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Notes on Reverse-Scrolling Columns With CSS Scroll-Timeline

January 31st, 2022 No comments
Showing three columns of photos of actresses demonstrating the CSS scroll-timeline effect. The first and their columns scroll up and down together. The second columns scrolls the opposite direction.

Lemme do this one quick-hits style:

CSS Scroll-Timeline with prefers-reduced-motion

The only thing I’d add is something to honor prefers-reduced-motion, as I could see this sort of scrolling motion affecting someone with motion sickness. To do that, you could combine tests in the same line the support test is being done in JavaScript:

if (
    !CSS.supports("animation-timeline: foo") && 
    !window.matchMedia('(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)').matches
   ) {
     // Do fancy stuff
}

I’m not 100% if it’s best to test for no-preference or the opposite of reduce. Either way, the trick in CSS is to wrap anything you’re going to do with @scroll-timeline and animation-timeline in an @supports test (in case you want to do something different otherwise) and then wrap that in a preference test:

@media (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) {

    @supports (animation-timeline: works) {

      /* Do fancy stuff */

    }

}

Here’s a demo of that, with all the real credit to Bramus here for getting it going.

Ooo and ya know what? The CSS gets nicer should @when land as a feature:

@when supports(animation-timeline: works) and media(prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) {

} @else {

}

Notes on Reverse-Scrolling Columns With CSS Scroll-Timeline originally published on CSS-Tricks. You should get the newsletter and become a supporter.

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The Relevance of TypeScript in 2022

January 31st, 2022 No comments

It’s 2022. And the current relevance of TypeScript is undisputed. TypeScript has dominated the front-end developer experience by many, many accounts. By now you likely already know that TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript, building on JavaScript by adding syntax for type declarations, classes, and other object-oriented features with type-checking.

And when I say dominated, I mean TypeScript has literally exploded on the scene since it was introduced in 2012.

Source: State of the Octoverse 2021 (GitHub)

That sort of growth is incredible, especially considering it really started taking off in 2017. But as we get into 2022, just how relevant is TypeScript going to be moving forward? It’s not like TypeScript will continue to grow leaps and bounds this way forever… right?!

It’s interesting to poke at the idea a bit to see where TypeScript is today and how it will continue playing a role in front-end development into the future. Jake Albaugh has already poked at the relevance of TypeScript himself, but from the perspective of whether or not knowing JavaScript makes you relevant as a developer.

So, what’s the future relevance of TypeScript look like? Let’s see.

TypeScript’s roots

OK, so we know TypeScript adds syntax to JavaScript. This syntax is used by TypeScript’s compiler to sniff out code errors before they happen, then it spits out vanilla JavaScript that browsers can understand. It’s also worth mentioned that TypeScript is maintained by Microsoft, licensed under Apache 2 license.

A blue oval labeled TypeScript code with an arrow to the right pointing at a green oval labeled TypeScript compiler, followed by another arrow pointing right toward a red oval labeled JavaScript code.

And we can’t really talk about TypeScript without also calling out ECMAScript (ES), the JavaScript standard and scripting language specification standardized by ECMA International. The JavaScript naming convention started with ES1 and has evolved to ES6. The most recent version, the 12th edition — or ECMAScript 2021 — was published in June 2021.

TypeScript is a strict superset of ECMAScript 2015. That means a JavaScript program is also a valid TypeScript program. Conversely, a TypeScript program can effortlessly consume JavaScript.

Concentric circles in blue, orange, green, and magenta showing how TypeScript encompasses ES 2016, ES 2015, and ES 5.
Credit: Seema Saharan

It’s important to know all this because we need to know where TypeScript gets its roots in order to poke at its possible future.

TypeScript’s components

There are three fundamental components of TypeScript that make it as awesome as it is. Not only do we get the aforementioned type-checking that comes with the TypeScript language, but we get the TypeScript compiler and language service as well.

A tree chart showing TypeScript at the top with three branches representing its language, compiler, and language service. Each of those has a single branch explaining what those components do.

These are the pieces that keep TypeScript relevant, so to speak. The language is what developers love writing. The compiler is what interprets the language for browsers. The service processes the language on demand with blazing speed. Without these, TypeScript just ain’t what it is.

TypeScript support

There’s another key piece to TypeScript’s relevance that often goes overlooked: it’s super well-supported by text editors. TypeScript’s relevance is only as good as it is accessible and something that can be picked up by just about any front-ender.

TypeScript was initially supported only in Microsoft’s Visual Studio code editor. Makes sense, right? I mean, TypeScript is maintained by Microsoft and all. But as TypeScript grew legs, more code editors and IDEs began started supporting it either natively or with plugins.

Some of the most popular editors and IDEs, besides Visual Studio Code, include:

And with more support comes more TypeScript relevance. The fact that you can pick up nearly any code editor and start hammering out TypeScript code makes it more and more a go-to choice as it’s simply available where you want it.

TypeScript’s evolution

From its initial release in 2012 to the present day (early 2022), there have been many improvements released in each version of TypeScript, like:

  • TypeScript 1.6 introduced the .tsx file extension, which enabled JSX within TypeScript files and made the new as operator the default way to cast.
  • TypeScript 2 brought in a major improvement by allowing developers to optionally prevent variables from being assigned null values.
  • Version 2.3 of TypeScript introduced support for ES6 features, such as generators and iterators.
  • TypeScript 3 brought in language enhancements, such as tuples in REST parameters and spread expressions.
  • TypeScript 4 (we’re currently at 4.5.2 at the time of this writing) continues the evolution with refinements to tuples, template literal types, smarter type alias preservation, and improvements to Awaited and Promise.

