Author Archive

Useful Tools, Scripts, and Resources for Front-End Developers


  

If you’re a front-end developer mostly focused on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then you’re probably always on the look out for ways to be more productive. In this post we’ll share some tools and other resources for front-end developers that you might find useful to include in your workflow.

Tools and Scripts and Resources, Oh My!

Font Stack Builder by Erin Lawrence

This font stack builder lets you select a font stack and will tell you, using percentages, how likely it is for the fonts to be present on users’ systems. It includes options for a number of different font category styles and summarizes how the different options size up for different operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux). Very easy to use, and, best of all, it gives you the necessary CSS to copy and paste into your projects.

Font Stack Builder by Erin Lawrence

Browser Support by Paul D. Waite

This simple tool lets you type in the name of any CSS feature (including properties, selectors, at-rules, values, and more) and it will display a simple graphic-based chart that outlines browser support. The individual results’ pages even have links to test cases and the official specification for the selected feature.

Browser Support

CSS Hat

This looks like quite a revolutionary tool. Although it might disturb purists who prefer to code everything by hand, it certainly looks like an excellent productivity tool. In a nutshell, CSS Hat is a Photoshop plugin that converts layer styles in Photoshop to CSS3 code. The site embeds a video review and demonstration that shows the tool in action, so be sure to check that out. The plugin adds conversion support for gradients, opacity, shadows, inner/outer glow, rounded corners, and more. It’s not free, but for $19.99, if it does what they claim it does, it’s well worth it.

CSS Hat

WYSIHTML5

According to the website, “wysihtml5 is an open source rich text editor based on HTML5 technology and the progressive-enhancement approach. It uses a sophisticated security concept and aims to generate fully valid HTML5 markup by preventing unmaintainable tag soups and inline styles.” You can see the the tool in action right on the page and it has excellent browser support. In non-supporting browsers, a simple <textarea> element is displayed. Looks like an excellent choice if you want to embed a WYSIWYG editor in your HTML5 project.

WYSIHTML5

OpenWeb Icons

OpenWeb Icons is an open source icon set that’s embedded with @font-face in your CSS. What’s great about these icons is that the icons themselves are placed on the page using pseudo-elements. Using an icon is just a matter of adding the necessary class name along with the appropriate HTML tag. Also has an optional CSS file for use with Twitter’s Bootstrap.

OpenWeb Icons

Gradient Scanner by Kevin Decker

This is a unique little tool that lets you upload an image, select a portion of the image, and then the tool will spit out the CSS3 gradient syntax that produces the gradient in the selected part of the image. It seems to work really well and is quite fast. So, similar to CSS Hat, this can save you some coding time when you’re creating your gradients in Photoshop.

Gradient Scanner

Fixie by Ryhan Hassan

Fixie.js lets you easily add Lorem Ipsum text to any element in your HTML. Just include the JavaScript file at the bottom of your page, and for any element that you want Fixie to add filler text, just add a class of “fixie”. With Fixie your markup stays clean for development while letting you view the page with filler content.

Fixie

CSS3 Code Snippets by WebInterfaceLab

This is a user-contributed library of CSS3-based user interface components built with “modern HTML, CSS, and SASS”. Includes lots of different components — drop-down menus, form elements, animated progress bars, and much more.

CSS3 Code Snippets

site44

This service is touted as “absurdly simple web hosting”, and it seems to live up to its name. The site44 service lets you host files by connecting to a Dropbox account and hosting your static web pages in a Dropbox folder. You can use a custom domain name as well as a custom subdomain based on site44.com. The biggest drawback here seems to be that you can only serve static HTML files (no PHP, for example). But this certainly looks like a viable option for showing demos to clients or for doing simple hosting.

site44

Em Calculator by Piotr Petrus

If you’re accustomed to building your web page elements using pixels, this tool can help you convert pixels to ems so you can build sites that are “scalable and accessible”. Looks like a nice little tool to use for responsive designs. It lets you visually build your HTML’s tree structure, and then you can calculate your ems accordingly. This is useful, because ems are calculated based on inheritance.

Em Calculator

Symbol Set

Symbol Set is an OpenType-based “semantic symbol font”. The icons in Symbol Set are touted as “accessible” because you’re including them using unicode values in pseudo-elements that are applied to elements containing keywords. For example, the word “alert” displays an alert icon, the word “twitter” displays a Twitter icon, and so forth. Not a free option, but certainly a unique font to consider if you’re concerned about accessibility and clean markup.

Symbol Set

Microjs by Thomas Fuchs

This is a fantastic little tool that helps you track down a JavaScript library for virtually anything. Just type in a keyword related to the type of library you’re looking for, or just select from the options presented in the auto-complete drop-down. So if you don’t want to include an entire JavaScript library in a project, or are looking for something specific that a library doesn’t cover, this “micro-site for micro-frameworks” will help you find just what you need.

Microjs

Animate.css by Dan Eden

Animate.css is “a bunch of cool, fun, and cross-browser animations for you to use in your projects.” You can view all the animations demoed on the home page, and you have the option to do a custom build that lets you pick which animations you want and create your own mini CSS library. Although it says “cross-browser”, this is a reference to modern browsers that support CSS3 animations.

Animate.css

Redactor WYSIWYG Editor by Imperavi

Another WYSIWYG editor. This time, it’s a gorgeous jQuery-based solution that claims to be up to 9 times faster than two of the most common editors of choice. It’s supported in IE8+ and the latest releases of all other browsers, includes drag-and-drop support for file uploading, various display modes, fullscreen view, and much more. It’s free for non-commercial use and has options for commercial use starting at $19.

Redactor WYSIWYG Editor

DocHub by Rafael Garcia

DocHub is a great one-stop resource for documentation on CSS, HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, PHP and more. Type in a keyword related to the feature you’re researching, and results will load in the right pane automatically. The docs are scraped from MDN, jQuery’s documenation, and PHP.net.

DocHub

JavaScript Enlightenment by Cody Lindley

JavaScript Enlightenment is a free E-Book by Cody Lindley. In the past, the book was sold either as a print version, or as an E-Book. It’s now available as a free download. It’s not a book for JavaScript beginners, nor is it a complete reference. It’s primary purpose is “to give the reader an accurate JavaScript worldview through an examination of native JavaScript objects and supporting nuances.”

JavaScript Enlightenment

Conclusion

We hope the above resources will prove useful to some of you, helping you solve some of your front-end coding challenges. In the meantime, if you know of any other similar tools or resources that have helped you in your workflow or overall web design education, feel free to share them in the comments.

(rb)


Dear Web User: Please Upgrade Your Browser


  

Shopping. Social networking. Emailing. Reading. Finding directions. Banking. Researching. Those are some of the most common tasks people perform on the World Wide Web. You’ve probably done all of these things yourself at some point. So if you’re like many people, you probably do these things every single week (and many of them even every day).

This blog you’re reading now, Smashing Magazine, normally publishes content that’s intended for graphic designers, Web designers, and Web developers of varying skill levels. But today, this article is for the rest of you—the non-programmers, the everyday Web users.

We at Smashing Magazine, along with designers and developers worldwide, want you to have the absolute best possible experience on the Web. In fact, in the design and development community, we spend countless hours every week discussing and researching the standards and practices that we know will make your experience on the Web infinitely greater.

But the browser you’re using could be limiting that potential. So please read on, so you can learn how to drastically improve your experience on the Web.

Your Browser Is Too Old

Everyone that accesses Web pages on a desktop computer uses a Web browser. Without a Web browser you cannot view or interact with websites. How do you personally access websites like Facebook and YouTube? You might commonly use the program that opens when you click the big blue “e” icon on your desktop. Here’s what it looks like:

Internet Explorer Browser Logo
This is the logo for Internet Explorer, a Web browser.

This “e” icon is not a shortcut to a generic “internet” or “Web” program. It is a shortcut to a Web browser made by Microsoft, called “Internet Explorer” (also referred to as “IE”). Over the past 17 years, this browser has been the most popular Web browser. At one time, it was arguably the best browser you could use. But that is not true anymore.

Internet Explorer is currently at version 9, and version 10 is supposed to be officially released some time this year. But most people are not using IE9—most Web users that use Microsoft’s browser are still using a less stable, insecure, slow version of IE (either IE8 or something older).

