Search from the Windows Command Prompt

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The FIND Command

To search for text in multiple files from the Windows command prompt or batch files, you can use the FIND command, which has been present since the days of MS DOS and is still available in Windows 11. It's similar to the Unix grep command, but does not support regular expressions. If you want to search for the word borogoves in the current directory, please follow this syntax:

find "borogoves" *

Note that the double quotes around the pattern are mandatory. If you are using PowerShell, you will need to include single quotes as well:

5 various Do’s and Don’ts meant for Effective Web based Meetings

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Virtual meetings have many benefits, which includes cost savings and productivity results. However , they can also be useless and effective online meetings frustrating in the event the participants are certainly not engaged. Here are a few simple do’s and don’ts to ensure successful online group meetings. Online getting together with attendees should be provided …

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Retro CSS Text Effect: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

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CSS offers an array of tools that, when used correctly, can improve the visual experience on your website. In this tutorial, we’ll explore a straightforward way to design a retro text effect with pure CSS. The approach, while not overly complex, yields a visually appealing result and serves as a foundation for further customization.

The HTML Setup

We’ll begin with our markup, containing the text we’ll be styling – “1stWebDesigner“.

<div class=”retro-text”> 1stWebDesigner</div>

The div class .retro-text will be the hook for our CSS styling.

Designing the Retro Style with CSS

Next, let’s move on to our CSS file to create the retro text effect.

@import url(‘https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Lobster+Two:wght@700&display=swap’);

body {
background: #6868AC; /* Retro background color */
}

.retro-text {
font-family: ‘Lobster Two’, serif; /* Stylish, retro font */
font-size: 10vw; /* Responsive font size */
position: relative; /* Enables use of z-index */
color: #F9f1cc; /* Primary color of the text */
text-shadow: -2px 2px 0 #FFB650, /* Orange shadow */
-4px 4px 0 #FF80BF, /* Pink shadow */
-6px 6px 0 #6868AC; /* Dark blue shadow */
transform: skewX(-10deg); /* Skew the text on the X-axis */
transition: all 0.5s ease; /* Smooth transition for hover effects */
z-index: 2; /* Ensures text is layered above any potential background or border */
}

.retro-text:hover {
color: #FFFFFF; /* Brighter color on hover */
font-size: 15vw; /* Slightly larger text on hover */
text-shadow: -2px 2px 0 #FFC162, /* Brighter orange shadow on hover */
-4px 4px 0 #FF92D0, /* Brighter pink shadow on hover */
-6px 6px 0 #8888D3; /* Brighter blue shadow on hover */
}

To explain our CSS setup:

font-family: ‘Lobster Two’, serif;: We’re using Lobster Two, a stylish retro font.
font-size: 10vw;: Sets a responsive font size that adapts to the viewport width.
position: relative;: The relative positioning is necessary for the use of the z-index property.
color: #F9f1cc;: This determines the primary color of the text. Here, we’re using #F9f1cc, a light cream color.
text-shadow: -2px 2px 0 #FFB650, -4px 4px 0 #FF80BF, -6px 6px 0 #6868AC;: Three layers of text-shadow (orange, pink, and dark blue) are added, creating a 3D effect that enhances the retro feel.
transform: skewX(-10deg);: The text is skewed on the X-axis to add a dynamic touch.
transition: all 0.5s ease;: Smooth transition for hover effects.
z-index: 2;: A z-index of 2 ensures the text is always layered above any potential background or border.
:hover: The hover state includes a brighter color, slightly larger text size, and brighter shadows.

The Result

Here’s how the above code renders:

See the Pen
Retro CSS Text Effects by 1stWebDesigner (@firstwebdesigner)
on CodePen.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, CSS provides numerous opportunities to enhance your design. Using our retro text effect as a launching pad, you could experiment with further tweaks like altering text shadows, adjusting opacities or incorporating gradient backgrounds to intensify the retro vibe.

However, it’s crucial to remember the function of your text. The aim is to create a visually engaging site while maintaining readability. This is particularly important when using viewport units like vw for font sizes, which we used in our example. These units allow your text to adjust with the viewport size, ensuring a responsive design.

Yet, care is required. In some contexts, such as headings, vw units could cause your text to appear disproportionately large or small. To prevent this, consider using a mix of viewport and fixed units like em or rem, or setting max/min font sizes with media queries. Always remember: while design is important, it should never compromise the user’s ability to comfortably read and understand your content.

So, whether you’re introducing new elements, tweaking existing ones, or harnessing advanced techniques, every step you take helps you create unique styles that reflect your design aspirations.

