Software Training Online
Presented by Dallas Web Designer Craig Smith

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Want To Learn Sass? Start With These Resources

Since writing a lot of CSS can truly be an overwhelming task to take on. It is highly advisable to learn Sass. Learning Sass can help to make life a whole lot easier for both web developers and designers. For beginners, you may find it a little difficult at first, but as time goes on, you will find that it gets easier and better.

However, you will start to wonder if and when there is a way that you don’t need to constantly have to repeat the CSS codes in your style sheet. The good news is this. There is one. This is all in thanks to this CSS pre-processor. It is now a very possible thing to write CSS code without having to be repetitive in doing them again and again.

What is also very great is this. It is formatted in a very nice way. You are able to both do wonderful computations and dynamic styling by taking advantage of all these pre-processing methods.

What is Sass?

Sass is a short term that stands for meaning Syntactically Awesome Style Sheets and it was designed/created by Hampton Catlin. Sass manipulates CSS by using a host of variables, mixins, inheritance, and also nesting rules. They are issued the extensions of .sass and .scss respectively.

What Sass does the best is this: It helps to make the process of writing CSS code easier. It also helps to speed up the workflow of both web developers and designers a whole lot quicker.

Learning Sass

If you take the time to learn Sass thoroughly, as well as, to fully explore it, it will give you lots of benefits. The Sass community is very passionate when it comes to helping others. Therefore, there is no shortage of any Sass tutorials out there.

Inside of this post, you will see a selection of useful resources and tutorials for learning Sass, which will be great for you to learn it from beginning to end.

Sass: the official site

Sass

The Sass Way

The Sass Way

The Sass Way covers the latest news and topics on handcrafting CSS with Sass and Compass. We use an open publishing model and rely on contributions from the Sass community via their GitHub project.

Sass Guidelines

Sass Guidelines

An opinionated styleguide for writing sane, maintainable and scalable Sass. Sass Guidelines is a free project that Hugo Giraudel maintains in his spare time. Needless to say, it is quite a large amount of work to keep everything up-to-date, documented and relevant. Obviously, knowing that you liked this styleguide is already much appreciated!

Sass break

Sass break

Sass break is a humble new blog for the Sass community. It’s currently maintained and curated by David Conner and Guil Hernandez.

Sass tutorials on Sitepoint

Sass tutorials on Sitepoint

Sass News

Sass News

Sass News is a weekly newsletter edited, curated and published by Stu Robson.

Sass Tutorials from LevelUp

Sass Tutorials from LevelUp

Sass tutorials from Tuts+

Sass tutorials from Tuts+

Sass Reference

Sass Reference

An attempt at making Sass more approachable by providing short yet insightful entries for all buzzwords.

Getting Started with Sass by ZURB

Getting Started with Sass

Sass is a superset of CSS that adds in amazing features such as variables, nested selectors and loops. It’s also the easiest way to customize Foundation! Learn the fastest and easiest way to get your Foundation 5 projects installed and updated.

Assembling Sass course

Assembling Sass course

Learn Sass and start improving your front-end CSS workflow. Try Sass on large-scale applications for efficient, time-saving styling.

Getting Started with Sass (with interactive examples)

Getting Started with SASS (with interactive examples)

Have you always wanted to learn Sass, but never quite made your move? Are you a Sass user, but feel like you could use a brush up? Well then read on, because today we are going to review the features of Sass and some of the cool things you can do with it.

Sass for Beginners

Sass for Beginners

Learning Sass with CodePen, Part One

Learning Sass with CodePen, Part One

The greatest challenge for most developers to learning Sass isn’t the concept of preprocessors, or the language itself, but the hoops that must be jumped through to get it up and running.

Those comfortable with the command line can get things going fairly easily, and tools like CodeKit help immensely, but that still leaves many designer-developers who might otherwise become Sass aficionados intimidated by change, wary of paying for a new tool, or simply overwhelmed at the prospect of changing their entire workflow.

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Impressive Looking Websites From UK

United Kingdom has one of the most powerful economy in the world and, not at all surprising, this also translates in having a lot of top level professionals in all its industries.

