September 24, 2015 in Learn
3 Steps to Better UI Wireframes
Creating sketches of a user interface, called wireframes, is often the first step in the design phase of a software or web project. Wireframing your software or website project may seem simple at first because of how easy they are…
September 23, 2015 in Community
Bryan Knight Landed a Life-Changing Career As a UI/UX Engineer For a Startup
In April 2014, Bryan was a father of five working as a lead Concierge for a hotel on the Las Vegas Strip and making $43K as the sole provider for his family. He worked full time at his job,…
June 3, 2015 in Learn
Gestalt Principles for Designers – Applying Visual Psychology to Modern Day Design
Jerry Cao is a UX content strategist at UXPin — the wireframing and prototyping app. To learn more about how to create visually digestible interfaces, download the free e-book Web UI Design for the Human Eye: Colors, Space, Contrast. In…
April 23, 2014 in Learn
An Introduction to Perceived Performance
(Illustration by Mat Helme, Treehouse) Perceived Performance Is a Measure of How Quick a User Thinks Your Site Is, and That’s Often More Important Than Its True Speed Performance is important. It can mean the difference between making a sale,…
April 15, 2014 in Learn
How to Create Custom HTML Elements
(Photo by Kenny Louie / Flickr) An exciting feature of the HTML specification that’s been getting a bit of hype recently is custom HTML elements. These allow you to create your own HTML elements along with their own JavaScript API. This can…
March 11, 2014 in Learn
Creating Autocomplete Dropdowns with the Datalist Element
The <datalist> element, a new addition in the HTML5 specification, allows developers to create native autocomplete dropdowns for their web applications. This type of user interface component is commonly used on form fields and search boxes as it helps the…
February 4, 2014 in Learn
Getting Started with the Speech Synthesis API
With the introduction of products like Siri and Google Now, speech technology has really taken off in the past few years. Various organisations have been working on speech recognition and synthesis for decades, but it seems like only recently that…
December 18, 2013 in Learn
How to Go Flat without Sacrificing Usability
Once upon a time, websites were full of realistic textures, reflections, letterpressed type, and drop shadows. Buttons looked like actual physical buttons, menus like actual divider tabs. The departure from that aesthetic has a lot to do with the desire…
December 3, 2013 in Learn
Prototype Your Prototypes
Prototypes are abstractions of solutions. A prototype is any approximation of a design solution with the goal of gaining understanding of the design problem and whether the approximated solution is a good fit. They do not have all the qualities…
October 22, 2013 in Learn
Tips for Designing More Noticeable Website Sidebars
Website sidebars are a common design in most layouts. This commonly holds page elements which are not detrimental to the content, but include other means of traversing the website. These elements may include category listings, recent user profiles, a search…
September 3, 2013 in Learn
3D in the Browser: WebGL versus CSS 3D Transforms
WebGL and CSS 3D transforms are two major technologies for creating 3D in the browser, and as recently as a few years ago, they didn’t have much browser support. Much has changed in a short period of time, and if…
June 14, 2013 in Learn
Start a Style Movement by Designing a Flaw
You’ve created the greatest design of your career. That’s a lot to be said considering you’ve been in the industry for so long. You’ve studied so hard throughout the years and made so many sacrifices in the name of design. That determination has placed…