Great Articles / Aug 2016

Enough with the overflows Ever noticed just how many websites are using overflow menus for pretty much everything? Stop the overuse of overflow menus explores this phenomenon, or scourge as the author puts it. They can make a UI feel like it's clean and minimal, but in fact just hides the complexity under the surface.

High-end portfolio from a luxury creative brand Femme Fatale is a high-end creative studio that focuses on culture, luxury, editorial, and art. Their portfolio shows beautiful, subtle use of parallax scrolling, with a perspective effect. They've worked on websites, videos, virtual reality, mobile apps, documentaries, and more.

Epic designer screw-ups 4 ways I've f**ked up as a designer details four epic fails that one designer has encountered in her career, from overestimating user competence to realizing that ugly design can perform better (like not using hamburger buttons on mobile user interfaces). And she even talks about turning into the client from hell herself when working with a developer.

Tangible programming for kids Project Bloks is working to create an open-source, tangible programming language for kids. It takes advantage of the fact that kids learn best by using their hands, building stuff, and working collaboratively. Tangible programming makes code physical, so that kids can play with it.

The typography of Star Trek Typography: The Final Frontier takes a look at the fonts of Star Trek as it approaches its 50th anniversary. A custom retro-futuristic typeface was created for the logo and title sequence of the original series, and each subsequent series and film typeface was based on a retro-futuristic feel.

Preparing for the future of design The Future of Design (and how to prepare for it) is a guide to navigating what's coming next in the world of design. With technology changing at such a rapid pace (just look at how much mobile tech has advanced in the past 5 years), it can be difficult to figure out what the future will look like. These quotes from visionaries and experts help shed light on the possibilities.

Is programming unnecessarily complicated? Web programming is getting unnecessarily complicated, and this flowchart aims to explore why. Arguments for or against can be added to the chart, and then others can support or refute those arguments, making it an excellent community exercise exploring the topic.

Realtime mobile data usage This Mobile Statistics infographic shows an animated look at realtime mobile data usage. It shows a variety of data points: Google, Whatsapp, smartphone sales, online payments, Apple, social media, email and SMS, selfies, and more, as well as miscellaneous data (like the percentage of transactions at Starbucks made from their mobile app).

A chatbot imposter Mimic is a chat bot for Slack that can (attempt to) impersonate your friends and colleagues. It looks at messages from a colleague you specify and mashes up what they've said into often-hilarious sounding messages that sort of sound like the original writer. Sort of.