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Author Vitaly Friedman

565 articles

Vitaly Friedman loves beautiful content and doesn’t like to give in easily. When he is not writing, he’s most probably running front-end & UX workshops. He loves solving complex UX, front-end and performance problems. He also runs Smart Interface Design Patterns, a video course and UX training for passionate UX designers.

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Vitaly Friedman wrote

How We Improved SmashingMag Performance

In this article, we’ll take a close look at some of the changes we made on this very site — running on JAMStack with React — to optimize the web performance and improve the Core Web Vitals metrics. With some of the mistakes we’ve made, and some of the unexpected changes that helped boost all the metrics across the board. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Writing For Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine’s primary goal is to deliver quality content for the web development and design community. If you have valuable tips, tricks, ideas or techniques to share, then you’re more than welcome to write for us and help provide others with solid articles and useful insights. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Meet our Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklist Cards, a deck of 100 cards with common questions to ask when tackling a common interface challenge — carousel, table, date picker, autocomplete, filtering, sorting, search, configurator, slider, timeline, map, web forms, reviews and testimonials, onboarding, pricing plan, authentication and many others. Get the PDF deck right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smart Interface Design Patterns In Your Pocket: Checklist Cards PDF

Meet our Smart Interface Design Patterns Checklist Cards, a deck of 100 cards with common questions to ask when tackling a common interface challenge — carousel, table, date picker, autocomplete, filtering, sorting, search, configurator, slider, timeline, map, web forms, reviews and testimonials, onboarding, pricing plan, authentication and many others. Get the PDF deck right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

#BlackLivesMatter

We stand firmly behind the Black Lives Matter movement. We have always stood strongly behind introducing a wide range of voices to Smashing publications and conferences. Positive change is difficult, but it’s possible. It takes work, time, and dedication. We are fully committed as a team to see it through. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Respect Always Comes First

As designers and developers, we focus on beautiful interfaces and fast experiences, but there is one side often missing: respect towards privacy, security, inclusivity, authenticity, personality, and ethics. It’s about time we change that. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

“You Must Unlearn What You Have Learned” — Meet SmashingConf San Francisco #breakout (April 17-18)

Meet SmashingConf San Francisco, packed with smart front-end and UX techniques to challenge everything about how you design and code. We’ll unlearn old habits and dig into strategies for breaking out: leaving behind the generic solutions, exploring new design workflows, understanding new performance techniques, and all the capabilities that we have at our hands already and in the near future. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashing Consultancy

Before you can start to improve things, you need to convince management that things need improving. That can be challenging! Management is not always digitally savvy and don’t grasp how significantly things have changed. Creating a case for change can be hard when you are working alone. We want to help you with that. We have years of experience writing business cases and presenting to management. Let us guide you through the process.’ Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf 2018: Fetch Those Early-Bird Tickets!

Great conferences are all about learning new skills and making new connections. That’s why we’ve set up a couple of new adventures for SmashingConf 2018 — just practical sessions, new formats, new lightning talks, evening sessions and genuine, interesting conversations — with a dash of friendly networking! Taking place in London, San Francisco, Toronto. Tickets? Glad you asked! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

We’ve Got A Lil’ Announcement To Make: Rachel Andrew Is SmashingMag’s New Editor-In-Chief

Sometimes things evolve faster than you think. Something that started as a simple WordPress blog back in September 2006, has evolved into a little Smashing universe — with books, eBooks, conferences, workshops, consultancy, job board and, most recently, 56 fancy cats (upcoming, also known as Smashing Membership). We have a wonderful team making it all happen, but every project requires attention and focus and every project desperately needs time to evolve and flourish and improve. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Uploading Directories At Once With webkitdirectory

If you’ve ever tried to implement a bulletproof, good-looking file uploader, you might have encountered an issue: uploading an entire folder or folders of files is usually quite a hassle, as files in each folder have to be selected manually. And then some folders might contain sub-folders as well. Well, we can use webkitdirectory, a non-standard attribute that allows users to pick a directory via a file input. Currently supported in Chrome, Firefox and Edge. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

We’re Touring Through Southeast Asia: Join The Mozilla Developer Roadshow!

