Mobile technology is finding its way into every aspect of our lives. Say goodbye to guesstimating the impact of fitness activity and all those funky calorie-counting equations. Whether your cycling, running, sleeping, or exercising with a group, these fitness apps can help you track calories intake and create an exercise plans. We’re all about technology improving our lives, so we’ve selected the 10 Best Health and Fitness Apps available today on the iOS or Google Play store.
What it is: Leading fitness App that provides an easy method to track food intake and exercise activity.
Why We Like It: In addition to being able to set goals, log calorie intake and physical activity, MyFitnessPal let’s you share your weight loss journey with friends—allowing motivation for more success.
Cost: Free
What it is: A weight loss app and online service aimed at motivating you to get to your goal.
Why We Like it: Feel free to Lose It! To start, the app allows you to create a weight loss plan equipped with helpful tools such as a food calorie tracker, suggested challenges and forums.
Cost: Free
What it is: A PocketSports app equipped with a comprehensive pose dictionary for any aspiring yogi.
Why We Like it: If you’ve ever wished for yoga on the go, Pocket Yoga does just that. Downloadable for both phones and iPads, the app lets you engage in full yoga classes or for a specific duration. You can also choose your environment for practicing yoga. We like ocean.
Cost: $2.99-$4.99
What it is: Advanced iPhone application for cycling, running, and more.
Why We Like it: Not only can users track, visualize, and share cycling and/or running experiences, but they can also hear. By configuring (up to 25) announcements users can be updated on variables such as time, speed, distance and elevation.
Cost: $4.99, iOS Only
What it is: Personal training app for to tracking workouts and improving fitness.
Why We Like it: RunKeeper lets users measure heart rate, keep track of calorie count, and measure distance (using GPS). You can use the app for a variety of activities (not just running), and the app also lets you regulate music and take pictures during exercise.
Cost: Free
6. FitocracyWhat it is: Social network geared towards making weight loss fun through gamification.
Why We Like it: Fitocracy was created with the idea of mixing the excitement of weight loss with the thrill of gaming. The community-based network lets users interact with others striving to beat each level of their weight loss goal.
Cost: Free
What it is: Nike’s premier training fitness app for women.
Why We Like it: Featuring over 100+ workouts, fitness rewards & bonuses and audio trainer guidance, Nike Training Club (NTC) provides the exclusivity of having a personal trainer right at your fingertips.
Cost: Free
What it is: Premier fitness app, which can be enhanced with a wearable device.
Why We Like it: Fitbit helps users active, eat better, manage weight, and sleep better with a mobile app and synch-able website. Fitbit accessories The One, Flex, and Zip offer a more accurate snap-shot of fitness and sleep activity—ultimately enhancing chances of weight loss success!
Cost: Free, Device $100
9. RuntasticWhat it is: App that tracks routes and data during exercise activity for a maximized fitness experience.
Why We Like it: Runtastic improves the running experience by offering mobile, online tracking, and live cheering. More in depth tracking can be achieved when paired with the Runtastic GPS Watch.
Cost: Free, Pro $4.99
What it is: Inspiring fitness app allowing users to map their fitness strategies and achievements.
Why We Like it: Unlike the usual fitness app tracker, MapMyFitness+ creates a visual map of exercise and activity. Users can track calorie intake with a food log and connect and share with friends.
Cost: .99 Cents
If you’ve used any of the fitness & nutrition apps on our list, leave a comment below and let us know how you enjoy them. If your favorite fitness app isn’t on the list, share it with us!
Interesting tech trends can often be hard to find considering the data overload we deal with every day. Search no further; we’ve got your back! Below are 7 links that the Social Driver team found technologically cool, entertaining, and informative:
Credit: Joanna Stern
The shoe-niverse gained an awesome new addition as Google revealed an interactive shoe at this year’s SXSW. The Google Advertising team placed a small computer in the tongue of a pair of Adidas. Equipped with technology to assess your movements and connect to your phone, the shoes are fully capable of telling you to be more active if necessary. “The Talking Shoe is an experiment in how you can use connected objects to tell stories on the Web today,” said Aman Govil, head of the advertising team.
Recently announced, the new feed redesign for Facebook plans to offer minimized sidebars and a more intimate approach to convey a personalized feel. The design also plans to offer more real estate in individuals news feeds to those who promote post or own sponsored stories on Facebook. Find out more interesting changes in our What the New Facebook News Feed Redesign Means For Nonprofits post!