This is exactly the sort of speed at which you might expect to see a blossoming programming language iterating and releasing new features. Again, good context when evaluating the relevance of TypeScript moving forward.

TypeScript’s popularity

We’ve already established that TypeScript is, like, super popular. The chart that kicked off this post showed TypeScript growing at breakneck speed in a matter of a few years to rank as the fourth most popular language. But don’t just take my word and GitHub’s word for it (it is owned by Microsoft after all). Here’s a bunch of published research from various places saying the same thing.

RedMonk

RedMonk, a development industry analysis firm has this to say about ranking TypeScript eighth in its 2021 list of most popular languages:

Does [TypeScript] have the capacity to move up and outperform long term incumbents such as C#, C++ or even PHP eventually, or is TypeScript essentially at or near the limits of its potential? It’s impossible to say with any reliability, but it is interesting to note that a year ago at this time TypeScript lagged the fifth place languages by six points in the combined score that the rankings are based on, but in this run the gap was only two points. Past performance doesn’t always predict future performance, of course, but it suggests at least that TypeScript might yet have some room in front of it.

PYPL Index

The PYPL Index is a measure of Google searches for programming language tutorials. It’s not exact science, but a good indicator of interest. And, over time, TypeScript appears to be trending in a flat direction. TypeScript currently ranks eighth and, compared to a year ago at this time, PYPL indicates that TyeScript is trending flat overall while other languages, like Python and C++ are trending up year-over-year.

Stack Overflow 2021 Developer Survey

According to Stack Overflow’s 2021 Developer Survey, TypeScript is about as popular as PYPL indicates it is, coming in as the seventh most popular language, as ranked by approximately 83,000 developers.

An orange bar chart on a dark background showing TypeScript ranking seventh behind the likes of JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python, SWL, Java, and Node.

The Stack Overflow annual survey is one of the most credible and most-awaited developer surveys. It uses a humongous developer base from all over the world to arrive at its conclusions. And how relevant does this say TypeScript is in the front-end community? Well, it’s not only the seventh most popular language, but it the second technology that developers want to work with the most (followed by Python), and the third most loved language (behind Rust and Clojure).

Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2021

2020 State of JavaScript

This annual survey (the next one is open now!) shows that TypeScript boasts a sparkling 93% satisfaction rate (up from 89% in 2019) among developers which is tops in the rankings. It also took top prize in interest (70%, up from 66%), usage (78%, up from 66%), and awareness (100% which is shockingly flat from 2019).

Screenshot of the 2021 State of JavaScript survey chart of popular JavaScript flavors. TypeScript was second in 2016 but took first place in 2017 and has remained there since, above PostScript, Reason, Elm, and ClojureScript.

GitHut 2.0 Language Rankings

This ranking is an analysis that interacts with GitHub to suss out the most used languages across GitHub. And it’s indicative of TypeScript’s relevance in that TypeScript ranked seventh in the first quarter of 2021 before leaping up to fourth in the fourth quarter, and with the highest year-over-year change.

OK, so it’s clear that TypeScript is a big deal. But again, how relevant will it be moving forward?

The relevance of TypeScript in 2022 and beyond

So far, I’ve tried to paint a picture that identifies where TypeScript fits into the front-end development landscape, showing how it’s quickly evolved into a mature and serious contender as a programming language, and is fast-becoming both the programming language of choice and the one people like most.

In other words: TypeScript is relevant today.

But if we want to take a guess at where TypeScript’s current success is taking it, then it’s worth taking a peek the official TypeScript roadmap over at GitHub.

Here’s what we have to look forward to:

  • typeof class changes
  • Allow more code before super calls in subclasses
  • Generalized index signatures
  • --noImplicitOverride and the override keyword
  • Static index signatures
  • Use unknown as the type for catch clause variables
  • Investigate nominal typing support
  • Flattening declarations
  • Implement the ES decorator proposal
  • Investigate ambient, deprecated, and conditional decorators
  • Investigate partial type argument inference
  • Implement a quick fix to scaffold local @types packages
  • Investigate error messages in haiku or iambic pentameter
  • Implement decorators for function expressions and arrow functions

I think all of these roadmapped features are both exciting and will play a big role in maintaining the relevance of TypeScript for the foreseeable future. And while I think all of them are worthy of deeper discussion, here are a few I believe are core for TypeScript in 2022 and beyond.

Flattening declarations

The flattening declarations proposal, for example, aims to enable bundling declarations for TypeScript projects so that a library can be consumed with a single TypeScript file, regardless of how many modules it may contain internally.

The idea with flattening declarations is that a single amalgamated and flattened .d.ts file, in addition to a single output .js file, should be emitted by the TypeScript compiler. Access modifiers should be taken into consideration and respected when generating the DTS. Having a single declaration file with flattened declarations will make things much easier for developers and improve maintainability in the long run.

Ambient, Deprecated, and Conditional decorators

Design time decorators— such as ambient and conditional decorators — are another feature to look forward to. Decorators enable developers to add both annotations and metadata to existing code in a declarative way. In TypeScript, each decorator has a special name starting with @ that will not be emitted in the converted JavaScript, but can be persisted in .d.ts outputs.

Consider, for example, if you could issue a warning whenever someone attempts to employ a deprecated method or property so that they could upgrade to a newer library version. By having ambient, deprecated, and conditional decorators as part of the TypeScript specification in the future, the language will provide more powerful ways for developers to annotate their code and include metadata in it.

