Responsive Ideas for Suffusion

[Shapeshifter 3]

Sayontan,

I know you stated that you might go on vacation after 4.20 was released. You also mentioned that your next version will lean towards some manifestation of Mobile Responsiveness. Here is a short list of links that might help you in what decisions to make:

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-images-how-they-almost-worked-and-what-we-need/

http://www.w3.org/community/respimg/

http://mobilism.nl/

[Shapeshifter 3]

Sayontan,

Here is another link that might be useful to you, while you are on vacation:

http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/web/responsive-nav-patterns/

Mr. Frost's post contains a good list of the various methods of creating Navigational Menus for Mobile Devices.
He also list some of the Pros and Cons of using each method.

The post is dated February 24, 2012 but it is a good start before reviewing other more current ideas.

[tzdk]

Here is an opposite idea http://managewp.com/5-reasons-why-responsive-design-is-not-worth-it Pros and Cons on highest level, on sucks or not.

Not a suggestion to drop jumping on a wagon but I think it should be optional. Much hype about this. I have seen people load up Modernizr without knowing what it does (zero!). Also much more involved that just messing about with navbars and sidebars. Many scripts and such will have to be changed/updated as well. Whatever view on this fact is CSS3 media queries have been available for a long time, just pumped up as must-haves lately. Many signs of hype.

What is really interesting is conditional load of images, this is the best I have stumbled over http://adaptive-images.com/ - and perhaps deactivation of plugins/scripts. Can be done now I would think, use one of those mobile detector things - then is_mobile() blah blah. If a theme was to support that there will be joy. And output will have real value for mobile units. Has nothing to do with what is usually considered "responsive" in WP themes, 99% visuals, but more important.

[Shapeshifter 3]

tzdk,

This is going to sound extremely simplistic, but I'll give an example of why I think it is true:

I believe that human progress takes place, when human beings are forced to do things that they either don't see necessary, or feel comfortable doing.

One of my relatives knows a man in his late 50's, who loved motorcycles in his youth. One of his favorites was the Honda 750 from the early 1970's. During his youth, this man had very little money and what he liked the most about the bike, was his ability to keep it running by tinkering with its mechanical components. As technology advanced, and electronic ignition became standard on most Japanese motorcycles, he refused to upgrade to more modern designs stating that they weren't necessary. From his point of view, he always knew that if his bike broke down far from home, he could fix it and return home.

Currently, most Japanese motorcycles around 600cc will run at least 150 mph off the showroom floor, and remain stable at those speeds. Modern technology has greatly improved both the brakes, electronic ignition, suspension, tires, and dependability of motorcycles. NONE OF THOSE THINGS WERE NECESSARY, but there were designers and enthusiasts who cared enough about them to create what exists today.

The older gentleman who thought he would never buy a modern motorcycle, was convinced several years ago to upgrade to a current model (Yamaha). Now, if his late 50s he flies through the countryside at speeds sometimes over 110 mph. Whether that is safe or not is another story, but to this day he has never been stranded because of electronic ignition that he feared in the past. He loves the motorcycle, and has accepted the changes in design.

I wonder if most people who are currently against Mobile Responsive Web Design, will come to appreciate what has evolved in the near future.

[Shapeshifter 3]

tzdk,

Here's a current slideshow from Andy Clarke, who created the popular "320 and Up" Mobile First framework which he basically redesigned this April:

https://speakerdeck.com/u/malarkey/p/fashionably-flexible-responsive-web-design-full-day-workshop-1

It might give you more insight for the Pros and Cons of your point of view.

The slideshow is long.

[tzdk]

Slideshow also mention Adaptive images. Try look that guy up, he have made 50 something minute long video about why he made it, pros and cons. His project is about something as simple as images. Hints there are no standards (W3C is a coffee club for the invited) and everything is flowing around, also opinions On his personal blog you can see him freaking out after a W3C battle.

I am only 100% con if being "responsive" means we get boring sites, WP themes, developed after lowest determinator and because of lacking or too complicated tools never really get much above that. Suggesting different code for different devices is suicidal but code needs to be more conditional then.

[Shapeshifter 3]

tzdk,

I've always thought the use of "Adaptive Images" was a great idea. Its creator is Matt Wilcox, who recently wrote a post on his own website entitled "Managing responsive designs is hard, so let's use our <head>" - http://mattwilcox.net/archive/entry/id/1091/.

In your behalf, I added a link to that article in my own website's static pages entitled: "The Evolution of Responsive, Adaptive, and Mobile First Web Design" - http://toolbox-4-websites.com/responsive-design/. These links are all ordered by date, from present to past, and Mr. Wicox's article is currently the 3rd one from the top. If you think I have missed anything important that has taken place in the past year, please let me know.......I try to be accurate.

I don't know if you follow any of WordPress.com's endeavors, but recently I received an email notification from one of their Automattic creations called "Code Poet". A sub link in that website contains the following: http://build.codepoet.com/2012/05/11/wordpress-meet-responsive-design/.

I might be wrong, but I think that is a very good indication of future WordPress involvement with Responsive Web Design.

[tzdk]

His video about Adaptive Images is worth the 52 minutes http://vimeo.com/38947881 He is not promoting his project as a standard but as the least crappy

Regarding WP I think much more should come from core it self. WP already comes with a bunch of extras for all sorts of things - but what about responsive features? Video embeds still not responsive - can be though http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/res ... eo-embeds/ There is actually a is_mobile function which in theory could be used to unload that pretty slider or exchange it with a lesser mobile version, but as far as I know it is only used internally to check when doing uploads. How cool is that? Easy to talk and make slideshows and there have been much of that

Just noticed this plugin from today http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/mob ... lugin/faq/ Not the first but among other conditional statements are

is_desktop()
is_mobile()
is_tablet()

Something like that should be in core I think. If I look at a website on a 24" monitor I dont give a hoot for media queries. In fact it looks and feels stupid. You can work around that with same media queries, min-max something but still.

[Shapeshifter 3]

tzdk,

Thank you for the link to Matt Wilcox's vimeo on "Adaptive Images". Very detailed, and I hope Sayontan reviews it. I'm going to list it on my own blog.

[tzdk]

Nice to see you list Catalyst under frameworks. Only framework/theme I know of that have a pretty good approach to presenting media queries. Need to give (easy) options to work with the stuff as sites are different when not fixed/limited in design and options. I bet it wont be a walk in the park to make Suffusion responsive. Not easy for any thing so modular.