Nicholas Zakas
Understanding ECMAScript 6

ECMAScript 6, aka ES6, is the 6th edition of ECMAScript specification. Released in 2015, ES6 adds many new features for writing complex web applications:

1. Classes and Modules
2. Promises
3. Arrow Functions
4. Symbols
5. Sets and Maps
6. Iterators and Generators
7. Proxies and Reflection

For a number of years, I felt uncertain about building high-complexity JavaScript applications. Even best examples lacked organizational and interface clarity and testability and often produced unintentional side-effects. ES6 is a giant step forward in allowing developers create clean and intention-revealing JavaScript code.

Today, ES6 has become the foundation for building modern web applications. Understanding ES6 is now essential for all web developers. Nicholas' book will help you get started. It is well organized, easy-to-read, and especially well-suited for developers with previous ECMAScript 5 experience. Each chapter highlights the problem addressed by ES6, demonstrates what had to be done previously in ECMAScript 5, and how the code changes in ES6.

This is a great ES6 book. Find it on LeanPub. Happy reading!

Nir Eyal
Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

Easy-to-read, insightful, and practical book on the Hook Model, a 4-step process to build customer habits. Habit-forming products have competitive advantage since the first-to-mind solution typically wins.

Nir's Hook Model consists of 4 stages:

1. Trigger
2. Action
3. Variable Reward
4. Investment

Triggers activate behaviors. They can be external, such as email, or internal that emerge inside users' minds. Triggers reduce the thinking required to take the next step.

Actions are behaviors done in anticipation of the reward. Nir provides the following formula: B=MAT

1. The user must have sufficient Motivation
2. The user must have the Ability to complete the desired action.
3. A Trigger must be present to activate the behavior.

Variable Reward rewards users by solving their problem. It creates desire. Nir idenitifies 3 types of rewards:

1. Tribe (social rewards)
2. Hunt (the need to acquire physical objects)
3. Self (intrinsic motivation)

Investment increases chances that users will keep using the product and start another Hook cycle. The more users invest their time and effort into a product, the more they value it.

I highly recommend Nir's book to anyone involved with product design and development. The book provides a structured framework for how to build successful products and includes many useful tips and insightful examples. Happy reading!

Screen your job candidates and challenge your team members with IT Skill Assessment. Or, test your own knowledge and prepare for an important interview. IT Skill Assessment covers a wide variety of topics: ASP.NET MVC, C#, CSS, HTML, iBatis, JavaScript, LaTeX, Objective-C, SASS, Selenium, Silverlight, SQL, WPF, and others. New quizzes are added monthly. Includes free HTML5 quiz.

What's New in Version 2.7

1. Multi-Level Quizzes. Sharpen your skills with multiple levels of difficulty.
2. Timer. Race against time while answering challenging questions.
3. Detailed scoring. See what is going on inside your points.
4. Lifelines. Use Time Freezer and Time Extender when in time trouble. Use Extra Life and 50/50 when you need help with an answer.
5. Game Center Leaderboards. See how you rank among all users or your friends.
6. Game Center Achievements. Earn coveted achievements: Perfectionist, Genius, and Savant.
7. Integration with Facebook. Invite and challenge your friends or share your quiz results.
8. Bonus Lifelines. Earn daily lifeline when you login. Get additional lifelines when you earn achievements.
9. Quiz Preview. Take a peek inside the quiz before downloading it.
10. Configuration. Decide whether you want timer and lifelines available and at which levels.
11. Improved User Interface and Usability.Invite your Facebook friends, configure timer and lifelines, and check out our new IT quizzes.

This is a big update. I hope you get a chance to check it out. Happy quizzing!

Version 2.7 of Educational Quizzes by modelUS is live. Happy quizzing!

To help new and potential immigrants prepare for the U.S. Naturalization Civics test, we added it to the collection of Education Quizzes. Enjoy!

Version 2.5 of Educational Quizzes by modelUS is live. Invite your Facebook friends, configure timer and lifelines, and check out our new math quizzes. Happy quizzing!

The vast majority of employees worldwide are actively disengaged at work. Only 13% are engaged, according to the Gallup's State of the Global Workplace report. As a result, employees are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less productive.  This affects productivity, profitability, customer satisfaction, employee turnover, morale, and even safety incidents.

Understand and use your Talents and Skills

The report provides insights into what your company can do today to accelerate Employee Engagement. The authors emphasize the need to effectively understand and use your people’s Talents, Skills, and Energy. Gallup’s research highlights the role of a manager in their employees’ engagement levels. It emphasizes the need to coach managers and hold them accountable for their employees’ engagement. This is the focus of Modelus Talent.

Talent helps you engage, motivate, and involve your team. It allows your employees to understand how they can be the most efficient and how they can bring the most value to your organization. It indicates which capabilities are important today and what you need to work on for tomorrow. It helps your employees find the right team within your organization, where they can make the best use of their talents and achieve the biggest growth.

Hold your managers accountable for Engagement

Modelus Talent streamlines Hiring and Management practices to accelerate Employee Growth and Engagement. Get ahead of your competition today. Connect with us at info@modelus.com to learn how to build a highly engaged workplace with Modelus Talent.

We published a new marketing video for Educational Quizzes by modelUS. Enjoy!

Our 20/20 Education app has been renamed as "Educational Quizzes by modelUS". Find it on iTunes - Educational Quizzes on iTunes. Happy learning and playing!