The truth is, even IE9 (which is a huge improvement over previous versions of Internet Explorer) is not as up-to-date as other browsers. So if you’re still using some version of Internet Explorer, we strongly recommend that you upgrade to a different browser. To help you upgrade, we have some options for you to consider.

But before we introduce those other browsers to you, let’s quickly cover some reasons why older browsers like IE7 and IE8 aren’t as good.

What’s Wrong With Old Browsers?

Old browsers (especially Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8) are less stable, and much more vulnerable to viruses, spyware, malware, and other security issues. Those are obviously big problems to be concerned about—especially for people who shop online. So security alone is a very good reason to upgrade. But there’s more to it than that.

Old Browsers Are Slow and More Likely to Crash

Firstly, old browsers are very slow. Every Web page that loads in a browser has to perform a number of different tasks. One of those tasks is the process of loading different files. These files include images, programming scripts, and other resources that help improve the look and functionality of the website you’re visiting. Old browsers do not perform these tasks with the same speed as new browsers. This makes your experience on the Web considerably slow, and can sometimes cause your browser to crash or freeze.

IE8 not responding message
Browsers like IE8 will freeze and crash more often than newer browsers.

Old Browsers Can’t Display Many New Websites

The other problem that old browsers have is that their display capabilities are very limited. For example, in an older browser, in order to show a simple animation, the person creating the website would have to use either an embedded video or Flash file (like those found on YouTube) or else a lot of extra programming code (called JavaScript). In either case, this means that the page will take much longer to load, thus harming your experience on that website.

New browsers support new Web technologies (like HTML5 and CSS3). These languages serve as a foundation for many websites today, and for virtually all new websites and Web apps. But unfortunately, many of these new websites will neither look nor function in the same way in old browsers like IE8.

To demonstrate this problem, take a look at the two images below. These images are screenshots taken from an infographic Web page that covers Rainforest Deforestation. The first image shows the page as it appears in IE8:

A Web page displayed in IE8
A Web page displayed in IE8.

Now look at the same page in a new browser like Chrome, or Firefox:

The same Web page displayed in Google Chrome
The same Web page displayed in Google Chrome.

IE8 has many problems on this page: Many of the graphical elements are not appearing, all the animations are missing, and even some of the text looks misaligned. This is caused by the fact that the page is built with new Web design technologies that old browsers like IE8 don’t support.

New Browser Options

Now that you understand why it’s highly recommended to upgrade an old browser, let’s take a look at what options you have for a new browser, and what strengths these browsers have. Please notice that switching to one of these browsers is free and won’t take more than a couple of minutes.

Google Chrome
In May 2012, according to at least one statistics website, Google Chrome (all versions combined) became the most popular browser in the world (compared to IE, all versions combined). Chrome was first released in 2008, and has a number of advantages over old browsers like IE8.

Google Chrome Logo

Mozilla Firefox
Firefox has been the main competitor to Internet Explorer since the mid-2000′s. Although Google’s Chrome has become more popular in recent years, Firefox is a great browser with many advantages over old browsers.

Mozilla Firefox Logo

Opera
Compared to other browsers, Opera isn’t used as much, but it has been around since the mid-90′s. Opera has always been at the forefront of browser innovation and supports many of the latest technologies and features that make websites faster and more feature-rich.

Opera Logo

Apple’s Safari
This is the same browser that’s commonly used on iPhones and iPads. Safari’s features are very similar to Google’s Chrome, and has been around since 2003.

Safari Logo

Why Are New Browsers Better?

The browsers listed above have a number of advantages over older browsers, including:

  • Far fewer instances of crashing or freezing.
  • Much more secure from virus, malware, and browser hijacking attacks.
  • Much faster page-loading.
  • Larger page-viewing area.
  • A large variety of useful optional plugins and add-ons that add extra features to improve Web browsing.
  • Unlike IE9 and the upcoming IE10, they can be installed on Windows XP.
  • New browsers will automatically update to the latest version, or will notify you to download an update.

About Automatic Updating

The last point in the list above mentions the fact that new browsers will automatically notify you of an update—this is a good thing. When you have a browser that’s kept up-to-date automatically, you get a number of important benefits in addition to those already mentioned. These include:

  • You’ll rarely, if ever, come across a website that says “your browser cannot view this website”.
  • If any known security vulnerabilities are present, they will be fixed automatically.
  • Every time your browser is upgraded, your browser becomes faster, meaning that the time you spend waiting for pages to load will be minimal.

Old browsers like IE7 and IE8 will not automatically notify you to update, so if you continue to use an old browser, your experience on the Web will become less secure (and less enjoyable as the months go by).

Extensions and Add-Ons

As mentioned in the bullet list above, one of the features of new browsers is the ability to add extensions, plugins, and add-ons. The Chrome Web Store features hundreds of useful extensions, including:

  • Facebook Notifications, which lets you keep up with friends’ activities even when you’re not on Facebook.
  • Add to Amazon Wish List, which lets you add virtually any product from any website to your Amazon wish list.
  • Google Dictionary, which lets you see the definition of any word by simply double-clicking on it.

Chrome Web Store
Extensions in the Chrome Web Store

What about add-ons for Firefox? Well, in addition to extensions similar to those mentioned above for Chrome, some popular and useful choices include:

  • Video DownloadHelper, which lets you easily download and convert video, audio, and photos from YouTube and similar websites.
  • WOT—Safe Surfing, which shows you which websites you can trust, based on millions of users’ experiences.
  • FastestFox, which helps you save time and increase productivity by speeding up repetitive tasks inside the browser.

However, Chrome and Firefox are not the only new browsers that offer these types of extensions and add-ons. You can browse the extensions for Safari and for Opera, if you choose one of those browsers instead.

“All My Bookmarks Are In Internet Explorer!”

Everyone has bookmarks (or “Favorites”, as they’re called in IE) in the browser they use regularly, and it’s a valid concern if you don’t want to switch because all of your bookmarks are in your old browser. But moving your bookmarks from the old browser to the new one is not difficult at all.

For instructions on how to transfer your bookmarks to your new browser, check out the Browsing Better website. When you visit the page, click on the icon for the browser you’re currently using, and follow the instructions from the images that appear.

Exporting Favourites in IE8
You can easily move your bookmarks from IE to your new browser.

“I Won’t Upgrade—I’m Happy With Internet Explorer!”

Even after everything you’ve read above, you might still have reservations about upgrading to a different browser. Well, there’s one final option you may consider. You can keep using Internet Explorer while getting a similar speed and viewing experience as found in Google Chrome by installing an add-on to Internet Explorer called Chrome Frame.

Chrome Frame
Chrome Frame makes Internet Explorer act like a modern browser.

Chrome Frame is an add-on that enables new Web technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 in Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, 8, and 9. As long as the Web page you’re viewing has a specific piece of code in it, you’ll get an experience very similar to Google Chrome—even when using an older version of Internet Explorer.

Installing Chrome Frame is fast, easy, and free. Chrome Frame is completely invisible and will not change anything about the way you access Web pages in Internet Explorer. But it will provide the same speed and viewing experience that Google’s Chrome browser has, without needing to switch browsers. (However, if you’re in a business environment, you might want to contact your system administrator before installing it because some legacy sites might not be displayed properly. — thanks for the note, Jochem Bokkers!)

What About Locked-Down Systems?

If you’re on a system at your place of employment where you’re not able to upgrade or download a new browser, Chrome Frame is a viable option. You don’t need any special administrator privileges to install Chrome Frame, so you can keep using the same version of Internet Explorer, and almost instantly have a far superior browsing experience that’s identical to using the latest version of Google Chrome.

Conclusion

There are countless reasons to upgrade your old browser and start using something new and up-to-date. So trust us when we say that your experience on the Web will be infinitely better if you choose to do this.

Whatever you’re doing on the Web—reading email, shopping, banking, or anything else—a new browser will allow your experience to be safer, faster, and much more beautiful.

(jvb)


© Louis Lazaris for Smashing Magazine, 2012.


Old Browsers Are Holding Back The Web


  

Because of how far certain Web technologies like HTML5 and CSS3 have brought us, many would say that—from a Web platform perspective—the future is now. Sounds like a cliché, I know. At the very least, it feels like the future is starting to bubble up to the surface… but it’s just not quite there yet.

