Responsive Design Workflow Stephen Hay Pdf
In this session, Stephen explores at a content-based approach to design workflow which is grounded in our multiplatform reality, not fixed-width Photoshop comps and overproduced wireframes. You'll learn how to avoid being surprised by the realities of multiplatform websites. You'll learn how to better manage client expectations and development requirements. You've probably heard of designing in the browser; in this session you'll learn a practical approach for actually doing it. Presented by Stephen Hay at the Breaking Development Conference in Orlando 2012.
. May 28 th, 2012 During the last week I was at the conference listening Stephen Hay’s talk about responsive design workflow. This post isn’t going to be strictly about that, but as Stephen’s way reminded somewhat the way I work myself, it made me want to write down some thoughts about my workflow and how it has evolved during the past two or three years and how it might still evolve in the future.
About three or four years ago—when I mostly did just static width sites—my projects went through the different phases in the order illustrated below, which looks like a typical waterfall process. Back then there wasn’t much room for revisions, and what clients saw were either the wireframes or almost finished Photoshop designs. That model kind of used to work back then, but now there’s just one problem. Waterfall model doesn’t make that much sense when combined with responsive design. Actually it wasn’t ever very optimal way to do web design, but as I and everyone around me were so used to delivering things in that specific order we never really tried to challenge that.
The new way This is the process I use today when doing responsive web design (illustrated below). I used Mark Boulton’s and Stephen Hay’s as resources while writing this. My new process reminds more agile than waterfall model and I’m going to explain each step in more detail further on. Workflow in short: Starts from the content out and encourages to spend time to really think it through.
After the first content drafts are done I convert them to HTML prototypes, open them up in a mobile browser, and look how the order of the content works there. I do sketching and visual design mostly before and after prototyping. After first sketches I usually go pretty fast back to the HTML prototype and start adding some CSS to see how my ideas actually work. The whole process happens in iterations which usually go somewhat like this: sketch → prototype → design → test → discuss until it works. The order might not be this linear in reality, but I wanted to simplify my diagram for this article. Discover The first stage is about information gathering, getting to know the client and research work. The goal here is to gain better understanding of the client’s business, competitors and main goals of the project.
Without proper knowledge it’s almost impossible to know what the client actually needs/wants. During this stage I ask a lot of questions like: “Why people would come to your site?”, “What is the main goal you are trying to achieve?”, “Who are your main competitors?” and so on. You can get ideas on what to ask by browsing through project sheets of other design firms:.
Plan Planning is done based on the knowledge that is gathered during the first stage. In this stage I usually start by refining the concept and move on to work on the user stories and the. I also work on establishing and describing content elements, which can then be rated with a level of importance.
Based on that importance we can then do rough HTML wireframes of the views. These last two steps are quite identical to Stephen’s workflow steps ‘Content inventory’ and ‘Content reference wireframes.’ Text design “Text design” here means that we write (design) all the contents of the website down in textual form. This is one of the most important stages in the whole process, and yet it’s probably also the most underrated step. I say this because in my opinion it doesn’t make much sense to go any further if we don’t have the actual content at hand.
Content is the reason why people come to the website and the whole process should start from that. I often do this step in HTML without styles, as then we can instantly see how the content appears in a narrow single column layout and if the order is correct. This is also basically the way the site will be shown to users using screen readers. Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be the final draft yet, as we can refine it during the prototyping. This step is also possible to accomplish using text documents which works almost equally well. Sketch Sketching ideas down is usually something which happens all the time, but it’s especially important before jumping to browser. I often test my sketches using the HTML text designs I did in the previous step (which basically mean that I add a few CSS rules on top of them).
By spending a short time sketching you can save yourself hours on the computer. Not only will you save yourself hours, you may even afford yourself some peace of mind. I challenge you to start employing sketching as a part of your process and you will see a dramatic decrease in the amount of times you hit that virtual wall of nothingness.” – Tara Roskell Prototype Prototyping early in HTML/CSS is necessary as that’s the only way to truly see how the layout will respond to different viewport sizes.
This also allows me to show the actual site much sooner to the client and react early to problems which the design might have. Unlike Stephen, I don’t really work on “breakpoint graphs” before the actual prototyping or design. It’s good to be aware of the various breakpoints and what works for different viewport sizes—or doesn’t, and it’s probably also a good idea to let the client know what the landscape is like, but I let the actual content in the browser to be the judge when making decisions.
Below is a device breakpoint diagram which I did based on the by Stephanie Rieger and Metal Toad’s. I did it because I felt that the other one was too old and the other one was just completely missing Symbian devices which are quite popular around here (click the image to view a bigger PDF version): Visual Design This step happens in iterations before and after. I still use Photoshop to do most of the design, but I’m moving more and more towards design in a browser. Especially typography seems to be something which is really hard to get working anywhere else than inside the browser (Although at the same time I have noticed that if I do the jump too early, everything will end up looking flat, uninspiring and somehow cluttered).
The most important part here is to use a tool which doesn’t restrain your creativity. It can be the browser, Photoshop, Fireworks, InDesign or anything else that feels right. Test Introducing testing as a part of your process early will save you from having bigger problems later on.