Decorators for function expressions/arrow functions

Decorators for function and arrow expressions is another feature I think will build on TypeScript’s ongoing relevance. Adding annotations or metadata to those expressions will enable developers to determine at runtime information about which the decorator has been applied.

Investigate error messages in haiku or iambic pentameter

OK, so maybe this one isn’t so much about the relevance of TypeScript’s robust feature set, but I think the personality it adds to the language is part of the overall package that makes TypeScript a pleasure to use. How cool (and pleasant) would it be to get an error message like this:

Sure beats a programmatic message that can sometimes feel like a scolding! And while there has been no progress on this proposed feature in the last two years, it still exists on the official roadmap which means someone will eventually work on it.


Microsoft unveiled Visual Studio 2022 Preview 3 back in August 2021. There was a lot to get excited about with that release, like new JavaScript and TypeScript tools to enhance the experience for single-page applications and front-end development. Plus, it included a new JavaScript/TypeScript project type to facilitate developers building standalone Angular, React, and Vue projects. Then there’s the enhancement that Visual Studio will leverage the native CLIs of each JavaScript framework to build front-end project templates.

All of this to say that TypeScript is not just evolving; it is exploding and only gaining momentum as we settle in 2022. So, yes, TypeScript is relevant in 2022… and will continue to be for some time to come.


The Relevance of TypeScript in 2022 originally published on CSS-Tricks. You should get the newsletter and become a supporter.

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Exciting New Tools For Designers, February 2022

January 31st, 2022 No comments

One of the most talked-about digital elements of the new year leads our roundup of tools and resources this month – NFTs. The NFT landscape seems to be exploding right now and that includes tools for designers to get in on the game as well.

Here’s what is new for designers this month…

Zero Code NFT

Zero Code NFT offers an advanced no-code tool to simplify the smart contract development and deployment process, allowing you to launch your NFTs with no previous coding experience. It includes a smart contract wizard that supports Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, and Avalanche, with Solana and others underway. The tool has a waitlist if you are interested.

54nft

54nft is a tool to create a customized NFT store. It is a complete commerce platform that lets you start, grow, and manage an NFT business. Create and customize a store, publish and mint assets on available blockchains, and sell. The tool is free but charges a transaction fee on sales.

NFT-Inator

NFT-Inator is a free toolkit to accelerate the design and development of procedurally generated NFT projects. Create custom and randomized designs, test layer combinations, and export images and metadata for Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon.

Gradientos

Gradientos makes finding gradients that work with your design easy. Pick your colors and see the gradient live on a demo website with common UI elements.

Web Almanac

Web Almanac is an annual state of the web report from HTTP Archive. It is a comprehensive report on the state of the web, backed by real data and trusted web experts. The 2021 edition is comprised of 24 chapters spanning aspects of page content, user experience, publishing, and distribution.

Straw.Page

Straw.Page is a new take on website builders. It is a super simple builder that you can use to create websites from your phone. It’s a drag and drop builder that’s highly experimental and allows you to connect via a subdomain or with a custom domain.

Placy

Placy is a simple placeholder generator. Set the size, color, and fonts and you’ll get a usable data URL to include on your website. Available and JPG, PNG, or SVG.

MetaSEO

MetaSEO is a tool to generate meta tags in one click for the best SEO of your website, rank high in search results, and appear unique when someone shares your link. It’s a no-brainer SEO tool for web designers and developers that aren’t as versed in search engine optimization.

Glitch Image Generator

Glitch Image Generator is a tool to create a trend effect of the same name. Upload an image, pick a color mode, set glitch preferences, and save it as a PNG for projects. It’s that easy.

Smoothly Reverting CSS Animations

Smoothly Reverting CSS Animations is a simple and easy-to-understand tutorial that will walk you through how to create a keyframe animation that moves smoothly. Pragmatic Pineapple explains the steps with code snippets to help you understand how to make this animated element work for you.

Alternate Column Scroll Animation

Alternate Column Scroll Animation is a nifty little tutorial and demo (with downloadable source code) from Codrops. The result is a grid layout with columns that scroll in opposite directions and a content preview animation.

Waldo

Waldo is a premium tool that can help you ship mobile apps faster with fewer bugs (that’s a win-win). The no-code testing platform allows you to upload your app to the platform, run tests, and fix any issues that might arise to help you provide a better experience when it is time to make your app live.

Monad

Monad offers an efficient and simple way to share and discover code snippets. Create an account to easily find snippets relevant to you using tags or browse and create snippets anonymously. One of the best features is the ability to work collaboratively or privately.

Doodle CSS

Doodle CSS is a simple hand-drawn HTML/CSS theme that you can snag from GitHub. It’s fun and whimsical. Practical application for a look like this is up to your style and imagination.

Pixel Patterns

Pixel Patterns is a concept pattern set that implements a function to create patterns with minimal syntax. They are in a pixel style with code snippets that you can play with.

Protodeo

Protodeo is a tool to make 3D video website templates to help show off new products or services. Just upload a few images, customize your settings, and the tool will give you a Bootstrap template with video mockups in less than a day.

VanillaList

VanillaList is a repository of handpicked JavaScript plugins and resources to save time as a developer and create high-performance web apps. And as the name implies, they are all vanilla.

The Mouse Mover

The Mouse Mover is a fun little tool with questionable ethics – it simulates real mouse movements on your PC. Plus you get the source code and won’t have to worry about going to sleep or triggering a logged-off status.