When we use new DOM features, HTML5 APIs and the latest in CSS3, the possibilities that open up are astounding. These new technologies help us easily build Web applications with less reliance on hacks, plugins, images, and bloated scripts. This makes life easier not only for Web developers (for both building and maintaining these projects) but also for the end user who gets a faster and stronger overall experience.

But there is a huge road block preventing our “future” from truly becoming the now. What is this roadblock? It’s old browsers. Let’s delve into this topic a little bit so we can see why this is a problem and what we can do to help it.

Internet Explorer’s Usage Share

According to StatCounter estimates, even with the recent mobile explosion, desktop usage still trumps mobile by a large margin. 90% of internet activity worldwide occurs on the desktop. Granted, some reports have mobile shares higher than the current 10% shown by StatCounter. Whatever the case is, the fact remains that a lot of people are accessing our websites and Web apps by using a desktop browser.

Which desktop browsers? Well, let’s look at StatCounter’s usage share for desktop browsers for May 2012, with a specific focus on Internet Explorer:

Stats for desktop browsers in May 2012

As shown above—to the joy of developers everywhere—worldwide stats for versions of Internet Explorer prior to IE8 are very low. IE6 is so low that it’s not even showing up in some of StatCounter’s charts anymore. If you find similar stats for your own projects, then, depending on the overall traffic numbers, you may be able to drop support for IE6 and IE7 and start using a number of features that those browsers don’t support. But what about IE8 and IE9?

As you can see from the image and link above, worldwide usage for IE8 and IE9 is just about 30%, combined. But that might not be the full story. Compare those numbers to the ones taken from two other websites.

First, Net Applications, from April of this year:

Net Applications browser stats

Their stats show a whopping 38% of users still on IE6-8, with more than two thirds of those on IE8. In addition, IE9 holds another 16% share. That’s more than 50% of users on IE6-9.

Now look at StatOwl’s April 2012 report:

StatOwl browser stats
Large preview.

Like Net Applications, StatOwl places IE8′s and IE9′s shares significantly higher than StatCounter’s—this time about 20% for each. Combined with the 8% on IE6 and IE7, that’s almost 50% on IE.

The debate about why these different browser usage stats are showing higher numbers for IE6-9 is something that’s been in industry news of late. These details are certainly beyond the scope of this article, but you can check out the links below for more info:

Why Does This Discussion Include IE9?

IE9 is a huge step forward from previous versions of Internet Explorer. But it’s over a year old, and does not auto-update like other popular browsers do.

Thus, although IE9 is a much more stable and feature-rich browser, it’s already starting to show its age. With each passing month, browsers like Chrome and Firefox continue to roll out new features automatically, and IE9 gets closer to becoming obsolete.

Why Is The Old Browser Problem Such A Big Deal?

Some people might be thinking “What’s the big deal? Use progressive enhancement and you’ll just give old browsers a lesser experience and the users won’t know what they’re missing”. This might be true with certain CSS3 and HTML5 features for which it’s easy to provide fallbacks and even some lightweight polyfills. But other more complex features are not that simple.

Let’s first take a look at IE8. To give you an idea of how many features IE8 lacks, here’s a list of what you gain as a developer when you stop supporting IE8:

  • Media Queries
  • opacity (without IE filters)
  • border-radius
  • box-shadow
  • RGBA, HSL/HSLA colors
  • HTML5 elements (that don’t need the html5shiv)
  • Data URLs
  • getElementsByClassName
  • CSS Transforms
  • <canvas>
  • Cross­origin Resource Sharing
  • Lots of CSS3 selectors (:nth-child(), :target, :enabled, etc)
  • matchesSelector
  • Navigation Timing API (performance.timing)
  • Multiple backgrounds
  • background-clip, background-origin, background-size
  • Real HTML5 Video/Audio with no messy fallbacks
  • WOFF Fonts
  • SVG images, inline SVG, SVG in CSS backgrounds
  • Geolocation
  • Server ­Sent Events

Also, this list doesn’t take into consideration the number of bugs and performance problems that occur in IE8. So when you consider all of the features above, along with bugs and performance issues, a high number of users still on IE8 becomes a major roadblock to progress on the Web.

Of course, this is not to say that support for these features is perfect in new browsers. Many of these features are still in flux in the spec. But a very high percentage of in-use browsers outside of IE8 have pretty good support for everything listed above.

What About IE9?

The problem, however, doesn’t end with IE8. As mentioned, IE9 is likewise starting to fall behind the other browsers. Here’s a list of the features you gain if you don’t have to support IE9:

  • text-shadow
  • Linear and Radial Gradients
  • CSS Transitions
  • Keyframe Animations
  • Web Sockets
  • 3D Transforms
  • flexbox layout
  • Multiple Columns
  • The <datalist> element
  • SVG Filters
  • Application Cache
  • pushState, replaceState
  • indexedDB
  • ECMAScript 5 Strict Mode
  • FileReader API
  • requestAnimationFrame
  • The async attribute for <script> elements
  • Many HTML5 form features
  • Native form validation
  • The <progress> element
  • Web Workers
  • XMLHttpRequestLevel 2
  • Typed Arrays
  • matchMedia
  • Blob URLs

As you can see from the two lists above, the old browser problem is a significant one. These new features (although still in progress) have the potential to help designers and developers innovate and push the Web forward in amazing ways.

Is IE[x] The New IE6?

The notion that “IE[x] is the new IE6″ has been discussed before, but it deserves more attention here. As of writing this, IE9 (the latest stable version of Internet Explorer), cannot be installed on Windows XP and, according to StatCounter, about 31% of desktop internet usage is on that operating system.

Since a large number of IE8 users are essentially “trapped” in XP, there is no hope that those users are going to upgrade to a newer version of Internet Explorer unless they upgrade their OS.

For your own projects, I hope the stats for older browsers are much better. After all, the only stats that really matter are your own. Also, the worldwide stats showing high numbers for IE6-8 are probably a little skewed by some densely populated geographic areas. Nonetheless, usage stats for IE6-9 are still a factor for many projects and may thus be holding back a lot of developers (due to client or corporate pressure) from using many new features.

The point here is that if the usage stats for browsers like IE8 and IE9 linger for anywhere nearly as long as IE6 did, then those of us who are building websites and Web apps for a larger and more diverse audience could be in for a long wait (before using dozens of new features).

IE
Usage stats for IE6–9 are still a factor for many projects and may thus be holding back a lot of developers.

Microsoft Provides A Glimmer Of Hope—Or Do They?

One positive development in this area is the recent announcement by Microsoft that XP, Vista, and Windows 7 users will be automatically upgraded to the latest version of Internet Explorer available for their operating system.

Unfortunately, while this news is better than nothing, it is not the ideal solution. A similar announcement was made back in 2008 regarding a so-called “auto-update” from IE6 to IE7. That 2008 update would only take place if a system was set to auto-approve Update Rollup packages. But a default setting in XP prevents this from happening—so this barely made a ripple in the IE6 problem at that time (as seen from the fact that IE6 usage was at 23% in January of 2009).

Similarly, this time around, users will be upgraded to a newer version of Internet Explorer only if they have turned on automatic updating via Windows Update. Also, the auto-update began in January and only for users in certain geographic regions. So again, although this is certainly good news, it’s not the ideal solution.

What Real Options Are There For Users Of Older Browsers?

Aside from people that are on systems that, for security or compatibility reasons, cannot upgrade their browsers, everyone that is using IE8 (or lower) has one of two options to help alleviate this problem—even if they’re on Windows XP. They are:

  • Don’t use Internet Explorer; unlike IE9, all the latest versions of the other major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera) will run on Windows XP or later.
  • Install Chrome Frame; it’s easy to install and it makes IE function like Google Chrome.

With those two options there is no excuse for the high numbers of users still on older versions of Internet Explorer. Theoretically, everyone who is not on a locked-down system can upgrade to a non-IE browser or install Chrome Frame. This would likely bring the usage shares for older browsers down to a bare minimum, and would allow developers to bring even more of the latest technologies into common use.

