The fourth release candidate for WordPress 5.4 is live!
WordPress 5.4 is currently scheduled to land on March 31 2020, and we need your help to get there—if you haven’t tried 5.4 yet, now is the time!
You can test the WordPress 5.4 release candidate in two ways:
For details about what to expect in WordPress 5.4, please see the first release candidate post.
RC4 commits the new About page and updates the editor packages.
Plugin and Theme Developers
Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.4 and update the Tested up to version in the readme to 5.4. The priority in testing is compatibility. If you find issues, please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure them out before the final release.
The WordPress 5.4 Field Guide is also out! It’s your source for details on all the major changes.
How to Help
Do you speak a language besides English? Help us translate WordPress into more than 100 languages!
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
Weather is a huge part of our daily lives. As such, there is always a need for websites and mobile apps to report on it. Users will want to check out anything from the current conditions outside their house to the forecast for their favorite vacation spot.
A compelling UI can make weather both easier to understand and even a bit more entertaining. Designers achieve this through a combination of color, animation and playful icons. Sometimes, an unexpected surprise or two can also have a positive impact.
Let’s take a look at some examples of weather UIs that are the design equivalent of a sunny day.
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Weather Beyond Borders
Card-based UIs seem to be a natural fit for weather data. Everything you need is all in one neat and tidy space. But this snippet breaks away from tradition. It animates various weather scenarios that go beyond that little card. Rain, snow and sun rays burst outside of the card’s confines.
See the Pen Animated Weather Cards by Steve Gardner
Simply Beautiful
What makes this weather UI work is its simplicity. The use of familiar, rounded shapes along with a high color-contrast make for easy reading. Plus, the included hover effects are sure to grab a viewer’s attention.
See the Pen Simple Weather App Design by Colin Espinas
Abstract Icons
Here’s a group of CSS3 icons that look boldly different than your typical weather imagery. They’re a bit on the abstract side, with simple animations that add personality. While they’re a bit larger in this example, the styles lend themselves to small icons as well. They offer a way to stand out without taking too much space.
See the Pen Animated Weather Icons(pure CSS) by Akhil Sai Ram
SVG Movement
This collection of animated SVG icons are razor-sharp. The animated movements are intuitive and noticeable – but not over the top. Even better is that they’re vector and can scale to any size. They would make a great addition to any weather app.
See the Pen some weather icon svgs by Nat
Your Local Weather on Demand
Location-based services are great for bringing relevant information to your site’s visitors. This snippet is a prime example, as it detects your location and shows the current weather. The Google Map in the background is also a nice touch.
See the Pen Show the Local Weather by Den McHenry
Gentle Waves
This snippet combines several aspects of the other examples on this list. It’s location-based, features a card-like container and makes use of simple animation. The result is a weather widget that’s quite minimal, yet noticeable. It’s proof that you don’t need to overwhelm users with too much design to keep them informed.
See the Pen Weather card by The Coding Aviator
Now and Beyond
Here’s an attractive widget that grabs your location and shows you what to expect through midnight the next day. Right from the start you’ll find the current temperature and other relevant data. Scroll down further and see what things will look like in three-hour increments. The included video background really completes the look.
See the Pen Fluency – CIT261 by Bermon Painter
Here’s Mario With Today’s Weather
While this delightful weather UI isn’t accurate, it sure is fun to watch. The star of the show needs no introduction, and the angry sun in the sky brings back great (or terrifying) memories. Besides, you could always hook this up to an API to get a real forecast.
See the Pen Super Mario Weather by ErreC
Dress Your Website for the Weather
Displaying weather on your website isn’t necessarily difficult in a technical sense. But designing a UI that grabs attention (while remaining unobtrusive) is a real challenge.
The examples here (with the possible exception of Mario) offer a clean, unique way to display important information. The use of animation is particularly nice, as it adds context to various types of weather. Plus, it’s just more fun than a static image.
Looking for more weather UI snippets? Pack your umbrella and head on over to our CodePen collection!
The post 8 Fantastic Examples of CSS & JS Weather Widgets appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
Back in the web’s infancy, some thought it held the potential to usher in a “paperless” world. Well, that hasn’t happened just yet. Printed materials are still all around us.
Of course, nobody said the same thing about other promotional items like clothing and assorted swag. If anything, they’re more prevalent than ever, with online services dedicated to letting us design and order our own gear.