Ground Zero

Ground Zero returns Mac apps to the state they were in when first installed, without deleting the app. Fix issues and get back the default settings, or simply re-claim disk space by cleaning up data that would normally be left behind when uninstalling an app.

Alonzo

Alonzo is a premium typeface family in a modern style with high contrast stroke weights. The family includes 24 styles and with an almost condensed style fits nicely in tight spaces.

ContaneText

ContaneText is the more readable text version of the Contane typeface family. It’s a solid serif with 20 styles including Romans and matching italics. Stronger hairlines, solid serifs, and slightly more comfortable proportions make it appropriate for bold headlines, as well as for small text sizes.

Plinc Flourish

Plinc Flourish completes our roundup this month with an interesting, premium typeface that’s beautiful and functional. Part italic, part roman, this iconoclastic font is all style. It includes formal pen strokes in a taut upright framework to create a typeface that looks defiantly forward.

Source

The post Exciting New Tools For Designers, February 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

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Features of M-Commerce that Will Boost Your Retail Business

January 31st, 2022 No comments

In 2021, mobile commerce or m-commerce has given a huge steep to the digital category to e-commerce owners. As per the recent reports, mobile marketing is making 73% of growth in business revenues.

It means that nearly 3 out of every 4 dollars spent on online purchases are coming from mobile, and the price is handiest increasing. 

As of 2021, in line with a document posted with the aid of using Data Report, there are 5.22 billion precise cellular smartphone customers across the world. This represents two-thirds of the complete international population and 80% have internet connectivity. Thus the digital world is rising: the quantity of time spent on the device, the styles of apps and websites visited, and day by day net utilization are specific observations of the mobile advertising industry.

Mobile has become a brand new consolation to consumers because it has ended up very clean leading to shopping for merchandise and making payments online through smartphones. These high-rising mobile influencers have turned the demand for mobile retail stores apps. Let’s look at some of the statistics which show the rise in online product purchase:

  • 62% of mobile users made online purchases.
  • In 2017 the global mobile commerce revenue amounted to $288.12 billion.
  • 80% of online shoppers use a smartphone inside a brick-and-mortar store to check product reviews.

These percentages of numbers suggest that people are more attracted and thrived towards online purchases through mobile phones rather than physically moving to their nearby stores and this has brought a skyrocketing challenge in front of shop retailers. Thus it is continually significant to apprehend the conduct and preferences of customers. Retail app development is being pushed to create more dynamic interfaces using cutting-edge technology and tools as mobile apps have become a critical way to increase income for businesses.

Following are some critical aspects of mobile retail shop application of which retailers should stay relevant to have a boom in their business revenue:

1. Easy Registration Flow

Your e-commerce application registration procedure should be quick, easy, feasible, and straightforward. Customers desire simplicity and ease of use, and a long time-consuming registration process will turn them away from your mobile app. If your app requires a lot of information from users, mobile app for eCommerce stores makes sure to eliminate the unnecessary elements to keep people interested in it.

2. Push Notification

Push notifications are a fantastic feature that can help your retail store app succeed. It increases client engagement by informing them of continuous promotions, incentives, and timely discounts. With Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps, it just not improves your sales, but also boosts your earnings.

3. Review and Rating

Approximately 94% of buyers make purchases after reading product reviews on the internet. Consumers’ purchase decisions are heavily influenced by product reviews and ratings. You could be concerned that unfavorable reviews will cause you to lose consumers and sales. Negative reviews are regarded as unedited, whereas good evaluations are frequently regarded as fraudulent.

4. AR and VR trends

Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) are rising as the subsequent large component in m-commerce, that’s projected to become a $ 1.6 billion worldwide retail marketplace with the aid of using 2025. Therefore, if you want to claim an important part of this pie, it is important to adopt these technologies early. 

In AR, people use the camera features of their smartphones via the app to see enhanced rendering in the real world. This may be performed by including images, sounds, and different sensory stimuli to offer extra information more attractively, and VR, on the alternative hand, is a computer-generated simulation that lets customers interact in 3D surroundings via particular devices together with glasses, VR headsets, and smartphones.

5. Offline-Usage

Smartphone customers frequently transfer between apps and networks and anticipate their apps to work even if the network connection is lost. Offline apps lessen records usage. This is likewise an appealing function for customers and enables enhancing the general user experience and app performance. Google Maps is the best example of an offline app feature that allows users to save maps offline. However, it can be difficult to implement offline access for your app because all reference data must be pre-cached on the device and these datasets can be dynamic and large.

6. Lower costs and higher productivity

Using a mobile app for eCommerce stores and using Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps can easily connect with customers and it can save money on advertising and marketing campaigns with much less astounding results. Better still, social media integration can reduce social media advertising and marketing charges, using clients to assist unfold the brand.

Moreover, the charges of growing and retaining an application are commonly tons in a decrease in comparison to different e-commerce platforms, saving extra money and releasing up resources. For example, an app often charges as low as 20% of its improvement rate to function. Reducing the charges and manpower needed to function advertising and marketing campaigns is a large gain that mobile apps for e-commerce stores offer retailers.

7. Mobile Wallets for both customers and retailers

Today, people love doing everything on their smartphones through exceptional applications. If they pick out to shop online, then surely, they’ll opt for paying through one such utility. As a retailer, your E-Commerce site desires to be well suited with one or greater mobile price structures which consist of Google Wallet, PayPal, Paytm, or others and this one can easily benefit by using Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps for their e-commerce stores.