A Note on Tracking IE with Chrome Frame

Some of the users still on old versions of Internet Explorer could have Chrome Frame installed, but in the browser usage stats referred to earlier in this post, those are still counted as Internet Explorer. It would be good to see Chrome Frame stats reflected in those applications.

Google Analytics, however, does include “IE with Chrome Frame” as a separate browser, and developers can check out the Chrome Frame developer documentation for info on how to detect Chrome Frame usage.

What Else Can We Do To Help?

If you have any friends or colleagues using an older version of Internet Explorer (or any old browser), help them upgrade to the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Opera. You might even want to show them a CSS3-rich or HTML5-rich website in a modern browser and compare it to IE8.

In other words, prove to them that their browser is an out-of-date, unstable, slow piece of software. You might even have a little fun trying to show them why non-IE browsers are better.

Display a Message to Users on Old Browsers

Another thing you can do is display a message to users if they’re visiting your website in an older browser like IE8. Don’t assume this is too intrusive. A couple of years ago, YouTube started phasing out support for many older browsers. The message shown below is now displayed to users visiting the website with IE6:

YouTube's message for IE6 users

You could display a subtle yet noticeable message to encourage users to install Chrome Frame and make sure to include the necessary code that will enable Chrome Frame on pages that are being viewed with it. [However, also provide an option to close the message bar so that users who are stuck in a locked-down system (and have to use your website) can actually use it. —Editorial]

Tomorrow: A Message For Non-Developers

Most people reading this article are probably thinking “Yeah, that’s all fine and good, but you’re preaching to the choir, dude.” Many developers already know a lot of this stuff. And we also know that developers and designers are not the ones using older browsers like IE8 for everyday browsing. In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Web developer that uses IE9.

That’s why tomorrow Smashing Magazine will be publishing a special post (the article is published now) that will be targeted towards users who are not designers or developers, and who are not very tech savvy. We encourage everyone to share that article with as many people as possible so we can do everything we can to get the usage stats for old browsers as low as possible.

(jvb)


© Louis Lazaris for Smashing Magazine, 2012.


Publish What You Learn


  

I don’t think anyone can deny that the Web has changed the way people teach, learn, and do research. Of course, this doesn’t mean that everything we read online is true and accurate—far from it. But I believe that through honest discussion and objective collaboration, accurate and useful information is much more likely to be the end result of any educational endeavor.

In the final week of November 2011, a smart group of developers launched a project called Move The Web Forward, which you can read more about in Addy Osmani’s Smashing Magazine article.

For this post, I want to focus on one piece of advice given by those developers in that project, under the heading “Writeâ€�.

The advice is: Publish what you learn.

As soon as I read that exhortation (which originated with this tweet), I knew this was a project made by a group of people who cared about the Web and that they understand what it takes to move forward as developers, and as an industry.

Let’s explore those four simple words, because I believe that concept is at the heart of how much progress has been made in the front-end development niche. And it’s something that could help almost any industry, in any field.

Just Do It

Very few blogs start out with much traffic at all. Unless the blog is based on an already existing brand that has a lot of exposure, most blogs will begin with very few readers. Even Smashing Magazine, who now has millions of readers, subscribers, and followers, started out with nothing.

CSS-Tricks is another good example of a blog that started out as nothing, and has grown into a thriving, collaborative community. Its founder and curator, Chris Coyier, certainly couldn’t have predicted how much that website would grow. And I’m sure we could come up with additional examples of websites that went from zero to hero in a relatively short time.

Why did they become successful? Because they published what they learned. At one time I somewhat favored the view that too many blogs were being launched. But I think the benefits of so much being published in so many different places outweigh any drawbacks.

Of course, this is not to suggest that the reason you want to publish your thoughts is to “make it big”—that should be secondary, if considered at all. In fact, what you publish doesn’t necessarily have to be on a run-of-the-mill monetized WordPress blog. It could be a GitHub account, a Wiki-style website, a Tumblr feed, or even a bunch of quick tips on a simple Twitter account.

Which brings us to another important supplement to this theme. Immediately after the folks at Move The Web Forward told us to publish what we learn, they made an equally important statement.

Don’t Be Afraid To Make Mistakes

You might be thinking: “Wait. What? Me? Publish a blog? I’ve been coding websites for a measly six months (or some other ostensibly short period of time). Even if people visit my website and read it, my articles will probably get torn to shreds!”

That doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you recognize the value in researching, teaching, collaborating, and correcting mistakes. That’s why the Move The Web Forward folks went on to encourage writers to “keep your posts updated.”

And that’s why Rebecca Murphey, when discussing how to get better at writing JavaScript, said:

“The number one thing that will make you better at writing JavaScript is writing JavaScript. It’s OK if you cringe at it six months from now. It’s OK if you know it could be better if you only understood X, Y, or Z a little bit better. Cultivate dissatisfaction, and fear the day when you aren’t disappointed with the code you wrote last month.”

In this case, Rebecca was talking about actually writing code, not writing about code. But the same principle applies: you will get better when you make mistakes and correct them.

And if you think you’ve made some progress and you have something unique and educational to share, don’t be afraid to offer it to one of the many design and development blogs that will gladly pay you for content.

Comments Are Part Of The Content

There are too many websites that view the readers’ comments as secondary content that is not nearly as valuable as what the author has to say in the main article. Every website should continually make changes or updates to content that is clearly shown to be incorrect. This shows that the publisher wants to provide accurate information, and that they respect the views of their readers.

In fact, you could make the argument that without reader comments, the quality of content on many design and development blogs would not be as strong as it is today. On my own website, I’ve written so many things that were just downright wrong. In some cases, things can be a matter of opinion and personal preference. But in other cases, they’re just factually incorrect. In indisputable cases, I’ve always tried to post updates to articles and credit the commenters who pointed them out.

Teachers Learn By Teaching

Randy Rhoads, a popular rock guitarist (who died in a plane crash in 1982), was well-known for being a guitar teacher. He once said:

“I’ve been playing about 18 years and I started to get a style when I started teaching.”

In other words, he believed that his success as a guitarist was largely impacted by the fact that he spent time teaching his skill to others. The same can be true for any one of us.

I’ve learned so much from readers’ comments and from doing research on stuff that I plan to publish. I’ve even learned from content I never actually did publish. The Move The Web Forward project, once again, summarizes this point quite nicely:

“Teaching is a great learning tool as well. So, even if you are getting started in an area, you’re helping yourself by writing about it as well.”

GitHub Gets It Right

The collaboration level on many projects from the “social coding” website GitHub is truly amazing, and is something that shows how revolutionary the Web really is.

GitHub's method of social coding is revolutionary

Think about a large project like HTML5 Boilerplate. When that project was first released, many front-end devs were amazed at how much front-end knowledge had been packed into a single starting template. Many were even intimidated by it. But what it is today is nothing compared to what it was when it first launched.

Why? Because from the get-go the contributors to the project had the same attitude that Paul Irish expressed in the launch post of his blog:

“I’m very interested in your contributions… what else deserves to be in this base template?”

With those words, Paul began what might be the most important front-end development project in the Web’s short history. And the collaboration continues today. In fact, there have been over 1000 issues opened and closed on that repo. All because Paul Irish—who has every right to never solicit feedback, because he’s so dang smart—encouraged collaboration.

Blog Posts Should Be Like GitHub Repos

The collaboration on apps like GitHub should be exactly what happens on blog posts. The readers posting comments should read the entire article, and should offer constructive, polite criticism and suggestions, without any unnecessary negativity.

An end to negativity

If the author feels the advice is not accurate or best practice, than he should explain why. If it’s established that the point needs clarification and/or correction, then he should humbly accept this and post an update, crediting the person or persons that brought it up. Personally, I’ve seen too many posts where the author doesn’t make corrections, even when clear technical or factual errors are pointed out.

This doesn’t mean that “majority rules”—that would be ridiculous, and would probably cause more problems than it solves (particularly in matters of opinion, where often there are no hard-and-fast rules).

But if it’s a technical matter, then the author has the responsibility to make updates and keep the information fresh, practical, and relevant. This is especially important if readers are finding the article via search. The “copy-and-paste-but-don’t-read” mentality is common among developers looking for quick solutions. We all face tight budgets and even tighter deadlines, so the last thing we want to do is verify a piece of code’s quality by reading a 900-word accompanying article along with 50+ comments.

