UX and UI are slippery terms for most designers. Like an old joke about teenage sex in which “everyone is talking about it; no one knows how to do it; everyone thinks everyone does it; so everyone claims that they too are doing it. " Fortunately, there are quality authors and media who talk in an unpretentious way about the importance of UX / UI for web application production. Smashing Magazine is one of such media. In addition to writing good (long:)) articles and books, Smashing Germans do not hesitate to organize conference odysseys...even across the ocean, in New York City itself.
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WordCamp Basel 2025 re-cap: Looking for wiener schnitzels in a sea of noodles
WordCamp Europe 2025 in Basel showcased WordPress at its most mature and strategic. The event brought together 1,723 professionals from 84 countries for essential discussions on accessibility implementation, sustainable development practices, and enterprise-grade solutions. WCEU proved that WordPress now powers critical business operations across industries, supported by a community balancing innovation with practical implementation.
You are reading: Essays
From the beginning, WordPress has been known as a 'blogging' platform, a tool that allows you to 'quickly' publish content on the web. The world-famous '5 minute install' slogan has only pushed the whole of WordPress among tools that supposedly have no place in larger organizations. The promoters of the platform themselves are unknowingly responsible for such a feature, wanting to distance themselves from a cold term such as CMS. But since the security of WordPress (described at the beginning of the series) is the most annoying rumor, WordPress as a blogging platform is the myth that is the furthest from the truth.
Lines of 'Open source' code have long knocked on the closed doors of state institutions. Shady vendors of closed source software have fueled myths of open solutions, including web development tools. One of these tools is WordPress, and we will show that such open applications are a great solution for the development of national Internet headquarters and the communication of interactive information.
SHIFT is the biggest Developer Conference in Southeast Europe. During the two conference days, it becomes a meeting place for developers in the most beautiful city in the world - Split. We talked with it's founder and CodeAnywhere CEO, Ivan Burazin to find out some inside information and surprises that are in store for 2017 edition.
Here comes the interesting news for all ecommerce businesses. MailChimp and Facebook decided to go one step further and cooperate in order to make Facebook advertising easy and possible to set up directly from MailChimp.
Market fluctuations, increased workload, constant and rapid advances in technology... If you are an eCommerce store owner, all those reasons must have led you to ask yourself a question: "Should my eCommerce business go remote?" Before reaching any decision let's take a look at pros and cons of remote work.
The Chinese astrology system lies on the back of (mostly) tame animals. Goat, piggy, rooster and dragon are only a few of the pets that mark the year they rule with their characteristics. Thus the rabbit brings us caution, the rooster accuracy, and the dragon honor and dignity. This astrological farm does not depend on its inhabitants alone. Five natural elements (wood, water, earth, fire and gold) directly affect the behavior of the animal, changing its characteristics and the year of reign itself. For example, a completely randomly picked 1981 was the year of golden rooster - a brave, determined and workaholic king of henhouse. But is 2017, apart from being the year of rooster, also the year of 'chatbots'?
Every day, most of us receive hundreds of messages and new offers from a broad spectrum of services and products, through multiple channels of communication. In most cases, we look at them with almost no attention, shut them down, before we even decode their meaning and what are they about. Most of them are oriented towards the appeal to make a purchase and spend our money. That’s why marketing is just not enough. If the messages are not enough significant and original, we will no longer recognize them as relevant to us. New technologies combined with proper channels and outside-the-box ideas can make every message more cost-effective than standard techniques.
You stroll into your apartment, exhausted from work, whip out your tablet, and, with a bond stronger than superglue, you and the couch become one. You meander through social media feeds, flip through the latest headlines on Flipboard, and your better half video chats with you about plans for a sizzling barbecue. All the while, red notifications dart across your screen like shooting stars. You revel in the lightning-fast loading times, and the apps feel as if they're magically fused to your fingertips. The year is 2020, and what you're experiencing is all happening within your tablet's browser - welcome to the world of Progressive Web Applications!
Nearly 3 years ago, HTML 5 was introduced with its hoighty-toighty multimedia capabilities and visual esthetics. New syntax elements like video, audio and canvas were added, to provide a better user experience and a consistent code sequence. Scalable vector graphics, for instance, were a novelty but very soon became a go-to tool for interactivity and animation. The popularity and pure growth of interactive content became more prominent than ever.
Lately, we've had numerous client inquiries about chatbots, their effectiveness and the way they operate. Many of them were associated with the ratio of their usefulness and profitability in the business. Whether we want to admit it or not, chatbots have become the new ‘’hype’’ in E-commerce. Every novelty is a possible method to improve business performance and competitiveness on the market. Chatbots do not differ from this, but their performance depends on many different factors which should be included in the process of implementation.
So, yeah, you've been a copywriter for some time now and your client list is getting bigger. Finally, some of your new clients are major businesses or brands. Now's your chance to unfold your creativity, make your work stand out and reach a larger audience. Congratulations! But what happens now? How to actually write copy for big shots?