 It will assist your clients to have a handy approach to price, thereby growing the variety of purchases for you. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind how your customers engage together with your internet site when you plan to broaden mobile payment options. 

Therefore, Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps can immediately scan their customers’ cards for the payment procedure. One can also come up with the same apps for safe payment gateways easily.

Final Thoughts

These recent mobile apps for e-commerce stores trends allow brands to significantly improve their customer experience. These exciting trends, backed by technological advances, have attracted the attention of many major brands. This is to effectively guide the customer to the product or service while keeping the customer’s attention. Getting the customer’s interest is a surefire manner to show a visit into a sale. It’s time to start thinking about how to take advantage of these trends so you can see your sales skyrocket!

The post Features of M-Commerce that Will Boost Your Retail Business appeared first on noupe.

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10 Tips for Leading a Hybrid Workforce

January 31st, 2022 No comments

Workplaces were forced to change radically — and overnight — when the Covid-19 pandemic swept the globe.

In the wake of that sobering reality, many workers concluded that they didn’t want to return to the office. Managers, for their part, became less willing to continue paying for empty office space.

Some employees want to return to the office. Others do not. The obvious solution is to consider implementing a hybrid team of remote and in-person employees. That sounds ideal…but be advised that the road itself is fraught with landmines. However, most of these can be successfully avoided by adhering to the following 10 guidelines.

1. Don’t pretend that remote and in-person are the same thing.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make as we enter somewhat hesitantly into the era of hybrid work teams is to pretend that in-person and remote positions are (or should be) identical in every way. They’re for sure not, and you risk offending both your remote and in-person employees by insisting that they are. The simplest and most obvious example of a significant difference is that remote employees miss out on many of the distinctive aspects of office life culture. Remote employees may be able to wear jammies as they toil but, on the other hand, they miss out on every single water-cooler conversation. Acknowledge and respect the differing needs. (Start by making sure your remote workers have access to important conversations that happen offline.)

2. Step up your communication game in meetings.

Your best friend as you move ahead with implementing a hybrid team of employees will be to regularly ask yourself one simple question: “Will this meeting be valuable and inclusive for everyone invited?” Keep in mind that every seat in the room — virtual or otherwise — represents a paid employee. You might consider appointing a staff member or two to create a set of expectations or meeting agenda for everyone to follow. It will take trial-and-error as you figure out how everyone communicates best and how to disseminate information in an easy-to-understand way. But your team will be on the same page more often if you strive to figure this out early on. 

3. Set objective, empirical performance standards ASAP.

Your company may already have developed one performance evaluation standard for in-person workers and another for remote employees. That may or may not be entirely appropriate. Just make sure that employee evaluations, pay assessments, and performance metrics take into account the variables that are different for your remote people and in-person staff. As a manager, your primary consideration should be making sure that all of your employees are pulling their fair share of the load. Resentments can be astonishingly quick to foment in this new era of hybrid offices. When an in-person worker begins to grouse about a remote employee (or vice versa) be quick to pay attention. Is this a one-time deal, or does it happen frequently? Find out and fix it.

4. Encourage consistency. Start by setting office hours for everyone.

This is an area where “acceptable” office hours will vary from business to business and from remote worker to in-person. However, in general, you want to avoid problems that can crop up whenever anyone’s expectations are foiled. If, for example, a remote employee fully expects to complete an important project with input from “Jim,” the dead last thing you want is for someone at the office to inform the remote employee that Jim is off the grid. The implication is obvious. Management must maintain a calendar of availability for every employee, regardless of where they happen to do their job. Any employee should be able to glance at the shared company calendar and discern at once who’s available, who’s not, and how it affects project completion.

5. Anticipate setbacks and communication snafus.

Ask around. It’s almost a 100% sure bet that not one company transitioned from being fully in-person to hybrid without encountering several problems related to effective communication. Remote employees living in rural areas have terrible internet connectivity. Projects come to a standstill simply because one in-person employee caught a cold — let alone Covid-19 — and failed to designate an alternate to take over. Even as your company begins to find its “sea legs” running with a hybrid team, additional issues are sure to arise. As a manager, your best bet is to go from having a solid Plan A and Plan B to having at least four or five fallback positions to which your people can flee in the event of unforeseen difficulties. A simple example would be to schedule an important team meeting for two different time slots should connectivity fail.

6. Identify and dismantle artificial workplace boundaries.

Is anyone in your work setting still naive enough to dare to use the phrase “the way we’ve always done things around here?” As a rule, most people tend to resist change, which is rather unfortunate given that things seem to be changing every single day since March 2020. Keep the all-too-human resistance to change in mind as you develop processes and procedures for your remote and in-person employees. Pay attention to casual remarks, memos, and messaging that in any way splits your company into two teams. For your hybrid team to work, everyone has to be on the same page with this. If, for example, one of your in-person staff resists responding to the request of a remote team member — for whatever reason — this is a situation that needs to be wrestled to the ground immediately.

7. Secure and deploy the right tech for the right people.

If you’ve ever tried to sit through a meeting where technical difficulties are grating on everyone’s nerves, you know full well the value of making sure everyone has the tech they need. Effective leaders will call off a meeting rather than pay staff to sit through these sorts of torture sessions. “We’ll reschedule everyone for later in the day” can be a lot less expensive than having your staff spend 30-90 minutes sighing deeply and wishing they were anywhere else. When developing a hybrid team, many managers focus almost exclusively on the technical needs of their remote employees. Head off technical problems by assigning one (1) team member to be 100% in charge of any meeting’s technical requirements. Have that person engage with every employee days ahead of a big meeting to run tests, diagnose issues, etc.