If you notice a lot of search traffic coming in for older articles on your website, that might very well be incentive to update those older posts, and ensure you’re not promoting something that you no longer believe is accurate or best practice. And this has a twofold benefit: It will get you even more traffic, and your readers will have accurate information that they can trust.

So let’s do our best to imitate collaborative communities like those found on GitHub and StackOverflow, and continue making progress by correcting our errors. This will help all of us overcome the fears inherent in publishing what we learn.

The “TL;DR” Conclusion

If you don’t read this entire post, or if you take nothing else away from it, then just remember these points:

  • When you learn something, write about it, and don’t do it just to make money off it.
  • Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.
  • Teaching others will help you learn.
  • Encourage collaboration by allowing a free flow of constructive comments.
  • If you make a mistake, fix it.

I think this is a winning strategy for all those who are involved in design or development blogging, as well as tutorial writing.

When we’re willing to put ourselves out there, listen to what our peers have to say, and improve as needed, we will become better developers, and will help each other solve design and development problems in a more effective manner.

As this article suggests, your voice is just as important in this discussion. What do you think? Are you motivated to publish what you learn? Do you think collaboration and constructive feedback is an important part of moving the Web forward? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Image used on frontpage: opensourceway.

(il) (jvb)


© Louis Lazaris for Smashing Magazine, 2012.


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. In August, we’ll post another article like this that will cover events for the six or seven month period beginning in September.

There is no way for us to include every possible event, so you are more than welcome to help us out and provide a comment to an upcoming event that you feel would be of interest to Smashing Magazine’s readers. This may also be a chance for you to meet members of the Smashing Team this year.

Using the in-page links below, you can choose the month that interests you most:

February 2012 Events

Multipack Events
“The Multipack is a community of multi-talented Web professionals from across the West Midlands. Every month we get together to discuss design, code, standards and technology, and share our knowledge, skills and talents.”

When: Various dates throughout 2012
Where: Various UK locations

Multipack Events

Web Direc­tions’ “What do you know?�
“Come by at 6.30pm and we’ll kick off around 7.00pm. There’ll be ten fast and furi­ous five minute pre­sen­ta­tions show­ing off a cool web devel­op­ment or design tech­nique. There’ll be free beer and a bite to eat, and it’s a great chance to see who’s doing what in the local web indus­try. See you there!”

When: Various dates beginning February 16, 2012
Where: Various cities in Australia

Web Direc­tions’ “What do you know?�

WordCamp
“WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other.”

When: Various dates beginning February 17, 2012
Where: Miami, Phoenix, Slovakia, Bangkok, The Netherlands, San Diego, Ponce

WordCamp

SES Conference & Expo
“SES Conference & Expo is the leading global event series that educates delegates in search and social marketing, putting a special focus on tactics and best practices. SES Events provide instruction from the industry’s top experts, including representatives from the Search Engines themselves.”

When: Various dates starting February 20, 2012
Where: London, New York, Shanghai, Toronto, San Francisco

SES Conference & Expo

In Control Conference
“Learn from a diverse array of Web experts to use modern tools and techniques to refine your Web design craft now. Harness creative inspiration to unlock your potential, amplify innovation, and broaden your reach. Immerse yourself in two days of idea exchange with potential business partners who are as forward-thinking as you are.”

When: February 20-21, 2012
Where: Orlando, FL, USA at the Embassy Suites Orlando

In Control Conference

iStrategy
“iStrategy is an inspirational, two-day, digital media conference for senior executives who believe that the success of their business requires a sound digital strategy. iStrategy is held bi-annually at each of our four regional event locations in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia.”

When: Various dates beginning February 21
Where: Sydney, London, Chicago

iStrategy

LessConf
“LessConf is not like other events you’ve heard about. Sure there’s speakers, after parties, people with laptops, but LessConf has been called ‘Summer camp for startups’, ‘the best time of my life,’ and even ‘the world’s worst conference’.”

When: February 23-24, 2012
Where: Atlanta, GA, USA

LessConf

No Fluff Just Stuff Software Symposiums
“This conference will focus on the latest technologies and best practices emerging in the enterprise software development space. Our speakers are authors, consultants, open source developers, and recognized industry experts. NFJS brings a high quality conference to your city, making the event accessible not only to senior engineers, but to the whole team. ”

When: Various dates beginning February 24, 2012
Where: Various cities in the USA

No Fluff Just Stuff Software Symposiums

SuperConf
“SuperConf 2012 is where web development & entrepreneurship converge. We will have 9 startups & 8 speakers over 2 days in perfect weather during February.”

When: February 24-25, 2012
Where: Miami, FL, USA at the Miami Beach Convention Center

SuperConf

PHP UK Conference
“PHP UK Conference 2012 is PHP London’s seventh annual conference, powered by PHP London, a community-run, limited company of the UK. For the first time, it is a two day event. The conference planning committee is made of up of the five members of the PHP London executive committee and five additional volunteers.”

When: February 24-25, 2012
Where: London, UK at the Business Design Centre

PHP UK Conference

OpenCF Summit
“OpenCF Summit is a community gathering focused exclusively on advancing free and open source software in the CFML community. If you’re interested in diving into the free software CFML engines, learning more about the free software movement, and interacting with the most progressive thinkers in the CFML community, OpenCF Summit is for you! 72 hours of CFFreedom for the low, low price of only $72. Sleep optional.”

When: February 24-26, 2012
Where: Dallas, TX, USA at the Hyatt Place Dallas/Garland

OpenCF Summit

Usability Week Conference 2012
“Many conferences offer cavernous exhibit halls, brief seminars on second-hand discoveries, and a sense of anonymity that can be truly alienating. Usability Week takes a different approach. In place of scattered, shallow talks, Usability Week offers up to 6 days of deep learning as international experts lead full-day tutorials”

When: Various dates between February 26 and May 18, 2012
Where: New York, Las Vegas, Edinburgh, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Washington

Usability Week Conference 2012

FITC Amsterdam
“FITC Amsterdam features renowned speakers from around the world, all of whom have signed up to share their knowledge and expertise; attendees will leave inspired, educated and challenged to set the bar even higher.”

When: February 27-28, 2012
Where: Amsterdam, The Netherlands, at the European Centre for Arts and Sciences

FITC Amsterdam

Confoo
“PHP, Python, Ruby, Java and .NET Conference.”

When: February 29 – March 2, 2012
Where: Montreal, Canada

Confoo

Design Indaba Conference and Expo
“With a focus on international thought leadership, the Design Indaba Conference has become one of the world’s leading design events and hosts more than 40 speakers and 2 500 delegates. The Design Indaba Expo was inaugurated in 2004 and provides a commercial platform for the finest South African designers to leverage goods and services to the local and global markets.”

When: February 29 – March 4, 2012
Where: Cape Town, South Africa

Design Indaba Conference and Expo

March 2012 Events

QCon
“QCon London is the sixth annual London enterprise software development conference designed for developers, team leads, architects and project management is back! There is no other event in the UK with similar opportunities for learning, networking, and tracking innovation occurring in the Java, .NET, Html5, Mobile , Agile, and Architecture communities.”

When: March 7-9, 2012
Where: London, UK in The Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre

QCon

SXSW Interactive
“The 19th annual SXSW Interactive festival will take place March 9-13, 2012 in Austin, Texas. An incubator of cutting-edge technologies, the event features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders and an unbeatable line up of special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and startup ideas the community has to offer. From hands-on training to big-picture analysis of the future, SXSW Interactive has become the place to experience a preview of what is unfolding in the world of technology.”

When: March 9-13, 2012
Where: Austin, TX, USA

SXSW Interactive

Greenville Grok
“A small thing, in a great place, with wonderful people, asking a ton of questions and making headway on some decent answers.”

When: March 15-17, 2012
Where: Greenville, SC, USA

Greenville Grok

Webcoast
“We offer a weekend where you expand your knowledge and your network of contacts, a weekend you will remember and enjoy for a long time.”

When: March 16-18, 2012
Where: Gothenburg, Sweden

Webcoast

London Web Summit
“The two largest web & start up conferences in the UK & Ireland, GeeknRolla and the Dublin Web Summit, are merging to create the London Web Summit. LWS will take place on March 19th in the Brewery.”

