This morning I put the final touches (at least for now) on this website. I made it fully responsive for mobile. It was quite a process to create a mobile menu which worked for me, and one which would provide a highly intuitive mobile experience that fit in with the new Genesis accessibility features. It had to be cutting edge and current in looks. it had to be simple. It had to be streamline. It also had to look pretty. It had to fit in with the rest of the site design, which was already mostly mobile friendly. It had to be functional.
It took a bit of time to come up with the right look and the right code, and I placed a time constraint on myself. I started working on it at the beginning of last week, and made today my cut-off date. I met my deadline, and am pleased with the result. This exercise taught me some very valuable lessons about efficient development and design. I call it modular development and design, and I believe that it’s integral to today’s world of rapid technological development.
The more I create and the more experience I have creating for others, the more I realize that efficiency in development is key. But efficiency doesn’t equate ugliness. It’s important to compile a library of re-usable code snippets, frameworks, and design elements to glean from when the time calls for it. Gone are the days of belaboring over the design or development process. People want things yesterday. I’m not saying that things are any easier to create. Of course not. I’m not saying that it should always be about spitting out product with extremely quick turnaround times. I’m saying that the development process should be as efficient as possible so that no time is wasted. And sometimes, there just are certain developmental or design elements that are so great that they should be implemented as much as possible. Why improve upon something that doesn’t need improving (until it does)?
In order to achieve efficiency, organization is key. But it’s not only the developer who has to be organized and be using the appropriate tools. He or she has to make sure that the client is organized too, and provides all the information and elements necessary to get the job done. Modular development. Modular design. Modular client-developer relationships. That is what makes up today’s technological environment. What do you think? I would love to know!
PS: That’s probably why I became attracted to the Genesis Framework and Underscores, among others.
Related Links:
SlickNav: “get started with mobile awesomeness”
Using Slick Responsive Navigation Mobile Menus on Genesis Child Theme: February 5, 2015, Neil Gee, WP Beaches
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