8. Prioritize worker safety above everything else.

More than one otherwise-effective workplace manager has fallen into the snare of trying to make everyone happy with regard to face mask policies, vaccination requirements, and social distancing. As more and more employees begin returning to work, keep in mind that there is a wide spectrum of fear in operation throughout our culture. Keep drumming the same message into everyone’s heads over and over again. “We care far more about your physical safety and that of your loved ones than we do about anything else.” Do you hope to foster employee loyalty? Say those words as often as you need to…and mean them.

9. Foster a culture of open, transparent communication.

Whether you are implementing a hybrid team or not, every manager should be committed to a workplace culture where problems are discussed openly…without recrimination. Cliques and whispered conversations carry with them the capacity to destroy any relationship, whether a workplace, a softball team, or a marriage. Leaders have the opportunity to set the tone by being open about their own failures, flaws, and painful lessons learned. Where employees do not fear bringing up difficult problems, solutions are more likely to be implemented quickly. 

10. Solicit (and pay attention to) employee feedback.

You might be a top-notch manager, but when you implement a hybrid team of in-person and remote employees, you’re simply not going to get everything right. Yes, the acceptable structure for your hybrid team should be a top-down imperative, but it will be vital that everyone involved be open to feedback rising up from the ranks.

Any manager worth his or her salt knows that making every employee perfectly happy is never going to happen. However, in the rush to implement a hybrid approach, managers can be blinded by tunnel vision. Counter this tendency by scheduling regular time slots for considering the merits of employee feedback.

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Features of M-Commerce that Will Boost Your Retail Business

January 31st, 2022 No comments

In 2021, mobile commerce or m-commerce has given a huge steep to the digital category to e-commerce owners. As per the recent reports, mobile marketing is making 73% of growth in business revenues.

It means that nearly 3 out of every 4 dollars spent on online purchases are coming from mobile, and the price is handiest increasing. 

As of 2021, in line with a document posted with the aid of using Data Report, there are 5.22 billion precise cellular smartphone customers across the world. This represents two-thirds of the complete international population and 80% have internet connectivity. Thus the digital world is rising: the quantity of time spent on the device, the styles of apps and websites visited, and day by day net utilization are specific observations of the mobile advertising industry.

Mobile has become a brand new consolation to consumers because it has ended up very clean leading to shopping for merchandise and making payments online through smartphones. These high-rising mobile influencers have turned the demand for mobile retail stores apps. Let’s look at some of the statistics which show the rise in online product purchase:

  • 62% of mobile users made online purchases.
  • In 2017 the global mobile commerce revenue amounted to $288.12 billion.
  • 80% of online shoppers use a smartphone inside a brick-and-mortar store to check product reviews.

These percentages of numbers suggest that people are more attracted and thrived towards online purchases through mobile phones rather than physically moving to their nearby stores and this has brought a skyrocketing challenge in front of shop retailers. Thus it is continually significant to apprehend the conduct and preferences of customers. Retail app development is being pushed to create more dynamic interfaces using cutting-edge technology and tools as mobile apps have become a critical way to increase income for businesses.

Following are some critical aspects of mobile retail shop application of which retailers should stay relevant to have a boom in their business revenue:

1. Easy Registration Flow

Your e-commerce application registration procedure should be quick, easy, feasible, and straightforward. Customers desire simplicity and ease of use, and a long time-consuming registration process will turn them away from your mobile app. If your app requires a lot of information from users, mobile app for eCommerce stores makes sure to eliminate the unnecessary elements to keep people interested in it.

2. Push Notification

Push notifications are a fantastic feature that can help your retail store app succeed. It increases client engagement by informing them of continuous promotions, incentives, and timely discounts. With Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps, it just not improves your sales, but also boosts your earnings.

3. Review and Rating

Approximately 94% of buyers make purchases after reading product reviews on the internet. Consumers’ purchase decisions are heavily influenced by product reviews and ratings. You could be concerned that unfavorable reviews will cause you to lose consumers and sales. Negative reviews are regarded as unedited, whereas good evaluations are frequently regarded as fraudulent.

4. AR and VR trends

Augmented reality (AR) and Virtual reality (VR) are rising as the subsequent large component in m-commerce, that’s projected to become a $ 1.6 billion worldwide retail marketplace with the aid of using 2025. Therefore, if you want to claim an important part of this pie, it is important to adopt these technologies early. 

In AR, people use the camera features of their smartphones via the app to see enhanced rendering in the real world. This may be performed by including images, sounds, and different sensory stimuli to offer extra information more attractively, and VR, on the alternative hand, is a computer-generated simulation that lets customers interact in 3D surroundings via particular devices together with glasses, VR headsets, and smartphones.

5. Offline-Usage

Smartphone customers frequently transfer between apps and networks and anticipate their apps to work even if the network connection is lost. Offline apps lessen records usage. This is likewise an appealing function for customers and enables enhancing the general user experience and app performance. Google Maps is the best example of an offline app feature that allows users to save maps offline. However, it can be difficult to implement offline access for your app because all reference data must be pre-cached on the device and these datasets can be dynamic and large.

6. Lower costs and higher productivity

Using a mobile app for eCommerce stores and using Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps can easily connect with customers and it can save money on advertising and marketing campaigns with much less astounding results. Better still, social media integration can reduce social media advertising and marketing charges, using clients to assist unfold the brand.

