I’m a very occasional Freeway Pro user and admittedly not very skilful. A sort of “Sunday driver” designer who only takes the car out of the garage once a year and liable to create mayhem…
Looking at the web stats the other day for a site I patched together 3 years ago I can see that the percentage of users on mobile devices has risen fairly dramatically over the last 12 months and that seems to have coincided with a dip in sales from that site, which was never really designed with mobile devices in mind, so the size is all wrong and it also contains a flash video.
In the near future I planned to pull the dust sheets off Freeway and design a new site for a different product and I’m wondering how many of you are designing mobile versions of your sites? In Wordpress this is so easy because you can just activate a plugin and it works instantly but with Freeway I gather it takes a bit more thought.
I may well be able to use Exhibio to create an html 5 slideshow in one part of the site rather than using flash for a presentation but I’m wondering if all these efforts would still work on Android phones etc. I’m still stuck in the ark when it comes to that sort of thing don’t own an iPad either, so it’s all a bit difficult to test.
On a side note for Softpress I was going to use the Ambient template as a starting point for my new website and it would be great if that could be adapted for mobile use.
I’m wondering how many of you are designing mobile versions of your sites?
Not so much designing specifically for mobile devices, more designing with them in mind.
What I mean by that is I am trying to ensure that my site designs work adequately on mobile devices.
I am of the opinion that many people who routinely use the web from their smartphone or tablet device are used to the foibles of how sites are rendered in their browsers. If I can make a site designed chiefly for a desktop browser that also works reasonably well for a mobile visitor, then I have made progress.
Heather
Imagic Design * Good Design - No Compromise
email@hidden http://www.imagic-design.co.uk
Twitter @Imagic-Design
T: 01634 864017
I suppose that makes sense to a large extent Heather, though I would have to learn quite a bit in this instance to see what the capabilities and limitations are with modern mobile devices.
In truth I have no idea how many additional sales I would make by producing a mobile version of the site and it may be more trouble than it’s worth but it sure would be nice if Freeway had a neat little action that quickly spun a mobile version to appear for the appropriate devices… In FW6 perhaps? Next week would be convenient if they can manage it!
Hi Ashley, there was a thread on here a while ago about responsive design (one that adapts itself to the device/browser). The problem with this though is it is a fairly steep learning curve so it may not be an option at this stage.
When I design now, I avoid flash and ensure that the site works (and looks good) on an iPad for starters and, as Heather says, from there, as long as it kinda works (technical term!) OK on mobile, I don’t think many people will mind too much.
Freeway does have some mobile templates you can try out though if you want to do 2 versions
Thanks Mark and sorry for this late reply. Somehow I missed your post before now. I shall take a look at this but having spoken to a couple of web designers I know they are basically telling me the time has come to start considering mobile users almost as seriously as desktop users because significant numbers are now going online with their iPhones etc.
All the sites I am doing now have to look good on all devices. Big clients only expect that everything has to look great. I am in the position of having to defend Freeway to those in my office who want that top notch quality on every device. I am a designer not a code writer. I love Freeway but the sooner Freeway tackles this problem the more secure my job will be.
All the signs are there that we can probably expect to see FW6 within the very near future and I’d be very disappointed if it hasn’t been updated in some way to reflect ongoing changes with the rise of mobile web traffic.
All the signs are there that we can probably expect to see FW6 within the very near future and I’d be very disappointed if it hasn’t been updated in some way to reflect ongoing changes with the rise of mobile web traffic.
I’ve spent a long time searching for feasible ways to make my many sites and my clients sites look good and easily read with other software providers. I also don’t code that’s why I use Freeway and I would much prefer to only use Freeway.
On 21/12/2012, at 1:54 AM, Ashley wrote:
All the signs are there that we can probably expect to see FW6 within the very near future and I’d be very disappointed if it hasn’t been updated in some way to reflect ongoing changes with the rise of mobile web traffic.
I know us “non-coders” are probably expecting an Action like RPL (relative page layout) to just be added to the page and, voila! Problem solved.
That would be great, but most unlikely, I would think.
From what I’ve read it takes careful planning ahead. Some of the stuff those guys (especially Thomas Kimmich) did on that thread are really neat (to sound like a little kid). Makes each experience on the different devices unique.
My girlfriend and I build sites for ourselves and customers. We both come from a print background, and she in particular, designs sites from that viewpoint. People like our designs, but I can rarely even use an inline structure, let alone device independence to convey her designs, so, yes, a quick “add an Action” answer would be great, but impractical from the Softpress viewpoint, I would think.