One of these industries is web design, the one that we’re interested in, and the one where we see a lot of skillfully executed projects that we can only admire.

In this article you will see websites created by UK designers or websites of companies based in UK, websites that value UX and also good design.

GoCardless

gocardless.com

GoCardless makes it easy to accept recurring payments online. We unify the world’s Direct Debit networks, simplify them, and open up access to everyone. By doing so, we are creating an entirely new type of payment network.

Skimlinks

skimlinks.com

Skimlinks creates native monetization solutions for publishers, rewarding them for any e-commerce they drive by automatically turning product links and references into trackable affiliate links.

Brainient

Brainient

Brainient gives clients the tools to create rich, engaging and interactive video formats which can be delivered across a range of devices and reported on in real time. The only interactive video solutions provider able to run campaigns across all UK broadcasters, Brainient has recently expanded its operation into other European markets.

Doctify

Doctify

Doctify connects you to the best doctors and health professionals. Browse amongst more than 3,000 healthcare professionals: From GPs to consultants to physiotherapists, Doctify provides you with a UK directory for private healthcare!

Geckoboard

Geckoboard

We’re here to get meaningful metrics in front of you and help you make sense of it all. But we’re more than a bunch of numbers on a pretty screen. We’re here to eliminate the noise and place the right data in front of the right people.

Qubit

Qubit

Qubit offers a blank canvas for businesses to deliver their big ideas. Whether it’s acting on data science or creating highly targeted personalizations, we fuel innovation and ensure marketers are able to meet the demands of today’s consumer.

Neverbland

Neverbland

Neverbland is a team of designers, developers and doers. Specialists in user experience, interaction design and product development. Having earned our spurs developing startups, we understand the importance of simple, elegant solutions and quick releases; matching beautiful aesthetic to functional design.

TransferWise

TransferWise

TransferWise lets expats, foreign students and businesses move money globally. The firm’s pricing and operating model are a substantial departure from standard practice in the money transfer sector, providing customers with a lower-cost alternative to traditional means of moving money internationally.

YPlan

YPlan

They uncover the best events every day so you can get out and Live Your City. Get the lowdown on cool dates, hidden culture and where to hang with friends. Discover, book, go – it’s that simple. Flash your YPlan ticket and you’re in.

Powered Now

Powered Now

Award winning invoice app for small businesses, tradesmen, contractors and self employed professionals. Manage your business from your iPad and iPhone.

Hailo

Hailo

At Hailo, they help remove some of the everyday hassles that slow you down. With their easy-to-use app, passengers get a taxi or licensed car in two quick taps, while drivers earn more money more efficiently.

Affinity

Affinity

Built exclusively for Mac with the power and sophistication the platform offers, and driven by creative designers from the outset, Affinity is the new name in high quality, next-generation design apps for professionals.

Stockflare

Stockflare

They are a team with a wide range of experience, condensed into one goal: making investing simple. Based in London, their view of the world and finance is global. They can’t afford to be any other way.

Force24

asdasdasdas

Their mission is to take the pain out of marketing automation. To give back marketers the power to be strategic. To do their jobs and do them well. To reduce admin. To ease stress. To irradicate the pain of on-boarding a marketing automation solution.

Woodbuds

Woodbuds

Founded by Friends. Naturally crafted colorful wood earphones. Designed to make a difference.

Talk PR

Talk PR

Talk PR is a global communications consultancy that focuses on building Rewarding Relationships – between their clients and their audiences, between brands and consumers, between their teams and their clients, between their international network partners, and amongst a host of influencers and taste-makers who help them drive our clients’ businesses.

Fabrik

Fabrik

Designed especially for creatives, Fabrik makes it really easy for you to create professional websites that showcase your work.

Gravita

Gravita

They started with one simple intention; create a collaborative environment like no other. No company or agency bullshit, just a focus on human centered design to surface the best ideas.

UpDroid

UpDroid

UpDroid is a tech company with the vision to jump-start the personal robotics industry.