Moreover, the charges of growing and retaining an application are commonly tons in a decrease in comparison to different e-commerce platforms, saving extra money and releasing up resources. For example, an app often charges as low as 20% of its improvement rate to function. Reducing the charges and manpower needed to function advertising and marketing campaigns is a large gain that mobile apps for e-commerce stores offer retailers.

7. Mobile Wallets for both customers and retailers

Today, people love doing everything on their smartphones through exceptional applications. If they pick out to shop online, then surely, they’ll opt for paying through one such utility. As a retailer, your E-Commerce site desires to be well suited with one or greater mobile price structures which consist of Google Wallet, PayPal, Paytm, or others and this one can easily benefit by using Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps for their e-commerce stores.

It will assist your clients to have a handy approach to price, thereby growing the variety of purchases for you. Moreover, it is important to keep in mind how your customers engage together with your internet site when you plan to broaden mobile payment options. 

Therefore, Magento 2 hybrid mobile apps can immediately scan their customers’ cards for the payment procedure. One can also come up with the same apps for safe payment gateways easily.

Final Thoughts

These recent mobile apps for e-commerce stores trends allow brands to significantly improve their customer experience. These exciting trends, backed by technological advances, have attracted the attention of many major brands. This is to effectively guide the customer to the product or service while keeping the customer’s attention. Getting the customer’s interest is a surefire manner to show a visit into a sale. It’s time to start thinking about how to take advantage of these trends so you can see your sales skyrocket!

The post Features of M-Commerce that Will Boost Your Retail Business appeared first on noupe.

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The Optional Chaining Operator, “Modern” Browsers, and My Mom

January 30th, 2022 No comments

Jim Nielsen’s mom couldn’t open a website. Jim worked on confirming the issue and documented how he got to the bottom of it:

“[…] well it can’t be a browser issue. It’s not like my Mom is using Internet Explorer! She has relatively modern tech: an iPad (Safari) and a Chromebox (Google Chrome).”

But the more I thought about it—a website that works on some devices but not on others—the more I realized this had to be a browser issue.

So I looked at the version of Chrome on my parent’s computer. Version 76! I knew we were at ninety-something in 2022, so I figured that was the culprit. “I’ll just update Chrome,” I thought.

Turns out, you can’t.

I absolutely celebrate the idea of evergreen browsers. It’s one of the absolute most important things that has happened to the web in recent-ish years. It enables a much quicker evolution for the web, and all browsers are taking advantage of it.

But even browsers that I think of as evergreen aren’t always. Eventually, hardware limits the software. The logic isn’t as simple as “if Chrome, then evergreeen,” for example.

Safari normally updates via system updates, but in this case it was a first-generation iPad Air stuck on iOS 12, and no more updates were possible for what Apple considers a “vintage” device. Same deal with a Chromebook stuck at Chrome 76.

A couple of little optional chaining question mark (?) characters borked the whole dang site. Unfortunate. That “serve two bundles, modern and legacy” idea is still pretty smart.


Speaking of moms, I was reminded of an older episode of ShopTalk we did with Paul Irish’s mom that has a lot of this “regular person using the internet” vibes.

To Shared LinkPermalink on CSS-Tricks


The Optional Chaining Operator, “Modern” Browsers, and My Mom originally published on CSS-Tricks. You should get the newsletter and become a supporter.

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Popular Design News of the Week: January 24, 2022 – January 30, 2022

January 30th, 2022 No comments

Every day design fans submit incredible industry stories to our sister-site, Webdesigner News. Our colleagues sift through it, selecting the very best stories from the design, UX, tech, and development worlds and posting them live on the site.

The best way to keep up with the most important stories for web professionals is to subscribe to Webdesigner News or check out the site regularly. However, in case you missed a day this week, here’s a handy compilation of the top curated stories from the last seven days. Enjoy!

16 Leading UI/UX Design Trends to Dominate in 2022

Unused Nintendo Wii Logos Include Some Serious Design Crimes

The Baseline for Web Development in 2022

60 Bootstrap Examples for Website Design

M&M’s Redesign by JKR

Frontend Predictions for 2022

Minze – Dead-Simple JS Framework for Native Web Components

Cheet – Create Developer Cheatsheets

What’s New in WordPress 5.9 (Features and Screenshots)

20 Best New Websites, January 2022

Source

The post Popular Design News of the Week: January 24, 2022 – January 30, 2022 first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

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How to Get Started With UX Research

January 28th, 2022 No comments

The importance of scientific research cannot be overstated. User research is crucial to the success of any UX design, and this article will explain all the reasons why.

But first, we will explore what UX research is and how it can give you valuable tools. Then we will analyze why user research is an ongoing, dynamic process.

By the end of this 5-minute read, you will know every efficient research method (qualitative and quantitative) and how to choose the right one(s) for a new or existing UX project.

What is UX Research?

In a few words, we could say that UX research is about observation techniques, feedback methods, and analysis of the whole user experience of a project. As in any scientific research, UX research analyzes how users think and what their motivations and needs are.

The research methods of UX can be divided into two main types: quantitative and qualitative.

Quantitative Research Methods

These methods are all about statistics and focus on numbers, percentages, and mathematical observations. UX designers later transform such numerical data into useful statistics that you can use in UX designs.

To be precise, there are numerous data collection platforms that UX designers use like Google Analytics, Google Data Studio, etc.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative research aims to understand people’s needs and motivations through observation. This includes numerous methods: from interviews and usability testing to ethnographic and field studies.