When: March 19, 2012
Where: London, UK in the Brewery

London Web Summit

DrupalCon Denver
“DrupalCon Denver is the official conference of the Drupal community. DrupalCon is a biannual event presented to an ever-expanding international audience since Drupal became an open-source project in 2001. It’s put on by the Drupal Association, as well as a fabulous group of volunteers and organizers from across the globe.”

When: March 19-23, 2012
Where: Colorado, USA, at the Colorado Convention Center

DrupalCon Denver

IA Summit
“The IA Summit is the primary event for those redefining strategy and structure in support of cross-channel systems and user experiences.”

When: March 21-25, 2012
Where: New Orleans, LA, USA at the downtown Hyatt Regency Hotel

IA Summit

FITC Spotlight: JavaScript
“Nearly everyone with a personal computer has some sort of JavaScript interpreter on it, making this language essential to the developer’s toolkit. JavaScript has become even more important with the increasing popularity of HTML5, as it is one of the language’s building blocks. By the end of event day, attendees will have enough information to get started with JavaScript development.”

When: March 24, 2012
Where: Toronto, Canada, at the University of Toronto Campus

FITC Spotlight: JavaScript

Made by Few Web Conference
“Made by Few is a 1-day conference featuring talks from entrepreneurs, designers, developers, and creatives. It’s part showcase, part education, and part inspiration.”

When: March 24, 2012
Where: Little Rock, AR, USA at Little Rock River Market

Made by Few Web Conference

Photoshop World Conference & Expo
“Designed to help you boost your skills, Photoshop World offers three days of pulse-pounding training with classes from renowned experts in the fields of Photoshop, photography and lighting and a once-in-a-lifetime experience guaranteed to enhance your skill set and help your work soar to new heights!”

When: March 24-26, 2012
Where: Washington, DC, USA at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center

Photoshop World Conference & Expo

DevConnections
“Join us and explore the latest trends and get the most up to date information and training available. All while networking with your colleagues and building a valuable network of peers in one of the most entertaining cities in the world.”

When: March 26-29, 2012
Where: Las Vegas, NV, USA at the MGM Grand

DevConnections

ArabNet Digital Summit
“The region’s largest digital event just got bigger! This year’s summit will go on for 5 action-packed days featuring cutting-edge panel discussions, specialized workshops, exciting competitions, focused networking sessions, social activities and more.”

When: March 27-31, 2012
Where: Beirut, Lebanon

ArabNet Digital Summit

April 2012 Events

JSConf
“We have been doing JSConf for 4 years and every single one has been better than the last, it is something we take a great deal of pride in. We make events that aren’t from the standard conference playbook because we believe you deserve more than that. We focus on two things, presenting mind-altering JavaScript technology and uses during the daytime and providing exceptional ‘networking events’ AKA killer parties during the evenings.”

When: April 2-3, 2012
Where: Scottsdale, AZ, USA at the Firesky resort

JSConf

An Event Apart Seattle
“An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day learning session for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.”

When: April 2-4, 2012
Where: Seattle, WA, USA at the Bell Harbor Conference Center

An Event Apart Seattle

Web-5 Conference
“The conference’s point is to let us discover, learn and share new technologies (WebGL, Dojo Toolkit, SocketIO, NodeJS, HTML5, JavaScript) and techniques through a practical approach. Thus allowing developers, sysadmins and technical directors to better grasp how these new technologies and techniques will help them in their daily work (and make their customer’s experience even more awesome).”

When: April 4-6 2012
Where: Béziers, France

Web-5 Conference

TYPO San Francisco
“San Francisco is renowned as a creative hub. The unique blend of innovative thinking, design, software and technological development in the Bay Area has changed the way the world works. Well designed connections have improved and made our lives more fulfilling. Greater connections mean life can be more challenging, and that requires innovative design solutions. TYPO San Francisco brings together incredible speakers from American and European design communities to share and discuss what it means to connect.”

When: April 5-6, 2012
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

TYPO San Francisco

TYPO3 Developer Days
“So, here is the deal. You have a project related to TYPO3 / FLOW3 / Phoenix or the TYPO3 project in general? You need some manpower to get it done? You want to share your idea and probably find someone who joins your team? You just want to implement the coolest feature mankind has ever seen? Well, then the TYPO3 Developer Days 2012 is the event to go!”

When: April 12-15, 2012
Where: Munich, Germany at MACE

TYPO3 Developer Days

MADinSpain
“Breathe creativity. MADinSpain is an international design event and venue for the most remarkable creative minds of our time.”

When: April 13-14, 2012
Where: Madrid, Spain

MADinSpain

360|Flex
“360|Flex has quickly become THE conference for Flex/AIR/ActionScript developers to attend to connect with the community, learn from the Adobe Engineers, as well as community experts, and get the deepest, most technical understanding of Flex and what’s coming for Flex, anywhere.”

When: April 15-18, 2012
Where: Denver, CO, USA

360|Flex

DIBI Web Conference
“Design it. Build it. The two-track web conference.”

When: April 16-17, 2012
Where: Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

DIBI Web Conference

Breaking Development
“Breaking Development focuses on new, emerging techniques for web development and design for mobile devices. Our speakers are hand-picked to make sure you get challenging, well-delivered talks from a variety of different perspectives.”

When: April 16-18, 2012
Where: Orlando, FL, USA at the Gaylord Palms

Breaking Development

The World Wide Web Conference
“The World Wide Web Conference is a yearly international conference on the topic of the future direction of the World Wide Web. It began in 1994 at CERN and is organized by the International World Wide Web Conferences Steering Committee (IW3C2). The Conference aims to provide the world a premier forum for discussion and debate about the evolution of the Web, the standardization of its associated technologies, and the impact of those technologies on society and culture.”

When: April 16-20, 2012
Where: Lyon, France

The World Wide Web Conference

140 Character Conference
“The take aways from this event will provide the attending delegates knowledge, perspectives and insights to the next wave of effects twitter and the real-time internet will have on business.”

When: Multiple dates beginning April 17, 2012
Where: New York, USA

140 Character Conference

Great Indian Developer Summit
“With over 14000 attendees benefiting over four game changing editions, GIDS is the gold standard for India’s software developer ecosystem for gaining exposure to and evaluating new projects, tools, services, platforms, languages, software and standards.”

When: April 17-20, 2012
Where: Bangalore, India

Great Indian Developer Summit

UX London
“Presented by Clearleft, UX London is 3 days of inspiration, education and skills development for User Experience Designers.”

When: April 18-20, 2012
Where: London, UK, at the Cumberland Hotel

UX London

BACON
“BACON is a two-day, two-track technology conference on things developers love. Thirty-two tasty sessions on topics including web development, machine learning, astronomy, and electronic music.”

When: April 20-21, 2012
Where: London, UK

BACON

FITC Design & Technology Festival
“The game has changed and FITC is on it! Featuring over 70 renowned digital creators from around the globe, FITC Toronto 2012 attendees will be privy to the knowledge of the best and brightest in the digital space. Covering everything from HTML5 to making digital art, this three day festival will leave attendees inspired to create in new and innovative ways.”

When: April 23-25, 2012
Where: Toronto, Canada at the Hilton

FITC Design & Technology Festival

beyond tellerrand – play!
“This a 4 day event with affordable ticket pricing. 2 workshop days feature full-day workshops and the conference covers 2 tracks with over 20 presentations about technology, design and inspiration on 2 days. Who ever wants to hear the latest buzz and exchange with other creative minds has reached the exact right event. And ticket prices start from just €99,00 including German VAT (19%) and booking fees.”

When: April 24-27, 2012
Where: Cologne, Germany

beyond tolerand - play

TNW Conference
“The 7th edition of The Next Web Conference will be packed with high quality content, networking events, parties and dealmaking opportunities. It’s the place to be for all web and mobile professionals.”

When: April 25-27
Where: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

TNW Conference

Front-Trends
“This is a gathering for front-end lovers to discover the current trends to build a professional career out of innovative front-end development.”

