Re: Is latest Web Designer 'properly' responsive?
I don't understand what you mean exactly. With html, css, and javascript there's complete control; after all, this is precisely what Xara uses in a round-about way.Originally Posted by gwpriester
What Xara does not do is support mobile-first. And for the sake of those who read this post and don't know, I will explain.
Not every phone has the speed and power of a $1000 mobile phone, and most mobile phones are not as powerful as most desktops, or even laptops. Furthermore, most stationary (non-mobile) devices have faster dedicated internet connections available to them. Mobile devices can use Wi-Fi to access these same connections, but a hardwired connection is usually faster than a Wi-Fi connection.
The speed problem boils down to size, heat, and battery life. But speed aside, there is a main reason for mobile-first. There are simply more portable devices accessing websites than there are stationary devices; so, hence, mobile-first.
Mobile data is used to connect mobile devices to the internet and the idea is to cater to the majority -- mobile devices are the majority!
Mobile-first dictates three main things that Xara does not seem to address:
1. The website is designed from the smallest screen size first and expanded to the larger variants later, i.e. Desktop is the final variant and Xara obviously has this backwards.
2. The code (html, css, javascript) downloaded from individual websites is optimized for mobile, and this code is then later altered and appended for bigger viewports/variants. This assures that mobile code will download completely and be viewable immediately without first downloading a bunch of code for desktops that can be bulky and time-consuming for mobile devices; and the code then modified variant-by-variant until you get to mobile.
3. In a perfect world, each device will only see what it needs to render the web page in question; and mobile devices with slower processors, less memory, limited data, and slower connections are given top priority, because they are the majority and need all the help they can get in some cases.
I have not gotten into caching, picture sizes and formats, etc. in order to keep this post simple (to some degree).
Xara and Google have very different views on what is important. Hopefully Xara will make some much-needed changes. SEO ranking depends on it, as do happy customers like me; and right now I am not happy and stuck at version X 11 until Xara has an ah-ha mindset-change moment.
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Acorn - installed Xara software: Cloud+/Pro+ and most others back through time (to CC's Artworks). Contact for technical remediation/consultancy for your web designs.
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