We Are Shepherd

We Are Shepherd

Sassi Holford

Sassi Holford

A designer, an innovator, a wife, a mother, a businesswoman and an inspiration. Add to that her absolute attention to detail and uncompromising eye for quality and you have a true original. All these roles in life contribute to the Sassi Holford who is passionate about design and who implicitly understands the importance of the gown to the bride.

Savse Smoothies

Savse Smoothies

Den

Den

Switches today are dated, they need a fresh look with modern integrated technology. These guys have partnered with several game changing companies to get the Den range off the ground, however they need your help to take it to market. Their goal for Den is to become the next standard in home automation, and be used in every home and business.

Another Escape

Another Escape

Another Escape is an outdoor lifestyle and creative culture publication that explores the stories of passionate people and the motivations behind their inspirational lifestyles.

FS Millbank

FS Millbank

FS Millbank is a distinctive wayfinding and signage typeface from leading type foundry Fontsmith.

Range Rover Body Kits

Range Rover Body Kits

BrightByte Studio

BrightByte Studio

At BrightByte Studio they encourage their whole team of designers and engineers to get involved with all aspects of decision making so that each project benefits from collective creative input.

Female Designers Whose Work You Should Follow

Men have always been perceived as being a the forefront of design, but despite media coverage, women are starting to get more and more involved in this industry.

They can code, design and are slowly but surely becoming the face of upcoming design trends. While their numbers in these fields still fall short of guys’, they are expected to be at increase dramatically within the next few years.

And let’s face it, women have always been seen as hard workers and that’s more prevailing in design than any other field. They are capable of innovating web design, creating beautiful websites, apps and illustrations that are beautiful and functional.

You will notice this too if you browse enough through Dribbble, Behance and other communities for designers. To prove my point, I have compiled a list of female designers whose work we should follow.

It’s very likely that I could have missed a designer or two. If you think there’s a good designer that isn’t already in this list, let me know. I’m only human, I can’t browse the whole internet.

Rachel Wright

Rachel Wright

Rachel is a graphic designer with a love of typography and illustration. As a Massachusetts native, she attended Boston College and received a bachelor’s degree in Communication with a concentration in Studio Art. She is am currently working and living in the Boston area.

Irina Blok

Irina Blok

Entrepreneur at heart, Irina runs Creative Blok, a little apparel design company inspired by what’s happening in the world today. Products include a collection of fashionable surgical masks, humorous jewelry and funemployed pins.

Linda Eliasen

Linda Eliasen

Linda Eliasen is a design lady at Dropbox, making complex and tricky tech-stuff feel warm, understandable, and fuzzy.

Jessica Ko

Jessica Ko

UX designer with strong programming background in front end & iOS (JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3, Objective C). 9+ years front-end programming and designing experiences. Extensive mobile, tablet and desktop user research experience

Julia Khusainova

Julia Khusainova

Human interface designer mainly focused on wireframing and designing clean, modern and usable interfaces for mobile platforms. Photographer.

Anna Paschenko

Anna Paschenko

Elena Lazutina

Elena Lazutina

Sheree Hannah

Sheree Hannah

Melbourne based Digital Designer and Art Director hailing from the school of keep it simple.

Megan Fox

Megan Fox

Lea Verou

Lea Verou

Lea is a computer scientist, web standards geek, front-end developer, web designer, speaker, author, originally from Greece. She’s currently a Research Assistant at MIT CSAIL, in David Karger’s Haystack group and an Invited Expert in the W3C CSS Working Group.

Sara Soueidan

Sara Soueidan

An award-winning independent front-end web developer, writer and speaker from Lebanon. I work with companies across the globe, delivering websites for small and medium businesses, as well as work as an outsourcing partner to various web and design agencies.

Rachel Robertson

Rachel Robertson

Mary Kate McDevitt

Mary Kate McDevitt

Mary Kate McDevitt is a letterer and illustrator living and “letterstrating” in Philadelphia, PA. Mary Kate graduated from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia with a degree in Graphic Design and Illustration in 2007.

Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische is a letterer, illustrator, and crazy cat lady known for her silly side projects and occasional foul mouth, as she describes it humorously.