When: April 26-27, 2012
Where: Warsaw, Poland at the Soho factory

Front-Trends

ConvergeSE
“Peel back the layers and examine the intersection between design, development and marketing over two days of workshops and lectures.”

When: April 27-28, 2012
Where: Columbia, SC, USA at IT-ology

ConvergeSE

Future Insights Live
“Future of Web Apps, Future of Web Design, Future of Mobile, and Future of Web in the Enterprise have joined forces to bring you our most comprehensive event EVER!”

When: April 30 – May 4, 2012
Where: Las Vegas, NV, USA at the MGM Grand Conference Center

Future Insights Live

May 2012 Events

GRAVITY FREE
“If you aren’t finding the inspiration you need to think big ideas, to boldly imagine, to create surprise, to do things a little differently, consider the place you aren’t looking — GRAVITY FREE: Design That Opens Minds.”

When: May 1-2, 2012
Where: Chicago, IL, USA at The Spertus Institute

GRAVITY FREE

webDU
“The conference offers the opportunity to get hands-on technical training, gain new skills, hear breaking news from the Web Industry, network with peers and industry leaders, and ultimately become more successful developing and delivering web applications. Nowhere else in ANZ can this audience find the volume and quality of information available under one roof at webDU.”

When: May 3-4, 2012
Where: Sydney, Australia at the Four Points by Sheraton Sydney, Darling Harbour

webDU

Next Berlin
“The leading European conference for the digital industry. ”

When: May 8-9, 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany

Next Berlin

CMS Expo
“2012 CMS Expo showcases the world’s leading Content Management Systems and the incredible people who power them. Come discover the most innovative CMSs on the planet. Connect to the growing CMS Community. Learn the best ways to deploy your content and tune your CMS to perfectly match the demands of an ever-changing mobile, social, interconnected marketplace.”

When: May 8-10, 2012
Where: Chicago, IL, USA

CMS Expo

J. Boye Web and Intranet Conference
“J. Boye’s conferences grew out of our international groups for online professionals. We are in regular contact with our 400+ members from large and complex organisations and we know their agendas and projects. This puts us in a unique position to assess and determine what is happening in every corner of the field at any given time and enables us to put together a relevant program that really reflects the current challenges of our delegates.”

When: May 8-10, 2012
Where: Philadelphia, PA, USA at The Hub CityView

J. Boye Web and Intranet Conference

Mobilism
“Mobilism is one of the best-respected web conferences in the world, concentrating exclusively on mobile web design and development.”

When: May 10-11, 2012
Where: Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Mobilism

Semi-Permanent Creative Conferences
“Semi-Permanent is a world leading design conference that to date has hosted 29 events in 9 cities, covering 5 countries, with over 200 speakers and 50,000 attendees. In 2012, Semi-Permanent celebrates ten years of events- that’s a decade full of stories and wisdom from industry idols. ”

When: Various dates beginning May 11, 2012
Where: Sydney, Auckland, Brisbane, Melbourne (Australia)

Semi-Permanent Creative Conferences

Future Of Web Design London
“The Future of Web Design proudly presents three days of cutting edge learning and inspiration. Join us for a day of in-depth workshops, followed by two action-packed conference days in the heart of London!”

When: May 14-16, 2012
Where: London, UK at The Brewery

Future Of Web Design London

PEPCON
“Join the world’s top InDesign experts and the Adobe InDesign team, May 14-16 in San Francisco for the InDesign event of the year! Find answers and valuable insight on the topics publishing for eBooks, print, interactive documents, and more! Be inspired by fresh ideas and new products. Includes a 2-day multi-track conference followed by three full-day post-conference tutorials.”

When: May 14-16, 2012
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA

PEPCON

Confab
“As the leading conference of its kind, Confab plays a major role in driving the content strategy conversation forward.”

When: May 14-16, 2012
Where: Minneapolis, MN, USA at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis

Confab

Internet Week New York
“Since its debut in 2008, Internet Week New York has quickly become one of the world’s top festivals celebrating digital culture, as well as a global showcase for New York City’s thriving technology industry. Internet Week New York 2012 is expected to bring more than 30,000 people from around the world to nearly 300 events at the festival’s headquarters and at dozens of locations throughout the city. ”

When: May 14-21, 2012
Where: New York, USA

Internet Week New York

UX Lx
“3 fantastic days with User Experience Professionals from all the over the world. 16 workshops to develop your skills, 10 talks to inspire you and 16 slots open for you to share your experiences. All this coupled with lots of parties and meetups in sunny Lisbon.”

When: May 16-18, 2012
Where: Lisbon, Portugal at the FIL Meeting Centre

UX Lx

WebVisions Portland
“It’s our 12th big year in Portland, and we’re celebrating with a fabulous lineup of experts in web and mobile design, technology, user experience, DIY, strategy and more!”

When: May 16-18, 2012
Where: Portland, OR, USA at the Oregon Convention Center

WebVisions Portland

D2W Conference
“Workflow is what we do. Day in and day out, although you may not think about it like that. Do you work with multiple applications during the day? Do you work with a developer or designer (depending on which you are)? Then that is what the D2W is all about.”

When: May 16-18, 2012
Where: Kansas City, MO, USA at the Plaza Marriott

D2W Conference

TYPO Berlin
“For decades, design has been looking for something new, for something different – often at the expense of resources and global justice. Many companies have already had to learn things the hard way, because they ignored contemporary social values. Others have learned from the crisis and take social and ecological matters into consideration in their business strategies. Discover at TYPO Berlin 2012 sustain the long-living and the constant in design!”

When: May 17-19, 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany at Haus der Kulturen der Welt

TYPO Berlin

J and Beyond
“J and Beyond, an International Joomla! Conference, is back for the third year. For 3 days in May Joomla! developers and site builders from over 30 countries will gather in Bad Nauheim, near Frankfurt, right in the heart of Europe.”

When: May 18-20, 2012
Where: Bad Nauheim, Germany

J and Beyond

phpDay
“We’ll show new development traits, best-practices and success cases related to quality, revision control, test-driven development, continuous integration and so on. There are also talks about design, project management, agile and various php-related technologies like Zend Framework2, Symfony2, Codeigniter, Drupal, WordPress.”

When: May 18-19, 2012
Where: Verona, Italy at San Marco Hotel

phpDay

A Web Afternoon
“A Web Afternoon is a mini event intended to inspire and educate people who love the web. Think TED, but for the web. Both speakers and attendees will be people from a variety of disciplines, but who all share a common passion for making the web a better place.”

When: May 19, 2012
Where: Atlanta, GA, USA at the GTRI Conference Center

A Web Afternoon

AgIdeas International Design Week
“agIdeas International Design Week is the largest and most prestigious design festival in the world. Established in 1991 by Ken Cato, developed and presented by the Design Foundation. agIdeas offers an extraordinary program of events that celebrate design excellence and promotes the value of design driven innovation. ”

When: May 21-23, 2012
Where: Melbourne, Australia

AgIdeas International Design Week

Web Rebels
“The Web Rebels conference is a non-profit community driven conference for everyone who loves programming applications and services using web technology. Our focus is on the art of programming the web based solutions that we all use and cherish.”

When: May 24-25, 2012
Where: Oslo, Norway

Web Rebels

UXcamp Europe
“The main rule of the conference is: No spectators, just participants! This BarCamp-rule does not mean everybody has to do a Session, but everybody should come prepared to participate in an active manner.”

When: May 26-27, 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany at Erwin-Schrödinger-Zentrum of the Humboldt University

UXcamp Europe

O’Reilly Fluent Conference
“The O’Reilly Fluent Conference is about everything JavaScript. If you’re developing for the Web, desktop, or mobile, knowing the ins and outs of JavaScript and related technologies is critical. Come to Fluent to learn from expert developers who are using JavaScript in all kinds of contexts, to do things that no one ever expected JavaScript could do, and do so well.”

When: May 29-31, 2012
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA

O'Reilly Fluent Conference

Interactive Design International Festival
“Taking place over 3 days in Limoges, the Festival focuses on interactive design on a regional, national and international (15 countries) level. Businesses, professionals, research institutions and colleges all share and explore the latest design innovations on themes that respond to large economic, cultural and social issues.”

