The Smashing Book #3: All Good Things Come In Threes

Yes, the brand new Smashing Book #3 is coming. The printing press is warming up, the illustrations are finished, and the chapters are being proofread. This third book is the best printed book we’ve produced so far: it is a valuable, cutting-edge, high-quality printed book that any Web designer should have on their bookshelf.

This time, we’ve also prepared an extra book 3⅓ that offers even more exclusive content. And unlike its predecessors, the new Smashing Book #3 has a theme: Redesign. It is a professional guide on how to redesign websites and it also introduces a whole new mindset for progressive Web design. In this ever-changing Web design industry, the book challenges you to think differently about your work and will change the way you design websites forever.

Stop Writing Project Proposals

After several grueling days I had finally finished the proposal. I sent it off and waited for a response. Nothing. After a few weeks, I discovered that they were “just lookingâ€. Despite the urgency and aggressive timeline for the RFP (Request For Proposal) plus the fact that we had done business with this organization before, the project was a no-go. My days of effort were wasted. Not entirely, though, because the pain of that loss was enough to drive me to decide that it wouldn’t happen again.

I work at a Web development company and we’ve experimented with proposal writing a lot over the years. We’ve seen the good and the bad, and we have found something better. In this article I will share the pains that we have experienced in the proposal writing process, the solution we adopted, and our process for carrying out that solution. I’ll also give you guidelines to help you know when this solution is and isn’t appropriate.

How To Recruit A UX Designer

The Web has entered an era of user-centricity. If businesses are to attract new customers and retain existing ones, they must create websites and apps that deliver intuitive and tailored experiences. Whether you run an online retailer or a not-for-profit community website, the user experience is mission critical.

As a consequence, we have seen a real surge in the need for talented user experience (UX) designers who can help turn vision into reality. How do you attract, recruit and retain UX talent in your business?

Designer Myopia: How To Stop Designing For Ourselves

Have you ever looked at a bizarre building design and wondered, “What were the architects thinking?†Or have you simply felt frustrated by a building that made you uncomfortable, or felt anger when a beautiful old building was razed and replaced with a contemporary eyesore?

You might be forgiven for thinking “these architects must be blind!†New research shows that in a real sense, you might actually be right.

Progressive And Responsive Navigation

Developing for the Web can be a difficult yet rewarding job. Given the number of browsers across the number of platforms, it can sometimes be a bit overwhelming.

But if we start coding with a little forethought and apply the principles of progressive enhancement from the beginning and apply some responsive practices at the end, we can easily accommodate for less-capable browsers and reward those with modern browsers in both desktop and mobile environments.

Upcoming Web Design And Development Conferences For 2012

We’re well into 2012, and many designers and developers around the world are planning their travels for the year, which may include attending one of the many Web design and development conferences that will be held in the upcoming months.

To help you out with your plans, we’ve once again put together a list of conferences and events that you might want to consider. As always, this post covers events taking place in about a seven month timeframe that ends in early September.

A Beginner’s Guide To jQuery-Based JSON API Clients

Are you fascinated by dynamic data? Do you go green with envy when you see tweets pulled magically into websites? Trust me, I’ve been there.

The goal of today’s tutorial is to create a simple Web app for grabbing movie posters from TMDb. We’ll use jQuery and the user’s input to query a JSON-based API and deal with the returned data appropriately.

Smashing Special: WordPress Theme Trends For 2012

2011 was a great year for WordPress, with some excellent new updates that saw the introduction of a drag-and-drop uploader, distraction-free writing, the HTML5 Twenty Eleven theme, and movement towards a fully responsive dashboard. As well as changes to WordPress core, theme development continued to evolve, as whispers of responsive design spread like wildfire across the WordPress community.

Over the next year, some trends will become standards. Others, now just remote flickerings in the eyes of a few theme designers and developers, will start to take hold. Now that 2012 has properly started, let’s look at some trends that have emerged and are emerging.