, an infographic or visual model than you would a 3D STL file, but the concepts and mechanics are similar.

As long as you mind the tips discussed here, you should do just fine. If you haven’t already started learning how to work with 3D modeling and design tools, you might want to get on that as soon as possible.

The market for additive and manufacturing products and services—which will call for reliable designers and visual artists—is predicted to increase by as much as seven times the current rate by 2020. At that time, the market value is expected to surpass $20 billion.

Featured image via Unsplash

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