When: May 29-31, 2012
Where: Limoges, France

Interactive Design International Festival

Big Design Conference
“Experts from across the country will gather to present theories, research, experiences, and best practices to students, professionals, and executives looking to stay on the bleeding edge.”

When: May 31–June 2, 2012
Where: Addison, TX, USA at the Addison Crowne Plaza Hotel

Big Design Conference

June 2012 Events

webinale
“The conference is to grow revenues, which shines through the web holistically, focusing not only on individual fragments. The conference is, thus bridging the gap between designers, web developers, managers and entrepreneurs, providing an incredibly lively forum for inspiration, networking and practical know-how.”

When: June 4-6, 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany

webinale

International PHP Conference
“The International PHP Conference is the global recognized event for PHP developers, webworkers, IT managers and everyone interested in web-technology.”

When: June 5-6, 2012
Where: Berlin, Germany at The Maritim proArte Hotel

International PHP Conference

Eyeo Festival
“In 2011, eyeo brought together an incredible group of creative coders, data viz pros, designers and artists. For 2012 we’ll raise the bar. Expect lectures, conversations and workshops with some of the most fascinating minds and makers today.”

When: June 5-8, 2012
Where: Minneapolis, MN, USA at the Walker Art Center

Eyeo Festival

Interlink Web Design Conference
“Interlink Conference is a small hand-crafted event created for web professionals of all types. Explore the intersection of web design, code, and content during 2 empowering days of curated talks and workshops in Vancouver. (Plus, there’s dodgeball.)”

When: June 6-7, 2012
Where: Vancouver, Canada at Robson Square

Interlink Web Design Conference

Valio Con
“Conference at the beach where it’s all about actual fun and not sitting in a hotel lobby the entire time.”

When: June 7-10, 2012
Where: San Diego, CA, USA at the Hyatt Mission Bay

Valio Con

Front-End Design Conference
“The Front-End Design Conference is an annual event dedicated to content, presentation and behavior. The speakers and attendees are made up of awesome people from the web design and development community.”

When: June 8, 2012
Where: St. Petersburg, FL, USA at the Palladium Theater

Front-End Design Conference

NXNE Interactive
“With over 80 presentations, NXNEi bridges the gap between creators of all kinds and interactivity. Whether you’re a musician, film producer, marketer, public relations pro or community manager, NXNE Interactive programming has you covered. Join us for three days of tech and social media exploration to learn how to boost ingenuity while enhancing your marketing and business efforts.”

When: June 11-17, 2012
Where: Toronto, Canada

NXNE Interactive

Ampersand 2012
“Combining the worlds of web & type design.”

When: June 15, 2012
Where: Brighton, UK

Ampersand 2012

Nordic Ruby Conference
“Learn stuff. Meet people. Have fun. Nordic Ruby is a two-day, single-track Ruby conference. At a Japanese spa in the beautiful Stockholm archipelago. All-inclusive.”

When: June 15-16, 2012
Where: Stockholm, Sweden at Yasuragi Hasseludden

Nordic Ruby Conference

An Event Apart Boston
“An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.”

When: June 18-20, 2012
Where: Boston, MA, USA at the Marriot Copley Place

An Event Apart Boston

HOW Design Live
“In 2012, Boston is the meeting point for the biggest gathering of designers, freelancers, creative team managers, and other creative professionals in the country. That much creative energy under one roof? It’s a recipe for revolutionary ideas and life-changing inspiration. You’ll rethink your approach to work and life, connect with like-minded allies, hear from creative visionaries, and discover new tools to make your job more satisfying and productive than ever before.”

When: June 21-25, 2012
Where: Boston, MA, USA at the Hynes Convention Center

HOW Design Live

O’Reilly Velocity Conference
“Most companies with outward-facing dynamic websites face the same challenges: pages must load quickly, infrastructure must scale efficiently, and sites and services must be reliable, without burning out the team or breaking the budget. Velocity is the best place on the planet for web ops and performance professionals like you to learn from your peers, exchange ideas with experts, and share best practices and lessons learned.”

When: June 25-27, 2012
Where: Santa Clara, CA, USA

O'Reilly Velocity Conference

Google I/O
“After Google I/O 2011, you consistently told us you wanted more time to attend sessions, visit our partners in the Developer Sandbox, and meet 1:1 with the engineers behind Google’s developer platforms and APIs. We recently received an unexpected opportunity to extend Google I/O to three days, so as we announced on our +Google Developers page, we are moving the conference to June 27-29, 2012.”

When: June 27-29, 2012
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA at Moscone Center West

Google I/O

Lone Star PHP Conference
No description available.

When: June 29-30, 2012
Where: Dallas, TX, USA

Lone Star PHP Conference

Scottish Ruby Conference
“The Scottish Ruby Conference started life as Scotland on Rails in 2008 and has grown to become Europe’s premier multi-track Ruby conference. And by premier, we mean the one with the most whisky consumed.”

When: June 29-30, 2012
Where: Edinburgh, Scotland at the Royal College of Physicians

Scottish Ruby Conference

July 2012 Events

WebVisions Barcelona
“WebVisions heads to Europe for three days of workshops, sessions and keynotes by leading web, mobile, UX, DIY and strategy experts.”

When: July 5-7, 2012
Where: Barcelona, Spain at Pompeu Fabra University

WebVisions Barcelona

An Event Apart Austin
“An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.”

When: July 9-11, 2012
Where: Austin, TX, USA at the Hilton

An Event Apart Austin

WDCNZ
“Tech talks for web devs. JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3. Mobile, Security, Scale. Web dev conversations.”

When: July 14, 2012
Where: Wellington, New Zealand

WDCNZ

O’Reilly OSCON
“OSCON is where all of the pieces come together: developers, innovators, businesspeople, and investors. In the early days, this trailblazing O’Reilly event was focused on changing mainstream business thinking and practices; today OSCON is about how the close partnership between business and the open source community is building the future. That future is everywhere you look.”

When: July 16-20, 2012
Where: Portland, OR, USA

O'Reilly OSCON

CSS Summit
“The online conference for CSS. Speakers include Chris Coyier, Lea Verou, Estelle Weyl, Jonathan Snook, and more.”

When: July 31 – August 2, 2012
Where: Online Conference

CSS Summit

August/September 2012 Events

RIACon
“The Rich Internet Application Conference: Where architects and developers of all levels gather to share and learn about creating the next generation of web and mobile based applications. At RIACon you’ll get to network with fellow industry professionals and community leaders while being exposed to the most up to date skills needed for building great applications leveraging the best technologies available today.”

When: August 6-7, 2012
Where: Washington, DC, USA

RIACon

An Event Apart DC
“An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.”

When: August 6-8, 2012
Where: Washington, DC, USA at the Westin Alexandria

An Event Apart DC

DrupalCon Munich
“DrupalCon Munich is the official conference of the Drupal community. DrupalCon is a biannual event presented to an ever-expanding international audience since Drupal became an open-source project in 2001. It’s put on by the Drupal Association, as well as a fabulous group of volunteers and organizers from across the globe.”

When: August 20-24, 2012
Where: Munich, Germany at the Westin Grand

DrupalCon Munich

UX Week
“UX Week is the premier user experience design conference. Design professionals from all over the world gather for four days of community, inspiration and skills building.”

When: August 21-24, 2012
Where: San Francisco, CA, USA

UX Week

An Event Apart Chicago
“An Event Apart is an intensely educational two-day conference for passionate practitioners of standards-based web design. If you care about code as well as content, usability as well as design, An Event Apart is the conference you’ve been waiting for.”

When: August 27-29, 2012
Where: Chicago, IL, USA at the Westin Chicago River North

An Event Apart Chicago

UX Australia
“UX Australia 2012 is a 4-day user experience design conference, with two days of workshops and two days of presentations about designing great experiences for people.”

When: August 28-31, 2012
Where: Brisbane, Austalia at Sofitel Brisbane Central

UX Australia also presents Agile UX and Service Design 2012.

UX Australia

dConstruct
“”Our 8th year!””

When: September 7, 2012
Where: Brighton, UK at the Brighton Dome

dConstruct

Related Links

(il)


© Louis Lazaris for Smashing Magazine, 2012.


  •   
  • Copyright © 1996-2010 BlogmyQuery - BMQ. All rights reserved.
    iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress