The Path to Performance, for example, is a podcast dedicated to fostering a culture around web performance in organizations. It often features interviews with people who have successfully integrated performance as part of their culture and the benefits they have seen.
Responsive Web Design Podcast is dedicated to responsive redesigns; Viewsources Podcast is dedicated to front-end development and design workflows and if you're looking for something slightly less technical, Unfinished Business, talks about pretty much everything web (and not web) related, hosted by Andrew Clarke.
The internet is brimming with learning tools. Katie Kovalcin takes a look at the coolest code schools on the block.
There comes a point in everyone's life when it's time to take more control of your destiny. So, if you've built your own site using free WordPress themes orDrupal themes, you might be craving more control. It's time to take an online coding course, learn to code yourself and built your site, your way. We have many accessible educational tools popping up that make learning new skills more straightforward. The daunting task is finding the one that is right for you and your learning style. I've tested and reviewed some of the most popular schools being talked on the web today, to give you a better understanding of the pros and cons of each. Here's my list of the webs 10 best online coding courses.
Code School offers some free course and it's one of my favouritesOf all the tools I dug into,Code Schoolwas one of my favourites. Not only does the site look great, but it offers quality content and a great student experience. You can follow a 'path', which will guide you through a succession of different courses, or you can opt for a single course on its own. There are also 'electives' on offer – additional courses you can take to supplement your path. The videos are quirky and fun in an 'after-school special' kind of way – which is a refreshing break from typically dry video tutorials. It's like watching Bill Nye explain it – which is to say, comforting. After watching a video, you work on your own tasks – relating back to the video if required. If you get really stuck (like I did) you can 'buy' answers with points you've earned from other classes. Code School offers some courses for free, so you can try it out for size, or you can buy a monthly subscription for $29/month. If you're looking to splash a few bucks on a learning tool, I would recommend spending your money here.
Skillcrush closely resembles learning in the classroomSkillcrushis a unique online coding course, and the one that most closely resembles an actual curriculum in a classroom setting. Users can enrol in either a one-off three-week course, or a three-month 'blueprint' (a design- or development-focused path that takes the student through three courses that build on each other). Once enrolled, students have access to not only a classroom setting chat forum with their fellow students, but also office hours and one- on-one time with their instructor.
Udacity covers a huge array of technical subjectsUdacityoffers robust guides to many different topics, with seriously advanced courses for everything from robotics to design theories in everyday life. All courses are summarised before you even begin, outlining the difficulty level, why the course is important, any prerequisites for taking it, and the project you will complete at the end. This meant I could easily scan through and choose what suited me best.
Code Avengers takes a simple step-by-step approachCode Avengers walks you through each process in very simple, step-by-step instructions, starting with minor tasks, while you watch what happens in a mini phone simulator next to your editor. Tasks weren't so difficult that I felt the need to 'cheat', but they weren't so simple that I was just copying and pasting.
The Khan Academy is very straight forward and offers quizzes tooWhat's interesting with Khan Academy is that you hear someone talking while they write the code, which feels natural, like you are sitting down with someone. The courses were straightforward, easy to follow and I could then transfer the concepts to the simple exercises. Sometimes, there are mini-quizzes following a demo, which made me think about things conceptually and helped me understand what the code was doing a little better.
re-post from Design Mag, will be working my way through these... http://designm.ag/design/15-web-apps-that-top-web-designers-are-using/
There's a great piece that DesignMag have just posted, really useful
tools, most of which I haven't heard of to will be investigating
further. I've just blatently copied the titles out with the links in so I
have them for future reference...
I just seem to be posting all the great tools I've discovered recently, but this just means the blog is full of great reference material. No bad thing? http://cssfontstack.com/
The guys at Zurb have come up with a peachy little package called "Ink", for creating responsive HTML emails, ready for you to use with an Email Service Provider of your choice.
Flat UI Colors is a really simple tool. If you’re looking for a color
to use for your design, check out their color palette to find one that
suits you. To copy the color’s hex code, all you need to do is click on
the color. Website:Flatuicolors.com
Unheap
jQuery plugins can be really useful as they can add functionality to
your site and don’t take a long time to implement. There are tons of
jQuery plugins out there and it’s hard to keep track of them all. Unheap
has a large selection of jQuery plugins to choose from. The website is
neatly organized and categorized so you can find the perfect plugin. Website: Unheap.com
PlaceIt
If you’re a web designer doing mockups, sometimes its helpful to have
images of your website displaying on a device. It can be tricky to
PhotoShop these images yourself and an even bigger pain to take these
photos manually. PlaceIt allows you to add a screenshot of your website
to an image with a device in it easily. Website:Placeit.breezi.com
Mincss
It can be frustrating trying to figure out which parts of your CSS
you’re actually using. If you’re not using it and don’t plan on using
it, why keep it? Mincss removes the sections of your CSS that you never
use. Website:Peterbe.com/plog/mincss
As you can see, there are tools to help with every aspect of web
design. You can use tools to choose colors, to get inspired, or even to
clean up your code. Without a doubt you will save valuable time by using
these tools, so give them a try!
A really useful, free persona template. (PDF format)
A bit of background
We wanted to help our clients to create some excellent user experiences and engage with their staff on their new Interact intranet, so I set about putting a great staff persona template together.
Realised that it might be quite useful to share our template with you, so that you can benefit from creating brilliant personas too, which in turn will help you create great user experiences.
What is a persona?
Personas are realistic but fictional user profiles for an intranet or website. The profiles represent a broad range of needs of groups of users, in terms of their goals and personal characteristics. The personas act as ‘stand-ins’ for real users and help guide decisions about functionality and design.
Personas identify the user motivations, expectations and goals responsible for driving online behaviour, and bring the artificial users to life by giving them names, personalities and even a photo.
When specifying any structure, features, functionality or new processes every team member can use the personas to work out the advantages and disadvantages any new item will have on each user. This in turn naturally leads to better user interface design. With everyone using the same baseline, it makes planning more straight forward and efficient.
Although personas are fictitious, they are based on knowledge of real users. User research should be conducted to create each one, which ensures they represent end users rather than the opinion of the person writing the personas.
The persona template
I’ve made it simple for you, just print out the persona template and follow the light grey text for guidance. Overwrite the grey text with responses to the questions and you’ll end up with a great persona ready to use for your next planning meeting.
Get your notification of how many unread emails you have back into Digsby desktop app. This clever chap has sorted out a fix and it works well. I've installed it several times on different machines. http://softconsultant.ro/2013/05/13/solution-for-digsby-gmail-notifications/
He has my respect and gratitude.
This website provides a very simple and easy to use, incredibly valuable facility to show you how CSS3 elements can be created and all the code you need to make it work! Fab!
Just seen a great little gadget that will make excellent gifts for many friends and family. A credit card sized USB to micro USB cable. Effectively creating a credit card sized charger for your phone or any other device that fits in your wallet!
What a great idea, we just need it in the UK please!