Could your workplace noise level (or lack there of) be hindering your creativity? Coffitivity, an online ambient noise provider, claims that studies show ambient sounds boost creativity. Using a coffee shop setting, Coffitivity suggest that working in too quiet or too loud of an environment can increase chances of unproductivity. Try it yourself! Visit Coffitivity, plug your earphones in, and let the creativity flow!
Should patients’ text or email their doctors as an added form of communication in healthcare? This question raises a lot of arguments and the article above reaches even more brow raising points. Considering digital progression and the many ways we communicate, the article shares that still less than “90% Americans have never emailed or texted with their doctor.”
Business Insider shared a list of 25 most innovative businesses in DC. From LivingSocial, a daily deals website, to Black Jack, a bar with a bocce ball court, the district is definitely home to some innovative businesses. Other interesting businesses that made their list include Capitol Bikeshare, Clean Currents, and Genius Rockets.
Nerds are not the only personalities on the programming scene. Douglas MacMillan shares the rise of the “more testosterone-fueled breed of coder.” With the onset of the “Brogrammer” meme’s floating around the Internet, the article shares interesting ideas and quotes from new age computer intellectualists who come from diverse backgrounds.
And here is an added bonus! If you often enjoy your friends’ playlists then you’ll enjoy Turntable. The online app allows a group of people to create a playlist for everyone to enjoy at the same time. Each person is deemed a DJ and has a chance at spinning their record and impressing the group. Even better, the app is also downloadable for iPhones.
What did you read about this week?
Here at Social Driver we love technology and exploring the latest trends and how they could be used to benefit our customers. To make sure we’re keeping up with the latest technology, our company meets every Tuesday to talk about “Hot Topics.”
The most recent tech trend to catch our eye is Vine. Vine is a new app that allows iPhone users (sorry Droid lovers) to turn photos into short videos and share with their friends. The videos, similar in style to animated GIFs, range from funny art to advertising. Now that Vine has been around for a couple weeks, organizations are getting in on the action and posting fun videos with Vine as a new way to share content with their audience.
Could this new trend be used for your organization? Here are some things to consider when evaluating whether to use Vine to connect with your organization’s audience:
1) Are most of your audience members actively using Twitter? – Vine was developed by a Twitter-owned company and currently can only be shared over Twitter feeds, not on Facebook. If your audience is actively engaging others through Twitter, Vine could be a great option for connecting with them.
2) How concise is the message you want to deliver? – Vine videos are only 6 seconds long which means you have to get your message across within the blink of an eye. This still leaves time for making an impression, but it must be thought out and intentional.
3) How much time can you commit to planning and execution? – Even though the videos are short, the impact can be lasting. You should plan your Vine content and message just as you would messages communicated through other means of social media. There should be an obvious message and call to action for viewers of your Vine videos
If you decide to explore marketing with Vine we’d love to see your videos in the comments below! Feel free to reach out to us at info@socialdriver.com if you would like information on how we could help your organization use technology to reach your target audience.
There is so much news buzzing around about Princess Kate Middleton and her pregnancy. Her time spent in the hospital must be far from enjoyable and we feel for her… how boring! So, we decided to create a list of the top 15 apps that Kate should download for information, entertainment, and planning for the arrival of her baby.
World CastlesNow that Kate and Wills are expanding their family, they need to start searching for a new home. This app is the Zillow for Royal families. I can't think of a better app for a Princess! With this app, Kate can search high and low for the most beautiful castles, learning about historic architecture, ancient ruins, and fortress origins, all while potentially picking out a new home!
My Baby's BeatWith this app, Kate and William can both bond with the baby before the big day! Whether they use an iPhone microphone or regular earphones, they can listen to the sound of the fetus' heartbeat, record it, and share it with family and friends. It brings creepiness to a whole new level.
Pimp My UltrasoundSince the baby won't arrive for quite some time, the only available pictures for William and Kate are the ultrasound photos. In the meantime, why not jazz these up a bit. With Pimp my Ultrasound, they can add from a list of “pimp features” such as a baseball cap, world's cutest baby frame, or even a tiara (which might be the most fitting.)