And, despite the fact that we web designers spend the bulk of our days online, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t invest in these items. They can come in handy when attending a conference, or having a face-to-face meeting with a prospective client. If you want to go really old-school, you might even send them via postal mail.
So, what printed and promotional items does a freelance web designer or small agency need? Much of it depends on the goals of your business. Therefore, some items will be more essential than others. But if you’re looking for ideas, here are some things to consider.
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Business Cards
In a world with online portfolios and social media, you’d think society would have moved beyond the business card. But these staples of work continue to have their place.
We still hand them out at events and client meetings. And many of us collect the ones we receive from others as well. There’s just something about having that little card that’s comforting. Plus, they’re often one of the most affordable ways to promote your business in the physical world.
The only catch here is that, as someone who works in a creative industry, your card really needs to stand out. Whether you design your own or hire a graphic designer, the goal is to make them memorable. That can be achieved through great design, high-quality paper or other cool effects we’ve seen recently.
Invoices, Contracts and Letterhead
This may be one area where we’ve made a bit of progress towards that paperless world. People are increasingly becoming more comfortable with online invoicing and even electronic signatures. Email has proven to be a great alternative. But not everyone is on board.
Some clients prefer, and might even require, physical copies of these documents. Therefore, it’s best to hang onto that office printer. It’s still a necessary evil.
The bright side of this is that it offers another opportunity to show off your design skills. Both invoices and contracts can be great ways to communicate your branding. In addition, they can be an effective way to get important messages to your clients – at least, those who tend to not read their email.
When it comes to letterhead, this simply looks more professional than tapping out a note on a blank piece of paper. Despite its simplicity, it’s one of those items that can make a small business look on par with the corporate behemoths.
What’s truly great about these assets is that you really can design and print them yourself. You can even level up by using fancy paper if you like.
T-Shirts
Let’s start by saying that t-shirts aren’t a necessity. There is a little bit of financial investment required to have a supply on hand – which can be tough for the budget-conscious. Still, they can be a tremendous marketing resource.
Case in point: If you’ve attended any sort of conference or trade show, then you likely know that the exhibitors giving away shirts tend to have the busiest tables. Shirts are a promotional item that just about everyone wants to snag.
Plus, people do wear them. And, even if they only wear your shirt in public a couple of times, that’s still a walking billboard for your business. They create brand awareness both for the people who wear them and those who simply notice them while out and about.
This is yet another item you can put your own personal spin on. Even if you haven’t designed a t-shirt before, there are a number of mockup templates that can give you a fast start.
Stickers and Magnets
Much like business cards, stickers and magnets can serve as handy reminders when someone wants to get in touch. And they tend to go places where business cards can’t.
Laptops, for example, are often decorated with a variety of stickers. It’s a very common sight in the design and development industry. If those folks are in your target market, a small investment in a few hundred sticky pieces of paper can really pay off.
Magnets probably shouldn’t go anywhere near your computer (at least not the hard drive). But they do go great with filing cabinets, office refrigerators and even cars. They can also be a nice alternative to stickers, as they don’t damage painted surfaces. That alone may make the ones you give away more widely used.
Those Unexpected Goodies
Sometimes, it pays to go against the grain when it comes to promotional items. Unique giveaways that catch people by surprise are often treated with more care than a card or brochure.
Things like USB sticks, water bottles, clocks or reusable shopping bags are more likely to be kept in a prominent place – thus promoting your business at the same time.
Of course, the downside to these types of goods is their cost. So perhaps it’s wise to reserve them for your high-end clientele or a sporadic giveaway here and there.
But if you’re looking to make a splash and have some extra budget, this could be a fun way to splurge. And it just might further endear you to a good client.
Promoting Web Design in the Physical World
Maybe it is a bit ironic that those of us who work in the virtual world need to promote our businesses in such an old-school manner. But the reason to do so is simple: it works.
The exciting part of this is that you have a lot of flexibility on the items you invest in. Some, like documents, can be made on demand in your office. You have complete control of the design process and can print them out anytime. Best of all, they’re cheap!
More traditional goods may have a higher cost. But, if you shop around, you might be able to purchase them in minimal quantities. This ensures you don’t go over budget or, even worse, have cases of unused tchotchkes stacked up in your living room.
At the very minimum, a web designer should have business cards, along with contracts, invoices and letterhead. But why limit yourself? There are tons of unique items that can help spread the word about your brand.
The post What Print and Promotional Materials do Web Designers Need? appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
