If you are feeling buried by all of this new technology, you are not alone. So many new devices; so many approaches to the design/develop for mobile devices dilemma. Designers want to be designers, not coders. The sad reality, however, seems to be if there is a one-application-fits-all solution out there (which I have not found to date), the price tag for those that claim to be can be daunting especially for smaller design firms.

A solution to the problem of writing to multiple devices is currently being addressed by Adobe. You might want to investigate this avenue. It does involve having a Creative Cloud membership–which you can currently get for free for a limited length of time. For this, a new line of tools (Edge Tools and Services) is currently under development. Some of the apps are available in early stages; but all should be available, I predict, by first quarter next year (hopefully).

The line of products includes Edge Reflow which, reportedly, will give the designer the ability to create responsive layouts inside an intuitive user interface. Will this be the answer for being able to design for all screen sizes without sacrificing quality or capability? For the designer, the answer is most likely a definite “yes.” But the process does not end there. With Reflow you create design (content and css), but not end product (app). The css that is produced will then be used with Dreamweaver, Edge Code, or “any other editor of your choice” to create web pages. PhoneGap Build, another Adobe Service, packs the code into mobile apps to run on smartphones. 

Another interesting product in this lineup is Edge Inpect. This tool gives the user the ability to view your code (HTML, CSS, plus JavaScript) as it will display “all” devices. To get a preview of this tool, go to html.adobe.com/edge/inspect. 

To see the other tools in the Edge group, click the Edge Tools and Services tab at the top of this page, or go to html.adobe.com/edge.

The Edge tools are designed to cover the full gamut of the creative process from design to layout and development. Each tool is task-based, allowing the designer and/or coder to choose the tool relevant to the task. It is inevitable, that designers will need to know a little about code, and developers will need to care about design. And, if you are a one-man-band, you will need to know both.

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