Can Drupal be the right choice for mobile / web application development?

August 12, 2018 DESIGNirvana 0

Developing websites and applications for the mobile audience is quite different from developing the same for the desktop/laptop/tablet users. Whether you’re building a website/application for yourself or your clients, you need to be aware of this thin line of difference between developing for mobile audience and for the laptop/desktop customers. Increasing customer loyalty and adding revenue have always been the sole reasons behind website/web app development. As an alert entrepreneur, you need to opt for a web development platform that renders you the flexibility of meeting both these reasons with excellence. With a wide range of web-based content management systems available in the web market, choosing the right one is a tedious job.

Drupal is one of the most renowned web development platforms used for building simple as well as complex websites and web applications. The question here is whether Drupal can serve as the right software for building mobile websites and web applications? Well, this blog is an answer to this question which often arises in the minds of people who’ve loved Drupal for developing desktop websites/web apps but are quite dicy about using it for building mobile responsive website/web applications.

Drupal- Offering a nice separation between content and presentation

Every good website needs to have well-streamlined content. In addition to this, there must be a nice separation between content and presentation. Drupal comes with modules/extensions that allow you to have full control over the content and its presentation for both standards as well as mobile websites. If you surf the internet, you’ll come across a large number of mobile modules that allow you to have a stable version of your website that runs flawlessly on both desktops/laptops as well as smartphones. 

Drupal- Offering flexibility of serving multiple domains via a single site

Every website owner wants to have a unique domain for standard as well as the mobile version of his/her portal. Drupal comes with the flexibility of serving different domains from the same site: Domain Access. The webmaster just needs to enable Domain Access for receiving two separate versions of the website. After receiving the versions, he/she can easily set different themes for each of them, followed by customizing the same to suit the preferences of site visitors. And that’s not all, there are tons of other Drupal modules that can well be integrated with Domain Access for rendering options that can ensure the effective functioning of your website/web application.

Drupal encompasses reduced deployment time

One of the distinct advantages of using Drupal for building a mobile app is the reduced deployment time. Since the developed mobile app already has a companion Drupal site for traditional web browsers, you can expect it to reach a larger audience within a short span of time. The best part of Drupal powered mobile apps is that you need not worry about their compatibility with the traditional web browsers. The mobile responsive themes of these Drupal apps allow you to stay worry-free about building a native app that’s compatible with the older web browsers. The web version of the respective Drupal app is readily available just by requesting the specific URL.

Once you’re familiar with the target mobile browsers, integrating mobile features into the Drupal site becomes simple and can be easily performed with the help of following modules:

  • Browscap– This is a module that will assist you in detecting the browser type.
  • Mobile Tools– This module helps you with browser detection, redirection to mobile site and theme switching that’s based on the device type.
  • Mobile Plugin– This is a handy module for detecting the device and performing image scaling.
  • WURFL– This is a module that detects mobile device capabilities.
  • Mobile jQuery Theme– This is a theming module that utilizes jQuery Mobile framework for theming.
  • Mobile– This is yet another theming module that can be used as a custom theme base.
  • Fusion Mobile– This is a Fusion Core sub-theme that’s targeted for mobile users.

Buzz around Drupal and mobile is getting bigger and better

Considering all the aforementioned factors, it’s quite simple to say that the buzz around Drupal and mobile is getting better with each passing day. It’s hard to imagine a single day wherein developers will be building apps using the mobile IDEs. Whether it’s about making code edits to a module file or committing codes via your phone, Drupal has built-in features that allow you to perform all this and much more.

Conclusion

From everything mentioned above, it’s quite clear that Drupal has the potential to contain your content, user management, business logic, and search functionality. With the never-ending demand for mobile apps development, the usage of Drupal will definitely witness an incredible amount of popularity.

 

Top 15 most talked-about web design trends

August 5, 2018 DESIGNirvana 0

Designing a website is a work of art and it requires complete knowledge of the latest tools, trends, and techniques. There have been new design trends coming in limelight from time to time and this changing trend has been there to attract and influence website visitors in a positive manner. As we move further with the latest design technologies, the web today is changing dynamically with vibrant updates. New website designs are aimed at easing the access of information, networking with social contacts and accomplishment of other tasks. Out of all the trending designs of the year, these 15 designs have gained a top spot among various other design techniques.