We love exploring opportunities. While many of us are quite familiar with publications and events surrounding us, we often lack the global perspective on what’s happening in the web industry across the world. For example, do you know what the state of web design in Singapore is? What about front-end events in Kuala Lumpur? What about the acceptance of UX-driven processes in Hong Kong? That’s exactly what we want to find out! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Feature Comparison Table

For a price tag that meets a certain threshold or if we are particularly invested in the quality of a product, we want to be absolutely certain that we are making the right choice and are getting a good product for a good price. That’s where a feature comparison table makes all the difference. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Learn From What You See: It All Starts With Inspiration

The world around us is full of little things and experiences that shape us, our way of thinking, but also how we tackle our work. Influenced by these encounters, every designer develops their unique style and workflow, and studying their artwork — the compositions, geometry of lines and shapes, light and shadows, the colors and patterns — can all inspire us to look beyond our own horizon and try something new. It really doesn’t take much to let your mind wander. Always remember to take a closer look at things around you; you’ll be sure to find inspiration in the little things. But for now, let’s dig into another collection of brilliant illustrations and photographs. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Slider UX

When we think about a slider, we usually imagine an image gallery slider, or the infamous carousel, or perhaps off-canvas navigation, with the overlay sliding in from the side. However, this article is not about those kinds of sliders. Instead, we’ll look into the fine details of designing better slider controls for selecting a value or a range of values. Think of price range sliders, 360-degree-view sliders, timeline sliders, health insurance quote calculators, or build-your-own-mobile-plan features. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Challenge Yourself More Often By Creating Artwork Every Day

Whether you’re into good ol’ drawing and painting, or quick editing in Photoshop or Illustrator, one thing’s for sure: they’re all creativity’s best friends. Some draw pictures all day, while others find their inspiration in uncommon sources in order to break out of the box. Whatever it is that you decide to do, it’s good to challenge yourself more often and get out of your comfort zone. If you don’t, you may never discover something that you love doing, or perhaps even worse, never learn a whole lot about yourself. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Date And Time Picker

Well, not every date picker fits every interface, just like not every interface actually needs a date picker. But when a date picker is required, quite often it’s just a bit too tedious and annoying to specify that one date, and too often it produces irrelevant results or even a zero-results page, although just a few minor refinements would make it much easier to use. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Designing The Perfect Accordion

Design patterns. An almost mythical phrase that often inspires either awe or resentment. As designers, we tend to think of design patterns as generic off-the-shelf solutions that can be applied to various contexts almost mechanically, often without proper consideration. Navigation? Off-canvas! Deals of the day? Carousel! You get the idea. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

As Far As The Eye Can See: Colorful Sceneries, Posters And Covers

With the lovely weather we’ve been having here in Belgium, all of my senses actively engage when I’m riding my bike. I find myself picking up colorful sceneries while the smell of fragrant flowers and the birds’ singing somehow doesn’t manage to escape me. Oh yes, it’s Summer alright! Not sure about you, but this is the period when I usually feel most inspired, probably, because I’m spending way more time outside. After all, nature is where I find most of my inspiration as it sets my mind free and I feel at ease. Hopefully, you’re enjoying some sunny days, too. Give yourself a moment of repose. Sit back, relax, have a refreshing drink and let the stream of inspiration come in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Finding Inspiration In The Little Things Around Us

Can you believe it is May already? Time flies! Here in Belgium, spring has arrived and has brought along its bright colors, the delicate odours of blooming flowers, as well as the cheerful chirping of birds. I try to soak it all in as this is my favorite time of the year. On a related note, if we only looked closer, we would find gems of inspiration in the things around us. For me, nature is my personal and biggest gem. What’s yours? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

From Small CSS Tricks To Great Design Mysteries: SmashingConf Barcelona 2017

In the brave new responsive web, previously established techniques are getting revised and abandoned. Design workflow changes. Front-end solutions adapt. Performance optimizations get refined and creative, holistic design thinking is required more than ever. It isn’t easy to keep up with all those changes, and that’s where our community conferences come into place. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Vibrant Illustrations To Let Your Mind Wander

On days when things don’t seem to go as you’d like them to and inspiration is at its lowest, it’s good to take a short break and go outside to try and empty your mind. That always seems to be the best remedy for me, especially whenever I jump on my bike and go for a short ride. Now the time has come to enjoy these moments even more as the spring season finally starts to show up in nature. We’re starting to see green leaves on the trees again, and every morning I wake up to the sounds of the birds chirping. I really enjoy these small joys of spring — who doesn’t? Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

35 Joyful Easter Wallpaper ? Funny Bunnies And Painted Eggs

Bunnies ahead! These fluffy little fellows are an unmistakable sign that Easter is here. Along with their companions in crime, yellow chicks, of course. But did you know that Easter bunnies can be much more than cute? Some of them have a secret passion for skateboarding, others take it up even with their natural predators to protect their easter eggs. Don’t believe it? Well, wait and see.