In general, qualitative research is crucial for us UX designers because it is easier to analyze than quantitative and we can use it quickly in our projects.

Why is UX Research an Ongoing Process?

Suppose you are about to create a UX wireframe. The process is pretty simple. You start with research, proceed with sketching, then prototype and build. But how many times have you gone back to the previous step of the process?

A UX design is completely dynamic and rarely finished. For this reason, UX research should be viewed as an ongoing process. When I stopped worrying about going through this loop over and over again, I immediately became a better UX designer.

Why Should You Invest in UX Research? 

There are many reasons why you should always conduct UX research before you start sketching and prototyping a wireframe:

  1. Stay relevant: Via UX research, you will ensure that you understand what your users need and tailor your product accordingly.
  2. Improve user experience: With comprehensive UX research, you’ll be one step closer to delivering a great user experience.
  3. Clarify your projects: With UX research, you can quickly identify the features you need to prioritize.
  4. Improve revenue, performance, and credibility: When you successfully use UX research, you can boost the ROI (Return on Investment).

9 Effective UX Research Methods  

It becomes clear that UX research is very important to the success of any UX project. All successful approaches derive from three basic foundations: Observation, understanding, and analysis.

So let us take a look at the most popular and effective qualitative and quantitative research methods.

Interviews 

UX designers can conduct one-on-one interviews to communicate with users and analyze the context of the project. This is a very effective UX research method. You just need to set your goals.

  • Difficulty: Medium/Low
  • Cost: Average
  • Phase: Predesign, During Design Phase

Surveys And Questionnaires

This is a very effective approach if you want to gather valuable information quickly. There are many tools like PandaDoc and Wufoo that allow you to create engaging questionnaires and surveys.

  • Difficulty: Low
  • Cost: Low
  • Phase: Predesign, Post Design Phase

Usability Tests

Usability testing is an essential method if you want to test your product in terms of user experience. It can be applied during or after the creation of an app, site, etc.

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Cost: Average
  • Phase: During Design Phase

A/B Tests

A/B testing is by far the best way to overcome a dilemma. If you do not know which element to choose, all you have to do is organize an A/B test and show each version to a number of users. Based on their feedback, you can then decide which version is the best.

  • Difficulty: Low
  • Cost: Low
  • Phase: During Design Phase

Card Sorts 

With card sorts, you can help your users by providing them with some product content categories (labeled card sets). This is a very cheap and easy way to understand what your users prefer and how they interact with the content you have just designed.

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Cost: Average
  • Phase: During Design Phase

Competitive Analysis

Analyzing what your competitors are doing differently is critical to the initial stages of a UX design. This will help you identify their strengths and weaknesses and optimize your product.

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Cost: Average
  • Phase: Predesign

Persona And Scenario Building 

Creating a user persona and a specific scenario for your project is critical. First, you need to build a user persona by integrating the motives, needs, and goals of your target audience.

Then, you can create a scenario that leverages all of this valuable information to deliver a top-notch user experience.

  • Difficulty: Medium
  • Cost: Average
  • Phase: Predesign

Field Studies 

Although a field study is a very effective UX research method, it is also expensive and difficult to conduct. However, there is nothing like field research when it comes to obtaining real-life data.

  • Difficulty: High
  • Cost: High
  • Phase: Predesign, During Design Phase

Tree Tests

Tree testing is a UX research method that you can apply to your designs during or after the construction phase. The process is fairly simple: you provide users with a text-only version of your product and ask them to complete certain tasks. This tactic is a great way to validate your product’s architecture.

  • Difficulty: High
  • Cost: High
  • Phase: During and Post Design Phase

How to Choose the Right UX Research Method?

Good planning is the most important thing for us UX designers. If you know exactly what the UX problem is, you can solve it quickly.

The methods analyzed above are just some of the research tactics used by UX designers. Choosing the right user research method for a project is not easy. To do so, you should first define your goals.

Source

The post How to Get Started With UX Research first appeared on Webdesigner Depot.

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Git: Switching Unstaged Changes to a New Branch

January 27th, 2022 No comments

I’m always on the wrong branch. I’m either on master or main working on something that should be on a fix or feature branch. Or I’m on the last branch I was working on and should have cut a new branch. Oh well. It’s never that big of a deal. Basically means switching unstaged changes to a new branch. This is what I normally do:

  • Stash all the changed-but-unstaged files
  • Move back to master
  • Pull master to make sure it’s up to date
  • Cut a new branch from master
  • Move to the new branch
  • Unstash those changed files

Want a bunch of other Git tips? Our “Advanced Git” series has got a ton of them.

Switching unstaged changes to a new branch with the Git CLI it looks like this

Here’s how I generally switch unstaged changes to a new branch in Git:

git status
git stash --include-untracked
git checkout master
git pull
git branch content/sharis
git checkout content/sharis
git stash pop
Yeah I commit jpgs right to git.

Switching unstaged changes to a new branch in Git Tower it looks like this

I think you could theoretically do each of those steps to switch unstaged changed to a new branch, one-by-one, in Git Tower, too, but the shortcut is that you can make the branch and double-click over to it.

Sorry, I’m just doing Git Tower but there are lots of other Git GUIs that probably have clever ways of doing this as well.

But there is a new fancy way!

This way of switching unstaged changes to a new branch is new to me anyway, and it was new to Wes when he tweeted this:

Cool. That’s:

git switch -c new-branch

Documentation for that here.


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