Baby PoolTo make the pregnancy even more exciting, Kate can set up a game for all of her family and friends on Baby Pool. Much like a fantasy football team, participants will compete and earn points by guessing the baby's birth stats correctly. Participants will predict topics such as baby's length, weight, birthday, and even exact time of arrival. Kate can set up a private pool, or we could all play. We basically already are, so why not earn some points in the process!
50+ Most Popular MocktailsIt's time for the Royal Palace to steer clear of cocktails. We bet this app will be filled with creative ideas and new twists on tasty juices and seltzers. The Royal parties are going to have to get savvy with the beverages over the next nine months, and with this app, there is no way they will run out of ideas!
BabyfaceWe know what Kate looks like, we know what Prince William looks like.. Any takers on what the baby will look like? This app can help. All Kate has has to do is enter 21 facial traits from both her and William, then the app will configure the dominant and recessive traits, and automatically assign what traits the baby will receive from each parent. Lastly, a cartoon animated baby is illustrated to share the results with Kate.. and most likely everyone else on the Internet.
Foods To Avoid When PregnantLet's face it, pregnancy changes everything. Kate can consult with this app on a daily basis to determine which foods are okay to eat and which foods to run from. Foods are broken up into categories for easy searching, so Kate can even pass her phone along to her personal chefs for easy menu planning!
White Noise Baby<
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Ahhhhh, peacefulness. By downloading White Noise Baby pre-baby, Kate can enjoy the soothing sounds of everything from an air conditioner and wind chimes, to the tones of a vacuum cleaner. Post-baby, when Kate needs instant entertainment for her baby, this app will turn into a rattle with fun shapes and sounds that will put the crying at ease.
SnapseedCould there have been a better time for the new Snapseed release?! While in hide-out from the paparazzi, Prince William and Kate can take millions of photos of their new baby, like all new parents do. This app will let them edit the photos through enhancing colors, adding frames, and selecting filters to reach professional style. Plus, the photos can be shared in a cinch through Google+ capabilities to make sure the entire Royal family is included!
Us WeeklyThere is nothing like a trashy magazine to make the time fly. When she has time to kill, Kate can pick up an Us Weekly to stay up-to-date on the latest American gossip in Hollywood. The Royal family no longer wants to look at British tabloids anyway, so this magazine app is a perfect replacement for a Royal stress-free read.
50,000 Baby NamesAside from finding out the gender of the baby, here is the next biggest question! What will Kate and William name “it?” This app will allow them to filter through thousands of names by popularity, meaning, origin, and sound. Once they find a few they like, Kate can create a favorites list of all the potentials before it's time for the final decision.
EventbriteWith the help of Eventbrite and sister Pippa, there's no way the Baby Shower could go wrong! Kate has two perfect opportunities to create the most royal of showers. Especially because we don't want any Royal invitations getting lost in the mail, Evenbrite makes it easy to share the shower online with everyone on the guest list. While Pippa does the planning, Kate can use the app to organize the details and see who has registered for attendance.
Remember The MilkWe all saw that Modern Family episode when Gloria, who is also pregnant, can't seem to keep up with her daily tasks of remembering what has to get done. We don't want Kate to suffer from pregnancy brain! With Remember The Milk, Kate can create to-do lists to connect to her gmail, iCal, and Twitter accounts to ensure she stays on track. When something needs to get done, Kate will get notified through all accounts, so she won't ever miss a thing.
NetflixTime for lots and lots of movie watching. Netflix makes the perfect app, especially when the TV remote is just too far out of reach. Since Kate no longer feels quite like herself, movies and TV shows will be a perfect way to spend time with her loved ones. Now that Disney signed an exclusive deal to Netflix, Kate won't have to leave the house to find her old favorites on DVD.
SkypeSince the whole world knows exactly which hospital Kate is staying, it must be hard for the Royal family to visit with and check on Kate. The best suggestion we came up with is Skype. With Skype, Kate can catch up with Pippa, Harry, Queen Elizabeth, along with the rest of the family to let them know how she is doing.
In all honestly, we wish Kate the safest and happiest of pregnancies. We can't wait to meet the newest member of the Royal Family!
Update: Our condolences go out to Jacintha Saldanha's family and friends.
Lots and lots of social media buzz about the election is circulating around the Web. In addition to that, new technologies are popping up to get us to the voting polls. Read below to find out what you must have before going to vote!
First of all, Vote For Somebody!