Just look at the I did and add all the browser quirks on top of that, and you should start to understand why it’s almost impossible to build responsive sites without testing them on a number of actual devices. Testing should also include user testing as that’s really the easiest way to see how the prototype actually works in terms of usability and which parts of it might still need work. I mostly do all the testing with the devices I already have, but sometimes there’s a real need to bring in new devices or even go to a store and do some field testing there. That doesn’t cost anything, at least not yet Discuss Discuss with the client during all iterations.
App Description: Forwards to sd: apps scummvm boot.dol. Channel Name: scummVM. Channel ID: N6SC Blocks: 10. Wii Settings: Working SDHC Compatible: Yes Tested by: Mr_Nick666. New icon, better sound, faster forwarder, and I shaved a whole block off it's install size. Download: Mediafire Wink. Jul 9, 2009 - 3.4U. I installed HBC, DVDx, and BootMii as an IOS through the HackMii installer. HBC works great for me, as do other apps run through HBC such as Gecko OS v1.9.1. All I am having troubles with, and massive amounts thereof, is installing a single damn WAD on my Wii. I've tried a few different WADs to. Wii homebrew wad installer. Sep 6, 2017 - DVDX is a homebrew application that installs a hidden 'channel' which was used by other homebrew applications to access home burned and factory pressed DVD content without the need for a modchip. As of HackMii Installer 0.7, DVDX is dead and has been superseded by the Homebrew Channel 1.0.7. Oct 27, 2017 - Dvdx Wad Installer V2' title='Dvdx Wad Installer V2' /> Dvdx Wad Installer Wii Homebrew Channel software download, beta 9 Homebrew Browser download v. Note links fresh as of October 3. If youre here a few months after that, check each projects linked site for any new versions. First things first, if you.
Present the actual HTML prototypes to the client and show how they work on actual devices. Avoid ‘The Big Reveal’ like.
Iterate Sketch → prototype → design → test → discuss until it works. Conclusion There is no perfect workflow. What works for me, might not work for everyone, and I have a feeling that the changes in my workflow are just the start of the transition. What I described here works best when designing websites (large or small) but it might need some adjustments to work well with web application design which is somewhat different (depending, of course, what kind of application it is). ❦ Resources.
Update 12 Jun 2012: This post has been. Update 13 Apr 2013: Added. May 8 th, 2012 Couple months ago while I were designing a website I remembered a technique I had long forgotten. I used to use this technique before I moved from print design to web design about eight years ago and it was, for me, an essential way to utilize modular grids better. Grids in design are kind of like the in music. They give you a way to anchor your layout elements and typography to a certain rhythm.
What is a modular grid A modular grid is a grid which has consistent horizontal divisions from top to bottom in addition to vertical divisions from left to right. Modular grids are created by positioning horizontal guidelines in relation to a baseline grid that governs the whole document. Baseline grids serve to anchor all (or nearly all) layout elements to a common rhythm. Illustration from the book titled, by Ellen Lupton. How to use a grid The thing is, I don’t actually even know the reason why I abandoned this good practice when I moved forward on my career. I might have though that the same practices won’t work in the digital world, but oh boy, I was so wrong back then. This technique is also so bloody simple that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear if most of you are already doing something similar.
My method is this: While you are aligning elements to a grid, zoom out the layout (in browser or Photoshop) so much that the size of the layout is around 30-40% of the original and about the size of the iPhone’s screen in landscape orientation. This way it’s much easier to see the balance of the whole layout—if it works or not. I also promise that it will make you much faster (and hopefully better) designer. At least that is how I feel it transformed my own process.
Responsive Web Design Pdf
Of course, after you have zoomed back in to see the layout in its real size, you have to then fine-tune elements and typography and start working on the smaller details. Remember though that not all layouts work the same way and because of that you shouldn’t always force elements to a grid. Tools to get you started There is this tool called which has a Photoshop extension which allows you to create modular grids directly inside Photoshop. Then there’s also this interesting which uses a fluid modular grid framework. There are also a number of tools that allow you to and responsive grids, but they are mostly multicolumn grids (with or without baseline grid) and not modular. Tools are just tools though and the best way to actually start learning is to pick or make a grid yourself and start using it. Check also my resources below, for example has a lot of interesting articles and templates if you want to dive deeper.
Screenshot from the app. Further reading. 1. Apr 15 th, 2012 CSS is designed primarily to enable the separation of content from presentation, including elements such as the layout, colors, and fonts. This separation improves content accessibility and provides more flexibility and control over the presentation. CSS is quite flexible language on its own, but as websites become more and more complex we sometimes need to have more control.
Responsive Design Workflow Stephen Hay Pdf Template
I’m using to extend the basic behavior of CSS and this post is mostly about some basic things I’m using. I’ll also assume that you know something about Sass already and that’s why I won’t dive deep into what it actually is. If you are running OS X, you can get Sass up and running using these two commands below.
The first one installs Sass Ruby gem and the second one translates your.scss file into a.css file. 1 2 gem install sass sass -watch style.scss:style.css Partials Using Sass’s @import you can organize your styles into a smaller partials. @import in Sass works a bit differently if compared to CSS @import statement. The difference is that when Sass is processed all the partials will be combined into a single CSS file which reduces unnecessary HTTP requests and speeds up the loading time. I usually have one “main” Sass file where I have all my variables, mixins, etc. And where I do the importing.
Comments are closed.