In this post, we compiled the best Easter wallpapers from our monthly contest for you. It all started back in 2008 and it’s still running today thanks to the love and patience that artists and designers from all across the globe put into creating unique, inspiring, and, well, simply beautiful, wallpapers each month anew. So without further ado, let’s dive right into the world of bunnies, cheeky chicks, blooming flowers, easter eggs, and — how could we forget — chocolate, of course. Happy Easter!

Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Inspiring Illustrations With Plenty Of Bright Colors And Cool Patterns

It’s almost time to leave winter behind us here in the Northern Hemisphere. Most of the time, the weather can’t quite make up its mind, and so the days pass by with half of the sky sunny while the other half gray. Nature usually tends to have a strong impact on my mood, and so these days I feel like I’m literally in a gray zone — between winter and spring. I’m not sure about you, but with springtime lurking around the corner, my need for extra inspiration is even bigger. So, I hope that this month’s set will give you just that spark you need to cheer you up and boost your creativity. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Colorful Inspiration For Gray Days: Illustration And Photography At Their Best

If it’s still snowy where you live, then you’re probably tired of the cold weather by now. Winter may be in full swing but that shouldn’t stop us from hunting for inspiration. While the gray days always seem to find a way to make us more and more anxious for springtime to finally arrive, it’s also a time we can use to reflect on our work and perhaps better decide what it is that we hope to improve or change in the next months. Believe it or not, some of these photographs and illustrations are the starting point of a design that I create. They are the spark that sets the process of creation in motion. It doesn’t take much; it can be any part of an element that catches my eye, be it a particular color, style, texture, or anything really. You’ll find a bit of everything in today’s selection: Architecture, colors, some of the best photographs from 2016, and more. I hope you’ll like my playground! ;) Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf New York 2017: Don’t Let Bad Front-End/UX Be Your Kryptonite!

While designing for the web today, there are so many unknowns that getting things right appears to be a task that requires quite… special abilities. Don’t you feel like Wonderwoman or Superman when squishing that annoying CSS/JavaScript bug or improving front-end performance, or making the UX workflow smooth at your company? Well, we do! Now, we also love sharing, and as we know from Superman, “Do good to others, and everybody can be a Superman”! That should hold true for cats, too, right?

SmashingConf NYC 2017 won’t solve all complex problems, but once it’s over you’ll know how to conquer yours. With practical front-end and UX techniques, battles, fights, wins and losses, we’d love you to learn and share your special abilities and your experiences! So reserve that plane, that bird, or flying superhero and meet us in New York City! To the tickets.

Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Clothing Icons (40 Icons, 9 Styles, AI, EPS, SVG, PNG)

Winter means getting out your scarf and a cozy hat to brave the cold — if you’re located in the Northern hemisphere that is. For all those occasions when your projects may need to get dressed up a little, we are happy to present to you the free Clothing Icon Set created by the design team at Creativebin today. The set includes 40 icons with everything ranging from shirts, pants and dresses to a blazer, hat and even a scarf. Available in nine styles and four formats (AI, EPS, SVG and PNG). Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

50 Examples Of Stellar Use Of Light, Shadow And Texture To Kick Start Your Inspiration

Many people find it difficult to get their minds back into work after a holiday season filled with love, food, and friends. May 2017 bring you a healthy and inspiring adventure. As for that kick-start inspiration, I hope this article will help get you back in the creative mindset. The above illustration has a style that I’m sure everyone will admire. The combination of colors used is simply marvelous — so simple, yet so complex. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: January 2017

New year, new beginnings! To cater for a fresh start into 2017 and all the challenges, endeavors and adventures it might bring along, artists and designers from across the globe put their creative skills to the test and created unique desktop wallpapers for you to indulge in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Front End Performance Checklist 2017 [PDF, Apple Pages]

Are you using progressive booting already? What about tree-shaking and code-splitting in React and Angular? Have you set up Brotli or Zopfli compression, OCSP stapling and HPACK compression? Also, how about resource hints, client hints and CSS containment — not to mention IPv6, HTTP/2 and service workers? A front-end performance checklist of things to keep in mind when optimizing for performance. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (December 2016)

