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Showing posts from November, 2019

WebVR Part 3: Unlocking the Potential of WebAssembly and AssemblyScript

What if you could incorporate clever features from other programming languages for your JavaScript project, without too much hassle? That is the general idea behind WebAssembly. In Part 3 of our WebVR series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Michael Cole introduces you to WebAssembly and AssemblyScript, outlining how they can be harnessed to create a browser-backend for web apps.

Using Pretotypes to Support a Business Case

Concept pretotypes facilitate the creation of small-scale tests to verify basic assumptions about a project business case. Pretotyping can save hours of work during implementation and determine the success of a project.

Seller's Market - Financial Due Diligence Questions to Ask

How can you easily assess whether your business is ready for sale? Key questions need to be answered to make the sales process as smooth as possible. A checklist can help managers prepare.

The Higher Ground – A Guide to Design Ethics

An ethical approach to design is built on questions, not preconceived notions of right and wrong. But what questions should we ask, and how do we classify our answers?

Financial Forecasting When Modeling with Missing Data

A financial forecast is a map that leads investors to the end goal. Most forecasts fail because they assume the ability to capture a market without detailing the assumptions to get them there. Startup financial models must be granular, with no missing steps from points A to Z.

WebVR Part 2: Web Workers and Browser Edge Computing

WebVR is bringing virtual reality to our browsers, but how do we make sure we have enough computing power to deliver a good experience? How do we make the most of multi-core, hyperthreaded processors? In part two of our series, Toptal Full-stack Developer Michael Cole explains the basics of browser edge computing and the role of web workers.

Tips and Considerations When Choosing a Typeface (with Infographic)

The right typeface can make a design, while the wrong one can definitely break it. There are a few things designers can keep in mind to make typeface selection easier and more focused.

Haxe Review: Haxe 4 Features and Strengths

The quietly growing number of serious Haxe projects have something new to contend with: the first major compiler release in over three years. What does Haxe 4 bring to the table?

Recreate a Free Bloomberg Terminal – Resources for Finance Consultants

We polled our network of finance experts to find out how they access Bloomberg terminal quality data without paying $25,000. One website we uncovered looks and feels exactly like FactSet—and costs nothing.

The Complete Guide to Cross-cultural Design

Cross-cultural design is not a walk in the park. To be effective, designers need to consider not only language differences, but cultural tendencies, values, customs, and taboos.

WebVR and the Browser Edge Computing Revolution

Virtual Reality (VR) is making inroads into various industries but is not mainstream yet. WebVR and edge computing have the potential to boost adoption and bring VR to a wider audience. In this series of articles, Toptal Full-stack Developer Michael Cole introduces you to the basics of WebVR and edge computing, complete with elaborate examples.

Influencing the Influencers: Analyst Firms

No technology company, whether early-stage or well-established, can escape noticing the immense impact analyst firms have on both customers and market. Influencing the influencers is part of a product management strategy.

Designed, Sealed, Delivered – The Power of Logo Package Express

We test the limits of Logo Package Express, a tool that claims to name, save, and organize every file needed for a logo package in under two minutes.

Optimizing Website Performance and Critical Rendering Path

Does your web page’s rendering performance meet today’s standards? Bad rendering performance can translate into a relatively high bounce rate. In this article, Toptal Freelance Web Developer Ilya Chernov explores the things that can lead to high rendering times, and how to fix them.

Choosing a Tech Stack Alternative - The Ups and Downs

If a web application is big and old enough, there may come a time when you need to break it down into smaller, isolated parts and extract services from it. Some of these will be more independent than others. In this post, Toptal Full-stack Developer Viktar Basharymau explains how his team extracted an app from the monolithic Rails application that powers Toptal, and how the new service's technical stack was selected.

State of the Remote Workforce 2019

Staffing platforms offer talent on-demand, yet 75% of organizations say accessing quality talent is a top 3 concern. Our State of the Remote Workforce Report investigates the forces affecting the industry and the key ways talent providers and organizations need to adapt to the future of work.

Valuation Ratios: The Key Metrics Finance Experts Need To Know

Not sure when to use which valuation ratio for which situation? In this article, we’ll delve into the must-know metrics and provide heuristics of when to use which measure.

Toptal Design Blog Color of the Year 2020

The Toptal Design Blog’s Color of the Year 2020 aims to bring hope and positivity to the coming year, while also helping designers (and those they design for) connect with nature and stay grounded.

Maintain Control: A Guide to Webpack and React, Pt. 1

When starting a new React project, you have many templates to choose from. These templates are able to support application development at a very large scale. But they leave the developer experience and bundle output saddled with various defaults, which may not be ideal.