GCHQ gives you homework in its 2015 Christmas card

Keen codebreakers can have a crack at a brainteaser this festive season in the form of a Christmas card challenge set by GCHQ’s director Robert Hannigan. The traditional grid-shading puzzle invites those who dare (or care) to fill in the squares black or leave them white depending on the pattern indicated by the numbers on each column and row. Each number indicates there should be a black square, with at least one white one left in between. Some have already been filled in to give you a head start. Once you’ve filled in all the squares, the image you’re left with leads…

This story continues at The Next Web

from The Next Web » UK http://thenextweb.com/uk/2015/12/10/gchq-gives-you-homework-in-its-2015-christmas-card/

Free e-Book: Web UI Design for the Human Eye

Long before the Internet, scientists have been unraveling the mysteries and peculiarities of human sight. As a visual medium, web design has only to gain from their discoveries.

Aside from simply knowing their craft, designers can mine a variety of practical applications from the study of human sight. In the realm of visual hierarchy alone, knowing how to implement size, spacing, and contrast can influence the order elements are seen and the how important they appear.

Colors, too, are a powerful tool in the hands of those that use them. With each color evoking different feelings (orange for playfulness, blue for trust, etc.), designers can quantitatively construct the right emotional atmosphere for their project. Even the way in which different colors are combined changes their effects.

Source: Fanta

UXPin collects the most helpful resources on human sight for web design, and compiled them into their e-book series Web UI Design for the Human Eye. The guide describes practical techniques with visual case studies from 33 companies like Google, Bose, Intercom, Medium, Tumblr, and others.

Volume 1, downloaded by almost 40,000 people this year, covers advanced topics such as the use of spacing, the emotional affects of colors, and the principles of Gestalt (an early 1900s movement analyzing visual phenomena).

It’s not enough that people see your site — what matter is how they see your site.

Check out the free guide and let us know what you think in the comments.

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/free-e-book-web-ui-design-for-the-human-eye

The “Better Than Christmas Morning” Winter Design Bundle

Ho, ho, HO-LY MOLY! That's a lot of design goodies.

There's enough stress during the holidays over what presents to buy for others, or whether or not your Christmas bonus is going to cover all your gift expenses. Not to mention, as a designer, everyone and their mother comes to you for that last minute, custom Christmas card for their dear aunt Sally.

You've worked hard to make everyone elses holidays special. Now it's time to treat yourself.

This collection contains thousands of creative goodies, like vectors, layer styles, textures, patterns, PSD templates, and much more. They are perfect for seasonal designs, not just this year, but each and every year to come. Many of the items in this bundle can even be used year round.

The best part is that this deal includes extended licensing, so you can use these items in designs you create for resale!

If you bought all of these items individually, you'd have to pay $1,342. For a very limited time, you can grab everything from MyDesignDeals for just $29. That's 98% off the regular price.

The MyDesignDeals team scoured the internet all year to put together a bundle better than Christmas morning itself, so make sure you grab it now before it's gone forever.

Grab This Mega Christmas and Winter Bundle Now

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/the-better-than-christmas-morning-winter-design-bundle

Jetpack’s Photon Now Supports WebP Images

Introduced by Google, WebP is an image format that provides lossless and lossy compression for images on the web. WebP images are considered to be nearly 26% smaller in size as compared to PNGs, and as much as 25%-34% smaller as compared to JPEGs.

Recently, Photon, the image service module provided by the popular Jetpack plugin for self-hosted WordPress websites, decided to offer support for the WebP image format.

Since Photon is primarily used by website owners to serve images using WordPress.com cloud infrastructure, thereby saving the host website’s bandwidth and improving the overall loading times, WebP format is especially beneficial since offers smaller file sizes than both PNG and JPG, and can result in faster website performance.

By default, Photon will be compressing WebP images at the high quality settings. However, it must be noted that since many web browsers still do not support WebP image format, Photon will auto-detect the visitor’s web browser, and then pick the ideal image format, size and compression for better performance.

