Design: Responsive Design

Sitting around a table in Hamburg with three German Axure trainers from Ax-Stream, our three-day mission was to design a new Axure training course focusing on Responsive Web Design (RWD) using Axure 7’s adaptive features. Our goal was to produce an initial course design that we could pilot test with our other Axure trainers across Europe. More on that later!

We were working with an early beta version of Axure 7. Axure had asked us to review their new adaptive features and provide feedback regarding necessary improvements for its final release. In my prior discussions with Axure CEO, Victor Hsu, he had briefed me that Axure 7 would better address adaptive Web design than full RWD. For example, in keeping with earlier versions of Axure, there would be no support for liquid layouts, specifying positions and dimensions of Axure’s widgets—what some might call screen objects or components—using percentage values, or dynamic reflowing of text within widgets as the parent window gets resized. Read More

In this edition of Ask UXmatters, our panel of UX experts discusses whether responsive Web design is really necessary for ecommerce sites and some of the key elements of responsive designs.

Imagine that your company has chosen you to be part of a team that is going to design and build or update an ecommerce Web site. The budget and deadline are tight, and the boss wants to know what is the minimum that you can do to create a strong, profit-building machine. What would you tell him? Would you stay focused only on your existing desktop Web site—or if you’re creating a new site, build for the desktop first—and let your mobile customers deal with it as best they can? Would you build a Web site that is somewhat different on and adapts to each type and size of device? Would you insist on developing a mobile app? And how would you plan to maintain the solution? Read More

This is a sample chapter from Luke Wroblewski’s book Mobile First. 2011, A Book Apart.

Chapter 7: Layout

Appropriate adaptations of how we think about organization, actions, and input on the desktop take what we know about Web design and make it usable on mobile. But how do we ensure it’s also usable across the wide range of mobile devices available now and in the coming months—not to mention years?

• Come to terms with the fact that mobile is going to change at a breakneck pace for the foreseeable future.
• Let mobile browsers know you are creating designs that fit them.
• Be flexible, fluid, and responsive in your layouts.
• Know where to sketch the lines between device experiences.
• Reduce to the minimum amount necessary. Read More