The introduction of CSS3 and HTML5 has completely changed the whole design approach in a progressive manner, designers got the much-needed momentum to try out and explore various new design techniques purely using CSS and HTML.

Here is a collection of top 15 most talked-about web design trends to watch for!

Responsive Single-Page Designs

The trend of responsive web layouts has been there for some time and is there for a prime motto of creating a single design matching all the devices available. However, designing websites on a single page is the latest trend followed nowadays. The combination of the responsive design of a single page website is trending a lot among the designers of today.

Retina Display Support

Devices with retina displays have been already introduced to the consumers that are capable of displaying high-resolution media. So, the latest trend follows with creating high-resolution retina-display compatible web pages.

Fixed Header Bars & Mobile Navigation

Making navigation easy has been the prime task of all the web designers. Following this concern, fixed header bars have been introduced at the top of a web page that is visible continuously at the top of the web page to provide easy access. Also, mobile navigation links are gaining popularity that provides ease of navigation to the user while navigating through the site.

Fullscreen Backgrounds & Typography

The idea of full-screen backgrounds and attractive typography is a brilliant attention grabber for visitors. A proper fitting provides a pleasing design to the viewers giving an extra edge to the website design.

Transparent Elements

CSS3 provides advanced properties for adding transparency to web page elements. This transparency provides a lively look to the web page design and is trending a lot.

Simple and Minimal Landing Page

The latest idea for selling products online is to keep the website simple and focus on a minimalist view for core focus on the product.

QR Codes

Barcodes have been replaced by Quick Response (QR) codes. These codes have evolved to catch up with the fast response needs. These codes have found a place on websites to provide quick access to coded data.

Illustrative Web pages

Illustrations are a better way of capturing the attention of a visitor. Creating illustrative web pages requires artistic and creative skills to create appealing designs.

Infinite Scrolling

The idea of infinite scrolling has been over the internet for some time, but it is now that this design has gained a spot in trending designs.

Featured Homepages & Sliding Panels

An example of illustrated webpages lies in featured homepages describing the website and regularly sliding panels highlighting products at the top of the page.

Animations & Circular Elements

Animations are an excellent approach to holding the attention of the visitor to the website. Animated effects are used to graphically describe a particular product/service for which the website has been built. While, the use of circles for description purposes is an easy, clean and compatible with every layout.

Vertical Navigation

Vertical navigation panels have not been a famous design for various web sites. While many creative designers have attracted other designers to this view by creating some elegant designs and has put this design into the latest trends.

Social Media Badges

The success of a website depends primarily on the marketing of a website. Marketing through social media is becoming a vital component of successful marketing of a website. Almost all the online social communities have their own badges for sharing on different websites that can be pinned at any place in a layout over an article or a blog. These badges help a reader quickly share the content of a website on popular social networking websites.

Deep Box Shadows

Deep shadowed boxes are trending in web designs today, where the shadows of boxes infused with the modern designs of a website provide an attractive effect. This effect gives an amazing look to the website without reducing the aesthetic value of the website. The implementation of this design seemed to be difficult before because of the need for long and difficult codes of Javascript or some other elements. With the introduction of CSS, this design can be created with simple script code.

Blurred Backgrounds

The use of a blurred background adds to the depth of a website and enhances the visual interest of the viewer. This design helps to grab the attention of the viewer towards the main content or visual elements of a website. These designs also translate easily to mobile versions of websites without compromising on the impact of the design. The background added is not meant to provide any message to the viewer; rather, it is there to provide a viewpoint that the content visible clearly holds more significance.

All these designs have gained a high popularity among designers and have been proved very successful in attracting a huge number of visitors. The user interface is the first preference for the design of a website that is created today, which these designing trends aim to provide to the user. A lot of examples can be found over the internet with the implementation of these latest design trends.