Time moves pretty fast. A new year will be upon us soon, and most of us probably haven’t even realized it. So while we’re almost ready to leave the autumn season (and 2016!) behind, let’s refuel our inspiration for another month and start working on our New Year’s resolution list. Observe closely at the following techniques used, and how the colors have been applied to add contrast and character. As always, there is a lot to learn. I hope that these illustrations and photographs will inspire you to get creative and get ideas which you can apply in your own projects. Go ahead, don’t let anything come in your way, and let your artistic juices flow so you can create something beautiful and unique yourself. Let’s begin. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: December 2016 - Festive Christmas Edition

New month, new wallpapers! To get you in the right mood for December, designers and artists from across the globe got their ideas bubbling and created unique and inspiring Christmas wallpaper calendars to deck your desktop. This monthly wallpapers mission has been going on for eight years now, and we are very thankful to everyone who challenges their artistic skills and contributes to it each month anew. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Thanksgiving Icon Set (15 Icons, PNG, PSD, AI, SVG)

With Thanksgiving coming up next week, have you already thought about ways how to spend your days before the holiday? Well, you could send simple “Thank You” emails to your past clients, perhaps design something free for somebody, or take some time to improve your website. To those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving, we’ve got a nice icon set for you today — all available in PNG, PSD, AI and SVG formats. This set of 15 free icons was created by the design team at ucraft. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

SmashingConf San Francisco 2017: Somethin’ Is Cookin’ In The Kitchen!

Imagine a cloudy, rainy November evening. After a long day, you walk home along the streets, following the dimmed street lamps. Everybody seems to be busy, rushing somewhere, crossing paths with strangers and lonely stores. It’s dark and cold outside, and it’s difficult to see things through, so you decide to take a shortcut route to shorten the path. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (November 2016)

With autumn starting to show its full glory, there is really no reason to stay inside and drink your hot cacao. No, it’s time to go outside and soak up all those warm colors nature has to offer, especially the vibrant golden-yellow leaves that can now be found almost everywhere you look. It’s the season of hazy mornings, and beautiful warm color palettes. In this month’s collection, I’ve gathered a couple of illustrations and photos that express this seasonal feeling. The illustration presented above shows a brilliant way of how to spend your days before winter arrives. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Meet “Inclusive Front-End Design Patterns”, A New Smashing Book

We might not realize it, but as developers, we build inaccessible websites all the time. It’s not for the lack of care or talent though — it’s a matter of doing things the wrong way. In our new book, Inclusive Design Patterns, Heydon Pickering explains how we can craft accessible interfaces without extra effort — and what front-end design patterns we can use to create inclusive experiences. Quality hardcover, 312 pages. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (October 2016)

Whenever I work on an illustration, the objects don’t always have to look like they do in real life. They can look like how I perceive them in my mind. Breaking away from reality is the privilege you have as an illustrator. There are, in fact, no boundaries. Illustrating is creativity in its pure form. It is endless and that’s why I love it so much. The illustration above is an inspiring example of using geometric shapes to create a bicycle with a minimum of detail. Sit back, relax, and feed your appetite. Here’s your monthly dose. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (September 2016)

Inspiration isn’t tied to a specific timeframe or shows up when you need it. There isn’t a magic formula to rely on. Luckily, this year’s summer vacation was fruitful in providing us with many visual stimuli to get the creative process going. Enjoy! This illustration, just like all the other ones featured in today’s article, takes on curiosity and exploration of different tastes and flavors. Its composition and color palette are truly inspiring. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

83 Flat Line UX And E-Commerce Icons For Free

How often do you have to explain the purpose of a study, objectives, goals or measurements within your company? Maybe you need to prepare a presentation or a brief overview of what next steps should be taken, or maybe you simply need to build a shiny, new pattern library? Whatever project you may be working on, today’s icon sets will come in handy. All of the vector icons were tirelessly crafted by the design team at Ecommerce Website Design, and come in various formats that can be used for personal as well as commercial purposes. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (August 2016)

How about trying a very different drawing technique or illustration style for your next project? Maybe a weird geometric shape? Or a more abstract form? Or a retro-futuristic color scheme? Not sure about you, but holiday or no holiday, my need for some fresh inspiration never stops. This month, I’ve continued my journey in search for some inspiring and beautiful artwork — and I’ve found some real treasures! As a designer, I feel that there is so much that I can learn from the techniques and color combinations in these little gems. Let’s dive in, and get inspired to leave our comfort zones for our next designs! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2016

