There are 3,997 different Android devices. Your navigation should work with all of them. C-Swipe can help: It is an alternative navigation pattern for tablets and mobile devices that is novel, ergonomic and localized.
This article provides a detailed walk-through of the design and code and provides a downloadable mini-app so that you can try out C-Swipe to see whether it’s right for your app.
Read more...This post should be titled “Getting Ahead of Yourself.” “…By a Few Years,” actually. Here’s the deal: at the time I’m writing this, early 2013, there’s no way to accurately design for the Web using physical units, nor will there be for a very long time. But there is a way to design while knowing the physical characteristics of the device — or, at least, there will be in the very near future.
It’s called the “resolution media query”, and it’s been in the specification for media queries for some time. However, while it has been in the spec, that doesn’t mean anyone has actually implemented it yet. Fortunately, WebKit is leading the way and pushing for this feature to be implemented. So, how will we use this nifty little feature, exactly? Here’s how.
Read more...Recently I shared with you some advice from the WordPress community to beginners. But what about if starting out is already a dim and distant memory? What if you're already so immersed in the world of WordPress that you dream of trac and bore your partner with talk of the latest thing you've achieved with custom post types?
Below are some tips from WordPress Pros from across the community. Many of them cover development, but there's also advice for business, for running your website, and, of course, for getting involved with the community.
Read more...Every app tells a story. Apps like Pandora tell the story of music; apps like Tip N Split tell a story of a calculator; and apps like Temperature tell the story of weather. Then we have storybook apps like Alice for the iPad, which literally tell stories!
The story of the cluttered app market is well known! Biz Report recently reported that the number of app downloads is estimated to reach 56 billion in 2013. And the San Francisco Chronicle has just reported that over 700,000 apps are for sale in the iTunes Store. Getting noticed is a major concern for app developers, and getting noticed sometimes requires not only a breakthrough app, but a compelling story.
Read more...Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, touchscreen mobile devices have exploded in popularity. They have introduced new problems, new solutions, new interactions, new ways of thinking and, of course, new costs to our clients.
The most important question on everyone’s mind — clients and developers alike — is, “How can we provide a great Web experience to our users on mobile?”
Read more...Comics are known to be one of the most powerful communication tools, and are a unique way to communicate — using both image and text to effectively demonstrate time, function, and emotion.
Today's article is an excerpt from Kevin Cheng's "See What I Mean" — a book that walks you step by step through the process of using comics to communicate, and providing examples from industry leaders who have already adopted this method. Enjoy!
Read more...A record number of shoppers are turning to their smartphones to research potential purchases. Meanwhile, the bigger question — are those same users willing to complete the purchases on their mobile device? — is quickly being answered.
The US, for example, saw an 81% spike in mobile e-commerce (m-commerce) sales in 2012, comprising a $25 billion market. And it’s not just apps. By a landslide, users prefer mobile websites to apps for shopping.
Read more...At the recent WordCamp Edinburgh, I took part in a panel discussion about WordPress theme development and the options available to developers when building themes. The overriding conclusion from the session was that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer and that the best method depends on the needs of the website and the capabilities of the developer.
But if you're starting out building WordPress themes, or want to develop a system for building them more efficiently or robustly, how do you decide which approach to take? In this article I'll briefly describe how WordPress themes work, and then look at some of the different approaches to developing them, with tips on which approach might be most suitable depending on your site and your circumstances.
Read more...Designing with users in mind is a tricky thing. Not only does it require of us a sound understanding of who our users are, but the actual act of translating what we know about them into a well-designed product is not always an obvious or easy path.
Currently, our user experience tools tend to focus on “who” users are. I believe this is a hangover from how we traditionally approached marketing and market research. A couple of years ago, I stumbled across a somewhat different method, which has proven useful in a few of my own projects.
Read more...
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