With iOS 7’s new Dynamics API, views can be influenced by gravity, attached to each other with springs, and bounced up against boundaries and each other. We’re used to objects in games feeling real. To get this effect, game designers use a physics engine that treats the elements as bodies in a simulation and that uses Newton’s laws of motion to calculate how they move over time. In using the engine, designers specify an object’s bounciness, its density, the level of gravity, and how things are attached to each other. In iOS 7, Apple made that technology available to UIKit-based apps as well.
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This article is the last in a series of articles covering four ways to develop a mobile application. In previous articles, we covered how to build a tip calculator in native iOS, native Android and PhoneGap. In this article, we’ll look at another cross-platform development tool, Appcelerator Titanium.
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What practical steps can you take to make your brand more approachable for mobile users? While general statistics are useful for demonstrating the value of designing with mobile in mind, they don’t provide the guidance necessary to understand precisely how users will interact with a particular brand on their phone. Google Analytics offers a number of free features for incredibly detailed analysis of mobile activity, with the ability to easily compare to desktop activity.
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iframe is one of the few HTML elements that don’t play nice with responsive layouts. You may need to use it when embedding content from external sources such as YouTube, so in this article, Rachel McCollin will show you how to make embedded content responsive using CSS. For those occasions when non-coders will be embedding video on your website and you don’t want to rely on them adding extra markup, she’ll also look at a solution that uses JavaScript instead of CSS.
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An off-canvas menu is a great way to maintain context while giving the user a lot of additional information. In this article, Kyle Peatt will talk about why off-canvas has become so successful as a navigation pattern. Countless methods and patterns are waiting to be discovered by intrepid designers. The potential of this pattern is bound only by our drive to pioneer. It’s time that we explore just how far off canvas we can go!
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After Marcotte defined the technique, responsive design frameworks began to emerge that incorporated these principles. Many of these frameworks are open-source, free to download and quickly customizable, and in this article, Jen Kramer will focus on the most popular ones: Bootstrap and Foundation. A responsive design framework might be a helpful tool in your arsenal, for quick prototyping, testing or even production code — one that expands your range of products and makes clients happy.
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This is the third installment in a series covering four ways to develop a mobile application. In previous articles, we examined how to build a native iOS and native Android tip calculator. In this article, Peter Traeg will create a multi-platform solution using PhoneGap. As with the previous articles in this series, all of the code for our application may be obtained from a GitHub repository.
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Transformations are a powerful technique for separating content and presentation in Web applications. Yet, they transformations have failed to gain popularity through XSLT. For this reason, Web developers are liable to think that transformations “don’t apply to me,” even though they work with HTML. Thankfully, new transformation frameworks are on the horizon, that hold the promise of a revival. In this article, Ishan Anand will reintroduce transformations and explore their applications to mobile and responsive design.
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One of the hardest problems in responsive Web design right now are responsive images. “Retina” images are especially a challenge because if you have sized your layout with ems or percentages, then you cannot be sure of the exact pixel dimensions of each image being displayed. In this article, Gavyn McKenzie will look at one solution to the problem that he implemented on his portfolio website at Etch.
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As a designer, the value you bring to any project isn’t only your ability to execute tasks. Good clients will appreciate the guidance and opinions that come with your experience, and it’s up to you to base your recommendations on more than subjective opinion. In this article, Jonathan Kochis will refer to specific mobile research projects he has conducted and build a case for audience surveys and review of analytics data.
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