Since eight years, our monthly desktop wallpapers challenge is a Smashing favorite that wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of talented designers and artists from across the globe. On a quest to cater for wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd, we challenge you, the design community, to get your creative juices flowing and produce some interesting and inspiring designs each month anew. And, well, it wasn’t any different this time around. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Grab Your Sunglasses: 40 Vibrant Icons To Welcome Summer

You deserve a vacation, don’t you think? Now, you might need icons on your website to indicate that you’re away, or even use some for your auto-reply. For whatever reason you decide to use today’s icon set, we’re sure they’ll bring happy summer vibes to anyone who comes their way. This set of 40 icons was created by the design team at Printerinks.com. Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration For July

With the summer holidays coming up, I’d like to share a couple of inspirational illustrations and photos which I hope will help you daydream and relax. There’s no doubt that there are a lot of great techniques out there — they just need to be discovered. While going through this month’s collection, you’ll notice some pretty interesting and refreshing color combinations. I’ve made sure to include a good bunch we can all admire and learn from — I hope you’ll agree! Get ready to enter the summer with a big spark of inspiration. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: July 2016

To help you start into July freshly inspired, artists and designers from across the globe challenged their artistic abilities and created desktop wallpapers for you to indulge in. This monthly creativity mission has been going on for eight years now, and each month the enthusiastic work of the community brings forth interesting, beautiful, and unique results. Wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

12 Colorful Months And Seasons Illustrations [Freebie]

Time goes by fast, so today we’d like to share a colorful freebie to remind ourselves to appreciate each and every month of the year. Have you stopped to smell the pink blooming trees in March, or pluck plenty of fruits in the generous month of August, or enjoy the falling colorful leaves in rainy November? Every month of the year comes loaded with unique energy, so that it can give us inspiration and ideas, and then leave so many special memories behind. This background collection, dedicated to the charm and uniqueness of the twelve months of the year and its seasons, is available in PNG, SVG, AI and EPS and is all set to energize any project it becomes a part of. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (June 2016)

There’s no doubt that simple design is hard, since it requires much more thought and inspiration. It’s about understanding exactly what your users need. Colors play a major role, and today I’d like to show you a couple of illustrations that may motivate you to try out some new color combinations and techniques. Take a look at the following photographs, posters and book covers that have been created with some really inspiring shades and color palettes, and some even show how to cleverly use negative space. From 3D illustrations to artwork created with ink and watercolors, I’m sure there’s something that’ll spark your inspiration. Be warned though, some of them may even give you wanderlust from just looking at them. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: June 2016

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting and unique artwork, and as designers, we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Otherworldly Space Icons [Freebie]

We’ve featured a lot of different icon sets in the past, but we still haven’t had one dedicated to rockets, satellites and solar systems (well, don’t forget supernatural aliens as well). There’s so much to explore in the world of astronomy, and it’s about time we did. Today’s icon set was created and designed by the team at Iconshock, and consists of 40 icons in AI, PNG as well as SVG formats. So, dear space troopers out there, what are you waiting for? Please note that this icon set is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. You may modify the size, color or shape of the icons. No attribution is required, however, reselling of bundles or individual pictograms is not cool. Please provide credits to the creators and link to the article in which this freebie was released if you would like to spread the word in blog posts or anywhere else. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (May 2016)

Today we’ll be looking at eye candy that will undoubtedly help you start the new week with your creativity freshly nurtured. Grab your cup of coffee or tea, and let these designs shine on you with their smart details, fantastic textures, and well-chosen color palettes. I’ve sifted through the web to dig up little nuggets of inspiration to indulge in — just for you. This time I’ve collected a potpourri of styles ranging from delicate and subtle to bold and playful. Nothing but design goodness. So please lean back and soak it all in. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

On Design Systems: Sell The Output, Not The Workflow

So how do you sell a design system to the client? How do you establish a shared commitment within the company to put a pattern library on the roadmap? As designers and developers, we often know and see the benefits of an overarching system that radiates consistency throughout the different experiences of a company. But sometimes it’s seen as a very unpredictable investment, and the value isn’t necessarily visible right away. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