Kate Ferrara

Kate Ferrara

Eva Galesloot

Eva Galesloot

Eva Galesloot is a freelance illustrator (and sometimes animator) based in the Netherlands. She graduated from the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam in 2009 with a major in illustration. Aside from watching cartoons, reading picture books and talking about herself in the third person Eva likes to create illustrations; often filled with all sorts of creatures and characters.

Sarah Rose Bina

Sarah Rose Bina

She’s an Oklahoma native who rolled into the Nashville scene a few years ago. She loves creating things. Especially things a user can experience, look through and peel apart. She currently works as an Art Director and Graphic Designer at an advertising agency called redpepper.

Ludmila Shevchenko

Ludmila Shevchenko

Hannah Peckham

Hannah Peckham

She is a graduate from Rochester Institute of Technology in the New Media Design program. Specialties: UX/UI, visual design, typography, web/mobile, storytelling, photography, creative thinking, & continuing to learn. She loves design, baking, and traveling.

Irina Veter

Irina Veter

Sarah Kaiser

Sarah Kaiser

Sarah is a UI designer and illustrator employed in Boston. She enjoys painting, sculpting, sewing, and generally making a mess of things, as she puts it.

Sabrina Smelko

Sabrina Smelko

She is an illustrator, designer and green thumb from Milton, Ontario. She works with clients who share my passion for collaboration, creative exploration and executing what’s right for each project.

Jan Cavan Boulas

Jan Cavan Boulas

Jessica Libby

Jessica Libby

Catherine Lo

Catherine Lo

She is a Creative Designer in New York City experienced in art direction, UI/UX, product and web design.

Larisa Iskritskaya

Larisa Iskritskaya

Jessica Ciccolone

Jessica Ciccolone

Jen Serafini

Jen Serafini

Rita Konik

Rita Konik

Claire Paoletti

Claire Paoletti

Julia Mattos

Julia Mattos

Julia Mattos is a UI/UX Designer. Her specialty is to design interfaces for web and mobile platforms as well as graphics, icons and illustrations related to these interfaces. She loves beautiful, simple and consistent design.

Irina Kolosovskaya

Irina Kolosovskaya

Maria Shanina

Maria Shanina

Linn Fritz

Linn Fritz

Marine Legrand

Marine Legrand

Meagan Fisher

Meagan Fisher

Rita Petrilli

Rita Petrilli

Veerle Pieters

Veerle Pieters

Kate Whitley

Kate Whitley

Rachel Dangerfield

Rachel Dangerfield

Maria Clara Irisarri

Maria Clara Irisarri

Ashley Jones

Ashley Jones

Ashley Jones was born and educated in Toronto, Canada. After graduating university and completing an internship at AR New York, she gained experience at design firms and e-commerce start-ups before accepting a position as Interactive Designer at RoAndCo.

Eva-Lotta Lamm

Eva-Lotta Lamm

Eva-Lotta Lamm is a designer doing mainly web and interface design but enjoying graphic design and illustration work as well.

Maria Grønlund

Maria Grønlund

She’s a graphic designer with specialty in branding, corporate identity, digital art, design, and colors. She also creates company names, product names and slogans. She loves to play around with words, colors, shapes, and styles to make all the aspects play together like music.

Claire Coullon

Claire Coullon

Rachel Cope

Rachel Cope

She’s a UX and product designer at thoughtbot in Denver who loves human psychology, beauty, and rendering the abstract concrete.

Rachel Tribout

Rachel Tribout

She’s a freelance illustrator and designer based in Tasmania. She works for various businesses and non–profit organizations, and she collaborates with design studios on all kinds of projects.

Megan Sornson

Megan Sornson

Alina Ivanova

Alina Ivanova

Irina Stepanova

Irina Stepanova

Beatrice Law

Beatrice Law

Melissa Hie

Melissa Hie

She’s a Singapore-based UX designer who understands the entire website development process, from wireframing to front-end coding. She has worked in agency and client-side with experience on B2C and B2B brands.

Manoela Ilic

Manoela Ilic