[AD] Design Once – Deploy Everywhere – OK, For Now Only on Desktop, Tablets and Phones

[Bob Markowitz]

If you are a MultiValue company thinking about desktop and mobile development using third party tools, ask the vendor about transformations and adaptations.  I will bet they would get a bit glassy eyed (if you could see their faces) and wonder what you are talking about.  YOU may even wonder what I am talking about!

 

Simply stated, adaptions and transformations are how User Interfaces display on desktop and mobile devices based upon the available real estate (display area).  Take a tablet from horizontal to vertical, does the display remain the same (just shrunk) or change to show tabs allowing all data to be seen with some extra touches (so to speak) and how does the UI with the same data present itself on a phone with a much smaller screen.

 

If you are working with mobile (and desktop) your development work is all about how the display will break itself apart to present information in adaptive ways for the available screen size.  As an example take a desktop application that allows the user to list customer information: click on a displayed name and the desktop now displays two sections, one with full company address and the other section shows all contacts.  Now, how will that display on a tablet, a phone?  You won’t click on the name, you will touch it. How will it display when the tablet is horizontal or vertical?  How about on a phone being horizontal or vertical? 

 

The possibilities are endless and Evoke from BlueFinity is the only tool that allows you to develop that kind of stuff and all of it is from one design, one set of code.

 

By the way, Evoke will also allow you to have a SQL Server based application and do the same thing in the same way!  We are database agnostic.  OK, we will be database agnostic in the first quarter of 2016!

 

If you are coming to Zumapalooza this weekend, please stop by and say “hi”.  Even better, come to our presentation!

[Ross Ferris]

Hi Bob,

I was certainly wondering what you were talking about - looks like you have created your own vocabulary of "adaptions" and "transformations" to describe what is happening on screens rather than the more widely used term of "responsive design" (well, in the web realm at least). Actually, I suppose that term may NOT apply to Evoke because last time I looked you actually had to manually design a screen for each discrete screen form factor - is that still the case?

REAL Responsive Design means that you don't have to target every possible screen resolution (there can be lot's of these if someone is using, say, a Chrome Book & starts adjusting the geometry of their Chrome Browser window) - everything just happens "automagically".

I think you also need to qualify your statement that "Evoke is the ONLY tool that allows you to develop that kind of stuff from one design, one set of code" - perhaps you omitted a reference to standalone/native applications in the MV world, because if you included "Web Applications" (and who wouldn't these days), an area we have been championing for over 15 years, then Visage has REAL Responsive Design, just like people are already used to seeing on their browsers today when they visit sites from their desktop, phone, phablet, tablet & I've even used a fridge to access a Visage app via the Internet just because I could :-)

I just got 156 million matches on "responsive design" from Google & I suspect that the vast majority are "on topic". "transformations adaptations" yielded 1.9 million - 58 pages in I still haven't found anything relevant :-(

[Dawn Wolthuis]

I have no doubt that Bob can answer this better, but my understanding is that with Evoke you can target the browser and, one would hope, can make that browser design responsive for use on phones, etc (love the refrigerator anecdote, Ross!). Additionally, one can take that same app, likely with some additional UI specifications, and generate the code to run it as a native app on an iPhone or Android.

Until it is far easier, I'm all for extending the use of a browser user interface to all devices, where feasible. Some companies will need "real apps" however. Evoke is the only tool I know of in the MV space that spans browsers and devices in this way. I might just give it a spin or at least see it up close sometime in the coming year, depending on the needs of various friends and family (and clients).

--dawn

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Dawn M. Wolthuis

Take and give some delight today

[Doug Averch]

I have been writing web applications for many many years now.  I have written applications for IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari browsers. I have written applications for devices such as workstations, laptops, IPads, IPhones, Android phones, and many others.

Not once have I seen a data entry screen transform from a 27 inch monitor to a 5 inch screen. It is not happening. It is not possible to have single form object for every platform.

An example is I use a grid for multivalue data entry on a workstation but use labels and prompts on a Android phone. That takes different layouts and JavaScript to run those applications. However, our backend UniBasic code is the same along with our middle-ware U2WebLink.