Jetpack is actively used by several WordPress websites, and the Photon module is a very useful feature as it provides CDN-like service for free. Since images form the bulk of content on most websites, serving them via Photon can improve overall website performance. As of now, WebP image format is not the most popular one out there, but for web browsers that do support WebP images, Photon will be able to serve images even faster.

To learn more about the WebP image format, check this out; and you can also go through the comparative study between WebP and JPEG image formats. Alternatively, if you are a Photon user, simply head to the Jetpack Settings section to learn more about how Photon will work with WebP images.

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/jetpack-photon-supports-webp-images

WordPress 4.4 “Clifford” Has Been Released

WordPress 4.4, nicknamed "Clifford" after the famous Jazz trumpeter Clifford Brown, is now available for download. This latest version of WordPress comes with several new features, such as support for responsive images, better embeds, a new default theme, and various other improvements.

WordPress 4.4 now supports srcset, which allows it to detect and display the ideal image size on the basis of the user's screen resolution. As such, responsive images are now implemented in WordPress 4.4 with no further tweaking or configuration required.

Plus, you can also embed content from other WordPress sites directly on-page, much like you'd embed a tweet or a YouTube video. Learn more about this feature here.

As always, this major release of WordPress comes with a new default theme of its own -- Twenty Sixteen. It is a minimal and clean theme, primarily meant for bloggers, with a right sidebar by default.

However, the biggest and most noteworthy change that WordPress 4.4 brings to the table is the fact that it comes bundled with the first half of the REST API. If you are a plugin or theme author, you can start implementing REST API immediately, and read more about the implementation here.

WordPress 4.4 comes with several other new features as well, such as:

• WordPress Multisite has a new class called WP_Network, that makes it easier to use it across multiple networks.
• The WP_Comments component has been rebuilt. Now, the comment field will display first, followed by name, email and website. Earlier, users were shown the name, email and website fields before the comment field.
• The headings hierarchy has been restored for admin screens.
• Unattached media attachments can now have pretty permalinks.
• While it was previously assumed that WordPress 4.4 will deprecate WP_Title, it is no longer the case and WP_Title is still the recommended method of inserting title tags in WordPress themes.

To learn more about WordPress 4.4, check out this video:

WordPress 4.4 is the last major release of this year, and it brings several new features to the table. Have you updated your websites yet? Be sure to share your feedback in the comments below.

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/wordpress-4-4-released

Web Design Inspiration: Merry Quizmas

The idea of Daniel Blaser and coded by Tad Thorley, Merry Quizmas is a delightful design made to be much more than fun design, it is also the ultimate challenge! The website is designed as a quiz game that test you on multiple holidays, pop-culture references.

When landing on the page the quiz begin, you are shown 60 different character illustration in a pleasant flat design. They are are very well done! We commend illustrator James Kenison on his illustration skills. Each of the characters is taken from different holiday entertainment references. You then have to identify the character either by name, source material. You will then be provided a score according to how well you did. The scores range from 0-10: Holiday Chump, lowest or 60: Grand Tinsel-Covered Viceroy of the Holidays, the highest possible score. Get inspired and get in the holiday spirit by testing your holiday knowledge on Merry Quizmas.

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/web-design-inspiration-merry-quizmas

Christmas & Winter Design Bundle Savings

Just in time for the Holidays and the Winter season, get these amazing design elements for a fraction of the price.

Snow generator text is 71% off. Lets you easily create 3D style typography with a snow and Ice texture. The pack comes with a PSD file, snow background, brushes, overlays and much more!Accompany your designs with a little Christmas cheer using these Christmas & New Year vector collection. A bundle of 120 high-quality vector illustrations created in modern design styles. Great holiday themes elements for Christmas retail sale design, holiday cards, and other personal projects.Don’t wait, these deals are available for a very limited time! Get them today!

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from Web Design Ledger http://webdesignledger.com/christmas-winter-design-bundle-savings