The adorable 4th graders at Democracy Prep are singing to get you to the polls! If you know the tune to “Call Me Maybe” then you’ll love listening to the Harlem Prep Hawks sing their creative mix of civic messages to inspire you to vote. This video has become a hit on YouTube and is going viral real fast. Don’t be the last one to get this song stuck in your head!
And ZipCar Will help You Get There
On Election Day, November 6th, Zipcar is promoting Zip To The Polls! Zipcar members can pay half price from 5am-9pm for hourly reservations on any vehicle. First, you can register to vote on Zipcar’s Facebook page and find your polling place. Book your reservation and you’ll be zipping to the polls for half the price in no time.
Download PollTracker Mobile
Talking Points Memo released PollTracker Mobile, a free app download for your iPhone in the AppStore. This app includes not only the presidential race, but all races across the entire country. You can choose which races you want to follow and receive immediate notifications when new polling information is released.
Find An App Just For Your State
Tech President gives us an update on election day apps via Google’s Civic Information API. The API sets up the basis for app developers to have access to early voting and polling locations, as well as candidate and official election information. As of last week, the API is active in fifteen states with many more emerging as we get closer to Election Day.
Check out what’s been happening over at Social Driver’s YouTube Channel!
Once Social Driver’s Anthony Shop saw BidPal in action, he wanted to learn more. Area director for BidPal, Josh Meyer, presented his new innovation to replace those pesky silent auction bid sheets with handheld devices. BidPal is helping traditional galas “get with the future” using tech-savvy auction automation and that’s why we love BidPal.
All you need is your credit card, iPhone, iPod Touch, or Android and you can monitor the auction in the palm of your hand. Extra motivation and competition are incorporated as guests have access to the highest bids and the donation totals. Watch the video to learn more!
We’ve shown some of our favorite responsive design examples, we’ve told you why responsive design is important, and we’ve even explained how it works. Now, we’ve collected our absolute favorite layout tools, testing tools, development tools, articles, and inspirations to make designing responsively as easy as possible. We think that all websites should be responsive, so take these tools and make our dream come true!
The best way to start any design is with a sketch. These free sketch sheets have four different sizes so you can plan out your design according to your different break points. They’re perfectly sized to print out so you can make as many as you want!
This is the most interactive and best-looking grid generator I’ve come across. You can specify the size of your grid elements–number of columns, column padding, gutter width–resize the grid for different resolutions, and even add break points. Once you’ve set your specs, one click will download your Gridpak containing PNG, CSS and JS files. This means you can use it in your design process, as well as your development. It works super well and looks pretty sweet doing it!
You should talk to us. Social Driver is now hiring both part-time and full-time front-end developers to help bring our responsive designs to life. We have free Nespresso and lots of fun!
This page has 5 different layout wireframes which you can toggle to a mobile view to see how content can be rearranged. Unfortunately you’re unable to make your own wireframes, and can’t control the screen sizes, but it’s still a good resource when you’re thinking about content organization.
This is a great collection of the various patterns used in responsive design. Different ways of reflowing content, handling navigation, tables, images, and more are shown with accompanying descriptions. By clicking “Edit This Pen” at the bottom of each page you can see the full HTML and CSS. Nicely done!
Your days of manually dragging out grids in Photoshop are over! GuideGuide is a free plugin for Photoshop that allows you to input a few values (column width, row width, gutter width, etc), press a button and Photoshop draws out the grid perfectly for you. I wish I had known about this sooner!
This article by Ethan Marcotte is a great introduction to responsive web design and development. Ethan provides a background for responsive design while walking the readers through his creation of a responsive page. He does a great job of explaining every step along the way as well as his thought process behind the work.
Are you just starting to plan your responsive site and don’t exactly know where to start thinking about content organization? Give this article a read. Luke discusses a few different ways to reorganize your page once the resolution gets smaller. With tons of examples and helpful diagrams, you’ll be on your way to a great responsive site in no time!
This article is rare in that it’s written for designers who won’t be touching any code. That being said, the article rightfully says, “To truly learn how to design a website, you must understand how the design will later be implemented in code, even if it’s only a rudimentary understanding.” The basics of Responsive Web Design are covered, as well as giving designers helpful tips on how to plan a design before anything gets started.