Another example is your finger is not is small as a mouse so all small format screens icons and menus are designed accordingly.

I sat through the demo on Evoke. It has some good points and some not so good points.

Regards,

Doug

www.u2logic.com

"Makers of Eclipse based tools for U2, D3 and QM"

[Ross Ferris]

Doug,

I agree that it might not be possible to have a web page that you hand crafted 5-6 years ago magically be able to transform or adapt to present reasonably on another form factor, however, with the knowledge of foresight it IS possible to use Responsive Design techniques that can achieve this goal. The "trick" is in knowing that this is what you want to be able to do in the first place, but to be truly effective it also has to encompass the entire UX (User Experience) - you don't want to produce a "new" application that looks like it is undecorated HTML from 2000. You want to produce something that is as fresh, slick & modern as the the best websites & applications in the world today!

That is what people can deliver with Visage v8.2, which has been enhanced following Pentana's engagement of a leading design & innovations consultancy (think psychologists & industrial designers)

From your phat "finger" reference it also sounds as if you are just expecting screens to "shrink" to fit, with everything still visible on the screen at the same time ... just really, REALLY small. That isn't the way Responsive works, and certainly isn't the way we have approached it within the Visage Drag & drop design environment. If anyone is interested I've just put a recent  PowerPoint presentation  up on our website that provides a reasonable insight into how you can solve this problem with our Visage Application Development Framework.

I also believe the emphasis has to change - you shouldn't have to do anything special to target an application for IE or Chrome or Firefox or Safari browsers, in much the same way that "back in the day" rather than targeting an application for an ADDS or WYSE terminal you should have used the tools at your disposal to be able to write an application that would work on any terminal. So, if you will, "browser independence" is really just an evolutionary step beyond "terminal independence" with a similar goal --> the display device doesn't matter so much.

We go through quite extraordinary engineering efforts at times to insulate developers from these complexities and differences. A recent example would be this time last year when Google decided to remove support for MODAL windows from Chrome - drop me an email if you would like me to send you a PowerPoint describing our solution, which leveraged the same snippet technology that powers the multi-lingual facilities in Visage

 

Ross Ferris

Stamina Software

Visage > Better by Design!

 

[Tony Gravagno]

Ross, since you copied your notes here from LinkedIn, I assume it's to encourage responses. So I'll copy my notes from there as well for the same reason. I do have a couple additions after the first copied paragraph...

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is really great. It solves a lot of issues and for the last two years has been the right way to go. I wish I had more time to spend on all of the JavaScript, HTML, CSS, grids and frameworks and testing tools and browser emulators and everything that goes with it. But for those who are still trying to figure out what it is or how to get there, slow down, and Google for "beyond responsive design". Because this awesome wave that we've all been looking to ride on might be short-lived - as many things are these days. There are a lot of issues that come with the awesome benefits. Industry leaders are now looking to solve those problems rather than doubling down on the bet that's already been played. This isn't in any way related to Evoke, it's a response to your suggestion that perhaps we should be looking at RWD as well, or that Evoke should be an implementation of RWD. Maybe yes Maybe no - I have no opinion on the topic. I'm just trying to adjust the perspective of where RWD is currently positioned. Best to ya.

About your search for "transformations adaptations", try looking for "adaptive web design" (without quotes). You'll find a lot of comparisons with responsive. In a world where every product and company now has a completely unique vocabulary (remember lower case "Visual Basic"?) I've given up on thinking that anyone should be normal. Companies are now coming back to re-define words that are already in the dictionary: "Visual Studio Code ... an IDE"  "Alphabet ... a company"  "Swift and Go ... languages" (although I know that's nothing new but it seems to be more abused now).  I think I prefer the custom vocabularies. Whatevah...

BTW, (personal comment, not a Mod) please don't use another company's ads to promote your own products. I've made that mistake myself and not only did I feel horrible later but our colleagues didn't appreciate it much either. It's just bad form.

T


On Wednesday, November 11, 2015 at 5:07:09 PM UTC-8, Ross Ferris wrote:

REAL Responsive Design means ...

Visage has REAL Responsive Design...