39 Tuneful Musical Instruments Icons [Freebie]

Music plays an important part in all cultures and comes in many forms. It’s a great way to stimulate our thinking and our creativity, and music instruments often even support therapy and healing. Designed by the team behind IconCrafts, this music instrument icon set is dedicated to all music lovers. It consists of 39 carefully crafted vector icons. All icons are available as 48, 64 and 128px PNG (+ @2x 256px versions + sprites), as well as SVG files. Five different styles are available. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Freebie: Hotel And Spa Icon Set (55 Icons PNG, SVG)

Our daily routine can be quite challenging at times. The more roadblocks we experience in fulfilling the demands of our workplace, the more we look forward to a seamless holiday experience to break out from our everyday tasks. This wonderful hotel and spa icon set can help you to design a visually delightful holiday experience for the customers of your tourism clients. Designed by the team behind IconCrafts, this icon set consists of 55 carefully crafted vector icons. All icons are available as 48px, 64px and 128px PNG (+ @2x versions + sprites), as well as SVG files. The icons come in five styles different styles. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Breaking Out Of The Box: Design Inspiration (April 2016)

Editor’s Note: Some people simply have the magic touch for digging up design goodness. Today, we are proud to present the brilliant gems that Veerle Pieters has dug out, letting us explore a fresh breeze of photography, art, type, print as well as web design projects. As designers, we have our good and bad days. Some days ideas come naturally. Other days we struggle or have moments where we are really stuck. We are in urgent need of inspiration. Let me help you get through these moments of pain and suffering. Let me nurture your creativity. Sit back, relax, and feed your appetite. Here’s your monthly dose. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: April 2016

Since eight years, we start into the new month with a collection of desktop wallpapers — the best way to fuel some fresh inspiration, as we find. And it’s not any different this time around. Designers and artists from across the globe shared their creations with us for April 2016. The result is a collection of desktop wallpapers with a unique mix of ideas and styles, eye candy that is bound to cater for new idea sparks. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Useful WordPress Tools, Themes And Plugins

If you’re looking for some great ways to improve your WordPress workflow, read on for a massive collection of free themes, plugins, tools and tutorials. These resources were all linked via the Smashing Magazine Twitter stream, Facebook stream, and other social-media streams around the Web. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners Of Front-End (Slides, PDF)

You know how it works: you spend hours trying to find a workaround for a problem that you have encountered, just to realize that it doesn’t quite work in, you know, that browser. Finding little techniques and tricks to help you get to results faster can immensely improve your productivity, so you don’t have to waste time on solutions that will never see the light of day. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Monday Morning Design Inspiration

Editor’s Note: Some people seem to have a magic touch when it comes to digging up design goodness. Veerle Pieters is one of them. As she explores print and web design, photography, art and type, she uncovers a lot of brilliant gems. And because they are too good not to share, she has compiled a selection of inspirational examples for you in this showcase. The plan is to bring out a new one every month, so let us know in the comments if you like what you see. But for now, please lean back and enjoy! Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

A Never-Ending Story On Ad-Blockers

Desperate times call for desperate measures. In attempts to fight back against the growing adoption of ad-blockers, many publishers and ad-dependent websites adopt all kinds of techniques from introducing “light” paywalls to limiting access to the site to fully blocking ad-blocker users from accessing the content altogether. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: March 2016

Inspiration lies everywhere: in a conversation, a walk through a foreign city, or, in other people’s works. To fuel your ideas, we celebrate the beginning of each month with what we found to be the best source for daily inspiration: desktop wallpapers that are a bit more distinctive than the usual crowd. This creativity mission has been going on for almost eight years now, and we are very thankful to all designers who have contributed and are still diligently contributing each month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Design Mock-Ups Need Dynamic Content: Tools And Plugins

Nothing is perfect on the web. We can’t make sure that our websites always work as intended, but we can try our best to design resilient and flexible websites that aren’t that easy to break — both in terms of interface design and security. Yet neither resilience nor flexibility are usually reflected in our deliverables and mock-ups. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Printed Smashing Books

Our printed Smashing Books are crafted to deliver in-depth knowledge and expertise shared by experts and practitioners from the industry. We strongly believe in print and in the benefits of tangible books — they are our editorial flagships. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: December 2015

Since seven years, our monthly desktop wallpapers post is a Smashing favorite that wouldn’t be possible without the tireless efforts of designers and artists from across the globe. Each month, we challenge you, the design community, to get your creative juices flowing and produce some interesting and inspiring desktop wallpapers. And well, we are very thankful to everyone who tickles their creativity and contributes to this challenge every month. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