Deciding on breakpoints will always come up when designing responsive pages, but where should you place them? Many people hold to a standard set of breakpoints based on the resolution of popular devices, but there’s another way of thinking. This short and sweet article is an enlightening read if your wanting to refine your process for setting breakpoints for your responsive layouts.
BostonGlobe.com is one of the more recognizable responsive sites and frequently appears on lists about RWD. The author of this article talks us through the whole process of designing the new BostonGlobe.com with insights into breakpoints, where to start, and which programs to design in. It’s really interesting to read the problems they ran into and get some insight into the thought process that goes into redesigning a large website while keeping responsiveness in mind.
The whole process of designing for responsiveness is covered here. As a designer, responsiveness changes our workflow a bit. More design work must be done in-browser rather than completed before handing it off to the developer and the author does a great job of detailing this new process.
If you are wanting to test a responsive website that’s in development and you left your iPad at home or simply prefer doing it all on your desktop, responsive.is is the way to go. Put in a website and you can resize it for desktop and ipad or iphone in portrait and landscape orientation. It doesn’t offer manual control over window size, but it’s simple and works well for people targeting iOS.
There are a lot of testing sites out there, but I’ve found Screenqueries to be my favorite. It’s got a large list of mobile devices that you can select from, or you can drag the ruler around to fine-tune the window and choose exactly the resolution you want to see. You can easily rotate the view with a single click, and even see how it’ll look within the device’s browser UI using the “True View” button.
This grid generator gets right to the point and does it well. It allows you to input exactly how many columns you want, as well as widths and gutters, whereas other generators only give you a few pre-selected options.
Such a great repository for inspiration! Media Queries shows off tons of responsive examples with the different screen sizes side-by-side. It’s a great place to get ideas, or see how other designers are reorganizing content as screen size changes. Go to http://mediaqueri.es/popular for the best examples.
What are your favorite tools? Let us know in the comments below!
Social Driver headed to Chicago last week on a client meeting, but made time to visit Angus Gorberg and the Sprout Social team at their HQ. We were so excited to visit because Sprout Social has built a fabulous all-in-one social media management tool. The days of using multiple social media management tools to publish content, monitor engagement, and create statistics are long gone. Here are the 5 reasons you should be using Sprout Social.
Sprout Social turns analytics into works of art using bold colors and appealing design. Intuitive graphs and charts are used to display information about your social media’s influence and engagement. Better yet, you can easily share PDF/CSV reports with your team or clients by choosing custom date ranges. Even better, Google Analytics can be analyzed to determine if your social media activity is affecting your web traffic.
Have you tried to determine when your social media content results in the most engagement? ViralPost does this work for you. Sprout Social’s send time optimization technology automatically publishes your content when it will have the most impact on your audience. The technology analyzes your specific Twitter handle to create customized send times for your specific audience.
Use Sprout Social’s iPhone and Android apps for access on the go. It’s perfect for publishing content, monitoring mentions, and assigning tasks to team members when you’re away from your computer. No longer do you have to access various mobile apps to get the job done – Sprout Social’s app has it all in one.
Whether you’re a brand using Sprout Social for your company or you’re an agency with various client teams, multiple users can be added to your account. You’re able to customize their access levels and you can assign them specific tasks. And don’t worry if you have multiple accounts for a particular social media network. You can add and monitor them simultaneously.
The dashboard is your virtual hub for trends, audience demographics, and information regarding your social media accounts. Trends alert you to new followers, fans, and messages while demographics provide the ages and genders of those following you on social media. The visually appealing dashboard is also perfect for easily accessing your inbox, completing tasks, and downloading reports.
They have a 30 day free trial that we would highly recommend. Do you use Sprout Social? A different social media management tool? Let us know what you think in the comments.
This is the third post in a series about Responsive Web Design, described in plain language from a front end designer.
Ok, so we’ve discussed why responsive web design is an excellent solution for our websites. Then we dug a little deeper into how it actually works. Today we want to share our 20 favorite responsively designed websites and why we think they’re so great.
The largest responsive website to date, The Boston Globe handles loads of content effortlessly, keeping the site intuitive and the content easily accessible on the device of your choice.
You should talk to us. Social Driver is now hiring both part-time and full-time front-end developers to help bring our responsive designs to life. We have free Nespresso and lots of fun!
