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Thread: How to create a mobile-optimised site with NOF 2013?

  1. #1
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    Default How to create a mobile-optimised site with NOF 2013?

    Hi guys,

    Nice product you have here!

    I bought it because I want to improve my current (very basic) site - (http://www.japaneselamps.com.au if anyone's interested).

    One of the things I want to achieve is to make the site more easily viewable on mobile smart phones.

    I purchased NOF 2013 because it can apparently do this, but I can find precious little documentation or tutorials on this site or gotFusion. Even the forum doesn't mention this (unless I've missed something).

    Can anyone help with this, or point me to somewhere where I can learn more?

    Thanks

  2. #2
    Senior Member franko's Avatar
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    Start with one of the mobile templates included in 2013. Modify it as necessary just as with all other templates. Create mobile site to max 360 pix wide. If you want you can also duplicated the site to a wider pix for tablets, although with retina screen resolutions and higher douoble-pixel count tablets these days I've stopped doing this as I find my web sites work just fine in most cases on tablets. But don't make them any wider than 960 or 980 px wide. Then run a script in the web site root to detect the device and divert the visitor to the appropriate version. Here's a site which gives you some alternatives.

  3. #3
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    There's been a lot of noise lately about 'responsive design' where websites change their layout as you make the window smaller, until eventually it has a mobile like menu. I dont know if it a trend or necessary for the future of best website design - here's an example - http://www.agencycadre.com/
    Can this be done in Netobjects? Should it?
    Whilst Im asking, how about the new parallax trend ( like 3d layers of different scrolling speed backgrounds ) and freezing the menu at the top of the page? Can these be done in NOF 13 ( which I just upgraded to )?

  4. #4
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    [QUOTE=SolarLightCap;76436]http://www.agencycadre.com/
    The war backgrounds of the site like http://www.agencycadre.com/about are outrageous.

    Regarding other aspects of their design, as many "responsive" websites their font size is much to big for desktop displays.

    As Franko said, with the latest version of NOF you would have to design two different designs of the site. Tedious. But noone knows what future releases might bring.

    "Don't make them any wider than 960 or 980 px wide": true.

  5. #5
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    Maybe while we wait to see if NOF supports these new features( parallax, responsive, menu frozen ), we can do some ourselves.
    Eg the frozen menu might be easy using frames ( which would have weird scroll bars ) or something with the master border.
    Any ideas anyone?

  6. #6
    Senior Member franko's Avatar
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    Can this be done in Netobjects? Should it?
    No.

    Yes.

    But having said that there are some real design limitations in designing responsively. You have to have your content set in blocks which slide beneath one another. This means you can't just draw a layout region or text box, put in some pictures and text, and expect the application to generate a responsive web site. This means that you will, for quite a long while yet (in web terms) have to accept that you will only be able to use templates to generate the site. The two applications which are capable of RWD output at the moment - Artisteer and Xara Web Designer - are both template drivien. One of the things I really like about NoF is that I can start with a blank canvas and design anything I want pretty much.

    I am working at the moment (when I have time) on developing a methodology of creating a responsive site using NoF. Notice I said 'using NoF' because you still have to write your media queries externally from the program. Here's a web site which will give an idea of what is involved in creating a responsive site. As you can see, it's not rocket science; it just requires planning and re-editing the code that NoF generates.

    For my money it's more efficient to start with one of the existing boilerplates and develop the site manually.

    The other issue is that of content. As well as having to plan how the content will move to respond to different screen sizes you will also need to have accept that the content on the smaller screen will have to be considerably simplified versus the large screen. Different images, differently written copy (because comprehensibility is an issue on very small screens), a different flow construct - these all really mean that you are creating two of three versions of the site anyway. It's just that with RWD those three versions are all included in the one site rather than in three different sites presented to the visitor depending on the device they use.

    Re supersites (which is what those dynamically sliding background sites are currently being called). Xara Web Designer now had a couple of templates which let you do supersites and allow you to modify colour, images, etc. However, to do one of those really schmick sites you see (have a look at Wacom.com) you really have to program these in javascript.

    Will NoF have these capabilities? Of course it will. Soon? Probably not; the more I look into it the more I realise what a programming task it is to hide all that functionality in a wysiwyg drag n drop code generator like NoF. But I think we'll start to see the introduction of rudimentary functionality probably in the next release, together with 2 or 3 templates for RWD and supersites.

    But also the phone manufacturers (Apple, Samsung, et al) will also be introducing more effective ways of displaying web content. It's an ever moving feast - as the manufacturers change and upgrade their technology, so the web design program companies will have to continually update their software to take advantage of it.

    Creating effective web sites has never been so challenging (and I've been creating them since '95) nor so interesting. Watch this space.
    Last edited by franko; 06-24-2014 at 12:19 AM.

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  8. #8
    Senior Member Thomas Frei-Herrmann's Avatar
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    Steve - I am really waiting for a responsive design with NOF. This would triple turnover.

    Franko - everything must be on percentage - I have tried this technique here, but we should get a fully responsive template from NOF, my way is to complicated for most Users.

    http://www.nof-tutorials.com/Respons...rlage-NOF2015/

    ... also - Google is going to check on responsive webdesign very soon and people are going to lose their SEO

    Testing my page:

    https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...age-NOF2015%2F

    ... this is how your example looks

    https://www.google.com/webmasters/to...%2Fparallax%2F
    Last edited by Thomas Frei-Herrmann; 04-11-2015 at 05:28 AM.
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