No Hard Feelings: The Wait For “Hardboiled Web Design” Is Over

Some books deserve a spot at your desk. The brand new Hardboiled Web Design by Andrew Clarke is one of them. In its 5th anniversary edition, Andy explains how you can use HTML/CSS efficiently in responsive design — and how to reduce wasted time in the process with developers, designers and clients. No fluff, no theory — just insights into his own experiences with clients such as ISO and WWF. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: October 2015

We always try our best to cater for fresh inspiration and well, we have found a very effective way to do so: desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Since seven years, we challenge the design community to participate in our wallpaper mission and each month designers and artists from across the globe enthusiastically contribute their work to it. The result is a unique mix of ideas and styles, eye candy that is bound to cater for new idea sparks. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

It’s The Smashing Birthday Party, And You Are Invited (With Goodies!)

Exactly 9 years ago we published the very first article on this very website. Many things changed since then, but one thing remained the same: our obsession for publishing valuable, practical quality content. We proudly stand behind our work — the books, the eBooks, the conferences; our craft is ours, but our work serves the community and belongs to everybody. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: September 2015

As designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration, but, well, sometimes the best inspiration lies right in front of us. With that in mind, we embarked on a special creativity mission seven years ago: to provide you with inspiring and unique desktop wallpapers every month. Wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd and that are bound to fuel your ideas. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: August 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

60 Lovely Workspace Illustrations [Freebie]

Today we’re happy to release yet another freebie: a set of 60 lovely workspace illustrations of items that many web and graphic designers use every day: tablet and desktop computers, Apple Watches, cameras, Moleskine notebooks, headphones, pens, pencils, pairs of glasses — even coffee cups and cookies! The set has been designed by Anastasia Kolisnichenko, from Minsk, Belarus, and released for free for Smashing Magazine’s readers. Feel free to use all these elements and others for your projects. Grab what you need for a poster or website. You can customize everything you want: stroke width, size, color, shape — everything. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Web Design Is Dead. No, It Isn’t.

Every now and then we see discussions proclaiming a profound change in the way we design and build websites. Be it progressive enhancement, the role of CSS or, most recently, web design itself being dead. All these articles raise valid points, but I’d argue that they often lack objectivity and balance, preferring one side of the argument over another one. These discussions are great for testing the boundaries of what we think is (or is not) possible, and they challenge how we approach our craft, but they don’t help us as a community to evolve together. They divide us into groups and sometimes even isolate us in small camps. Chris Coyier has published a fantastic post recently covering the debate on the role of CSS in light of growing popularity of React.js, extensively and objectively. That’s the quality discussions we need, and that’s what keeps us evolving as a growing and maturing community. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Smashicons – A Carefully Crafted Iconset in 4 Styles [Freebie]

Today, we’re happy to release a very large icon set: the freebie contains 500 icons in four editable variants: outlined, solid, webby and flat, covering all sorts of various categories. The icons allow you to customize the stroke width and style, not to mention that you can change the color of the elements. They’re carefully crafted on a 60px grid which gives each icon consistency and crispness on all displays. Smashicons come in several styles. The AI and Sketch formats come in four styles: outline for mobile use; solid for hover state; webby for web; and flat for any creative project. The PSD format comes in two styles: outline for mobile use, and solid for hover states. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

Desktop Wallpaper Calendars: July 2015

We always try our best to challenge your artistic abilities and produce some interesting, beautiful and creative artwork, and as designers we usually turn to different sources of inspiration. As a matter of fact, we’ve discovered the best one — desktop wallpapers that are a little more distinctive than the usual crowd. Read more…

Vitaly Friedman wrote

40 Responsive Sports Icons [Freebie]

Free icons are always great to spice up our work with minimal effort. Today, we’re happy to release a free set of 40 sports icons in four styles and six formats. Each icon in this set comes in four styles: flat colored, glyph, Google material palette, and line strokes. Additionally, the line icons morph into four responsive sizes, comprising a unique icon at every breakpoint. That way, details adjust according to size while preserving the icons’ style and identity. All icons are included in six formats: AI, PSD, SVG, PNG, CSH and Sketch. We’ve optimized the SVG format, producing really light and small-size files that will enhance your websites’ and applications’ performance. Additionally, it makes creating web fonts a lot easier. The set is still in its infancy with plenty more icons currently in production. It’s licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Read more…