I love this site. I really do. Smashing takes advantage of horizontal screen real estate like few responsive sites do. Go ahead expand your browser window out as far as your screen allows and it just maximizes the space without feeling cluttered. Furthermore, the strength of the layout and menu structure does not degrade at smaller screen sizes. Nicely done.
Clean layout, beautiful photography and playful iconography made me like this site immediately on my first visit. It’s a joy to look at and navigate on any device and if you’re a foody looking for scrumptious, healthy recipes it may be love at first site.
Type designer, Jan Tschichold once said, ‘Simplicity of form is never a poverty, it is a great virtue.’ The simple layout and understated menu and graphic elements juxtaposed against beautiful fluid images communicate that excellence in form and function are givens when working with this architecture studio. This site just says ‘good design’ whether I’m viewing it on my iPhone or my iMac.
If you haven’t check out Sphero, you should. It’s an amazing robotic ball gaming system for IOS and Android devices. But I’m not reviewing their product, just there site. A recent web design trend is the use of background photos that flood the browser window. Sphero does this well. The abstract product photos with a grid overlay don’t distract from the important content. I like the permanent menu and footer bars on my desktop, but appreciate how the footer moves to make room for more important content on my iPhone. Overall, the site is intuitive and attractive. An excellent example that responsive design done well looks great on any size screen.
It might be the conspicuous green frog that causes me love this site. Either way, it’s worth resizing your browser window just to see him change size, shape and color. But seriously, this is a polished responsive site. The breakpoints correspond well with the layout requirements and the result is a sharp looking site that does not degrade at any size. The main menu always looks good even when those sweet little icons go away to make room on smaller screens.
The Grey Goose site shows that designing responsively does not limit our designs to columns of fluid text and images on solid backgrounds. The sky is still the limit with what we can do responsively. Beautiful photography, parallax scrolling, intuitive navigation and refined typography combine to create a site that is as equally functional and attractive on my smart iPhone as it is my iMac. This list is not in order of our preference, but if it was I think Grey Goose would be at the top.
With a name like “New Adventures In Web Design,” one would expect a responsive site for this web design conference. I think my favorite aspect of this site is the use of fluid typography. Notice how the menu, headline and body text resize subtly to achieve optimal legibility on all devices. Good design is all about the details and this site has the details dialed in.
Websites in the higher education space are not necessarily known for being on the leading edge of design trends. So discovering the Lancaster site was a nice surprise. I appreciate its simple, modern, non-trendy look and feel. In spite of it’s large amount of content, it’s as easy to navigate on my iPhone as it is on my iMac.
The spacious layout, bold typography and simple icons make fundraise.com easy to look at and navigate.
Nick La’s blog is a wealth of information and resources for any designer or front end developer. But that’s not why it’s in our list. The great content is accompanied by subtle texture, beautiful illustration and–thanks to its responsive nature–is easily accessible no matter what device you fancy.
Heathlife celebrates the heritage of one of London’s largest parks. Though maybe not quite as stunning as the park itself, this website is a beauty on screens large and small.
Though this site is not fluid, it has well structured layouts for any device class. Where many large responsive websites omit content for smaller screen sizes, London & Partners keeps it all, maximizing accessibility for mobile users. This is a good reminder that responsive design is an excellent solution for large and small site alike.
Oliver Russell has done a good job of building a site that responds well on mobile devices while keeping the integrity of the design in tact. I appreciate the shallow and straight forward content structure. My eyes are drawn to the most important sales points and I can access nearly all that I want to know without leaving the homepage. Refreshingly simple compared to the laborious, text heavy website of other marketing firms. One complaint: I would like to see the site expand beyond width of 960 pixels on larger monitors.
Ryan is product designer at Facebook, but has invested in a personal portfolio site that is a cut above the norm. Well branded and brilliantly responsive, Ryan’s site is a thing of beauty on any screen.
Jessica’s lettering and illustration rocks and so does her site. Seriously, I can’t help but smile when I look at it. It is simple and elegant and delightfully fluid. Oh, and for good measure she through in three additional themes. One of which is “Teen Girl Mode”, replete with rediculously distracting animated gifs and a hideous cat illustration (Just click on the little heart in the upper right corner).
Maybe it’s the friendly King Trident mascot, but this happy little site makes me want to download the Fork cms straightaway, or at least “try the demo”. To increase mobile load times the CSS omits the fun header illustrations at smaller sizes. Overall, site reformats and displays nicely on a variety of display ports.
