Sometimes you have to step back and ask why a tradition exists. In mobile-first design, serving an image in three sizes — one for smartphones, one for tablets and one for desktops — using media queries and responsive images has become a tradition. But is it the best solution?
It’s most likely better than doing nothing, but how well does it actually work? And is there room for improvement? In this article, we’ll look closely at how well the one-size-per-form-factor approach really works and how we can use smart content delivery networks to improve image performance.
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When you develop a game, you need to sprinkle conditionals everywhere. If Pac-Man eats a power pill, then ghosts should run away. If the player has low health, then enemies attack more aggressively. If the space invader hits the left edge, then it should start moving right.
Usually, these bits of code are strewn around, embedded in larger functions, and the overall logic of the game is difficult to see or reuse to build up new levels.
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To say that responsive web design has changed our industry would be an understatement at best. We used to ask our clients which resolutions and devices they wanted us to support, but we now know the answer is “as many as possible.” To answer a challenge like this and to handle our increasingly complex world, our industry has exploded with new thinking, patterns and approaches.
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Big news from Google: Within a few months, the infamous search engine will divide its index to give users better and fresher content. The long-term plan is to make the mobile search index the primary one. Why does this matter for e-commerce website owners?
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Regression testing is one of the most time-consuming tasks when developing a mobile Android app. Using myMail as a case study, I’d like to share my experience and advice on how to build a flexible and extensible automated testing system for Android smartphones — from scratch.
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As we look deep into 2017, one of the questions on every web developer’s mind ought to be, “What trend will define the web in 2017?” Just three years ago, we were talking about the “Year of Responsive Web Design”, and we’ve all seen how the stakes were raised when Google announced Mobilegeddon (21 April 2015) and started to boost the rankings of mobile-friendly websites in mobile search results.
Today, as our findings indicate, responsive web design is the norm, with 7 out of 10 mobile-optimized websites being responsive, up from 5 last year, which begs the questions: What’s next? Where is it all heading? We solved the screen-size issue and had a great run for a few years — now what?
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I started out as a web developer, and that’s now one part of what I do as a full-stack developer, but never had I imagined I’d create things for the desktop. I love the web. I love how altruistic our community is, how it embraces open-source, testing and pushing the envelope.
I love discovering beautiful websites and powerful apps. When I was first tasked with creating a desktop app, I was apprehensive and intimidated. It seemed like it would be difficult, or at least… different.
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In 2017, the question is not whether we should use a responsive design framework. Increasingly, we are using them. The question is which framework should we be using, and why, and whether we should use the whole framework or just parts of it.
With dozens of responsive design frameworks available to download, many web developers appear to be unaware of any except for Bootstrap. Like most of web development, responsive design frameworks are not one-size-fits-all. Let’s compare the latest versions of Bootstrap, Foundation and UIkit for their similarities and differences.
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Pull-to-refresh is one of the most popular gestures in mobile applications right now. It’s easy to use, natural and so intuitive that it is hard to imagine refreshing a page without it. In 2010, Loren Brichter created Tweetie, one of numerous Twitter applications. Diving into the pool of similar applications, you won’t see much difference among them; but Loren’s Tweetie stood out then.
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The mobile app market is growing faster than a beanstalk. The industry is huge and growing daily, and there is no end in sight. Expectedly, the mobile developer population has boomed, and the number of mobile apps in the market has hit new heights. The revenue generated by the global mobile app industry has skyrocketed.
Hybrid monetization models, such as in-app ads and in-app purchases, are quickly gaining popularity in the business world. Most studies show that in-app advertising is set to be a key driver of mobile growth over the coming years (see Statista’s, IHS Markit’s and Forbes’s reports).
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