Conducting UX Surveys: A Practical Guide

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UX surveys can be pivotal tools for designers seeking to understand user preferences, opinions, and behaviors. They foster alignment between design strategies and user expectations and can improve product or service usability. Our overview unravels the process of conducting UX surveys, highlighting how both quantitative and qualitative approaches can yield essential user insights.

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Conducting UX Surveys: Their Role and Execution

UX surveys serve as channels to collect insights directly from users about a product or service. They come in various forms, from online questionnaires to in-person discussions. These surveys aim to acquire both qualitative and quantitative data about user satisfaction, ease of use, and areas of potential improvement.

Conducting UX surveys follows a structured process. You begin by setting clear goals, and deciding what you aim to learn from the users. Then, you design a set of questions that invite insightful and actionable responses. Following the data collection, the task of data interpretation begins, leading to design changes that respond to the user’s needs.

Quantitative vs Qualitative: A Balancing Act

Quantitative surveys are useful when your goal is to collect numerical data. These types of surveys are great for tracking metrics such as usage frequency, user demographics, or user preferences. They offer the advantage of capturing data from a large audience, which can then be statistically analyzed to discern broader patterns and trends.

However, qualitative surveys offer something different. They are used when you want to dive deeper into the user’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Crucially, open-ended questions are the cornerstone of qualitative surveys, encouraging users to express their opinions freely. Although they might not yield broad statistical data, qualitative surveys provide detailed, nuanced information that can be invaluable for your design process.

Effective UX Survey: The Practical Steps

A well-designed UX survey is a careful process, requiring both strategic thinking and an empathetic understanding of your users. We’ll observe some of the indispensable steps that can guide your survey creation.

Objective Setting

Every UX survey must start with clear objectives. Whether you’re seeking to understand user behavior, assess user satisfaction, or gather feedback on a new feature, defining these goals will steer the development of your survey. It influences the kind of questions you will ask, the selection of respondents, and even the choice of the survey method. Clear goals ensure the collected data is genuinely useful and purpose-driven for your design strategy.

Drafting and Revision

The initial draft of your survey questions serves as a blueprint that should ideally be subjected to a review process. Don’t hesitate to involve your team, respected peers, or mentors in refining the questions. Their feedback will help eliminate ambiguities, prevent biased questions, and ensure the questionnaire resonates with your target audience.

Choosing the Right Platform

Selecting the most suitable platform for your UX survey significantly affects response rates and data quality. The nature of your survey – whether it’s a quick poll, an in-depth questionnaire, or an interactive survey – plays a huge role in this decision. Other factors to consider include the complexity of your survey, the technical competency of your target demographic, the platform’s user-friendliness on various devices, its visual appeal, and cost-effectiveness.

Question Design

The construction of your questions can be vital for the insights you gather. Close-ended questions, such as multiple-choice or Likert scale items, provide structured responses that are easier to analyze and compare. Meanwhile, open-ended questions encourage users to express their thoughts freely, providing deeper context and insight into their experiences. The key is to strike a balance: ask specific, direct questions to capture hard data, and open-ended ones to allow space for unexpected but valuable feedback.

Strategic Question Ordering

The placement of questions in your survey requires careful thought. Given the reality that some respondents will not complete the entire survey, it’s practical to position the most critical questions at the beginning. With this, you can somewhat secure the most valuable data, regardless of whether the user completes the entire questionnaire. Still, ensure a natural flow that doesn’t feel abrupt to the participant.

Testing the Waters

Prior to a full-scale launch of the survey, it’s beneficial to conduct a pilot test with a smaller, yet representative, sample of your user base. This approach allows for the identification and rectification of any potential issues – from ambiguous questions and technical glitches to unexpectedly long completion times. Moreover, pilot testing provides an opportunity to assess the survey’s ease and relevance, ensuring that the final version is as refined as possible before it reaches all users.

Wrapping Up

UX surveys can yield valuable user perspectives, but they should be seen as guides rather than definitive decision-makers in design choices.

Additionally, remember that a survey is a time commitment for your users. Avoid deterring completion or introducing response bias by overloading it with questions. Aim for a concise, engaging survey with a balance of question types.

Instead of duplicating data from analytics, use surveys to uncover user motivations, thoughts, and feelings that analytics can’t capture.

Lastly, consider both the user experience and your analysis capabilities when formatting questions. Open-ended questions offer rich insights but can overwhelm users and complicate analysis. Pilot-test these questions and refine them based on feedback. Some may work better as closed-ended questions for easier response and analysis.

For additional insights on managing broader yet valuable UX aspects, such as minimizing decision fatigue, feel free to check out this article.