Ethan coined the phrase, ‘Responsive Web Design’ in 2010, so it comes without surprise that his website is responsive. Ethan’s belief in articulate and intelligent design is expressed in a site that is straight and to the point without extraneous decoration.
This t-shirt shop site stretches and shrinks to fill any size view port with photos of their hip graphic t’s. Fluid images and type make this site a joy to browse on any size device. One complaint: I think the menu could be smaller for use on smartphones. Currently it takes up an unnecessary amount of valuable screen space on my iPhone.
Trent’s site is an excellent example of fluid type. On a large monitor the text size is slightly bigger for increased readability, whereas the text shrinks to achieve comfortable line lengths and legibility on my iPhone. I also really like the simple block print style illustrations Trent includes in his articles.
This is the first post in a series about Responsive Web Design, described in plain language from a front end designer.
Responsive Web Design has recently become a hot topic in the web design and development community. For those of you who are new to this term, responsive web design is a way of creating websites so they are able to adapt for optimal viewing across a variety of devices. Though the practice is relatively young, it is quickly being adopted as an industry standard–and for good reason. Practicing responsive design can help you connect with your audience, stay within budget and as we like to say here at Social Driver, Get With The Future.
In order to connect with your people on the web, you have to first understand how your audience is accessing the web. I could probably sum up the modern web environment with two words: “mobile explosion.” This may conjure very interesting mental images, but let me explain my word choice with the following stats:
You should talk to us. Social Driver is now hiring both part-time and full-time front-end developers to help bring our responsive designs to life. We have free Nespresso and lots of fun!
Okay, enough stats. What do all these figures mean anyway? In summary, more and more people are browsing the web on mobile devices. And if they aren’t yet, they most likely will be very soon. With the introduction of the tablet, “mobile” no longer pertains only to smartphones or feature phones. The gamut of screen sizes and resolutions has widened. People may be viewing your site on a Samsung Galaxy with a resolution of 480×800, a 768×1024 iPad 2 or a 1080×1920 desktop monitor. How do we create optimal web experiences for people across such a wide variety of devices?
Responsive Web Design helps us do just that, by enabling a website to respond to people’s browsing preferences. The content on the page is formatted and scaled to view beautifully and legibly whether on a tablet, smartphone or desktop monitor. This increases our visibility to our audience and helps us connect to people no matter what device they happen to prefer.
To understand the “why” behind responsive design, it’s helpful to understand the status quo. Currently, common practice is to design a desktop/laptop version of a website that will fit well in the minimum screen resolution of a company’s target audience. If the budget allows, the company may develop a second fixed width layout that will view well on most smartphones. While this approach is not necessarily wrong, it has a couple weaknesses.
The first is an increase in development cost and project timelines. Many organizations do not have the budget to develop both a desktop and a mobile site. Programming, designing and maintaining two unique sites often takes more time and therefore more money. Furthermore, not all mobile devices are the same. Tailoring a site to view optimally on an iPhone 4S does not mean it will look good on a Samsung Nexus. And for non-mobile sites, sticking with the good old 960px fixed width site no longer creates an optimal viewing experience on an increasing amount of desktop monitors, who’s resolutions are increasing. That is, unless you like half your browser window to be margins.
By designing responsively you can often save money by creating one website that fits nearly all devices. You will no longer have to worry about managing separate content for your mobile and desktop sites. Now people can access the same content on your website regardless of their device preferences.
While responsive web design is a relatively young practice, it is quickly becoming industry standard. More and more, we are recommending responsive design to the companies we work with. Not only does it help them keep costs down, but it also ensures that their websites will be forward compatible. As pixel densities, screen resolutions and aspect ratios of new devices change, practicing responsive design helps us create websites that will continue to view optimally on them all. In an industry where technology and trends are quickly evolving, it’s important that we’re providing companies with sustainable solutions.
Some companies’ audiences do a majority of their web browsing on desktop computers. If this is true of your company, we think the question to ask is “When does responsive design makes sense for us?” When will enough of our audience follow suite and begin using mobile devices? According to the statistics, the answer is sooner than we think.
Well, we’ve covered the main benefits of responsive web design and you may be curious as to how it works. Don’t worry! I’ve got you covered. Stay tuned for our next two posts, where I’ll dive a little deeper into how responsive design works and we’ll share with you our 20 favorite responsive websites.
