Mobile Workshop

The Mobile Workshop consists of two days of custom on-site classroom training at your facility for up to 20 attendees. During the workshop, up to eight modules on a variety mobile design and development topics are presented.

Each module can be presented at two depths: either a 90 minute “Crash Course” or a 3 hour “Deep Dive”. How the extra time in the Deep Dive sessions is used depends on the module and typically includes case studies, live coding, or student exercises.

The two day workshop can accommodate four Deep Dives, eight Crash Courses, or a combination of the two (see sample schedule below). If two days is not enough time to include all the material you would like, longer workshops can be arranged.

We invited Jonathan Stark @ COSSETTE for one of the best workshops of the year with all of our digital experts in Montreal.

I met Jonathan at Adobe Max in LA. His presentation on HTML5 stood out from tens of presentations at the conference. Jonathan was able to combine powerpoint slides and code examples in an efficient and entertaining way. I subsequently invited Jonathan to deliver an HTML5 training at T-Mobile.

Modules

You can customize your workshop by mixing and matching the following modules:

Principles of Mobile Interface Design

Mobile app design for touchscreen devices has more in common with classic industrial design principles than the software interface development patterns of the desktop computing era. Learn how to take your mobile app from concept to completed design by exploring practical principles and visual examples.

What will be covered?

  • User centered design
  • Defining the mobile context
  • Pragmatic UI guidelines
  • Editorial considerations for small screen
  • Best practices for touch interfaces
  • Designing cross-platform controls

Who is this module for?

This module is for web designers and developers who are interested in creating mobile apps. A basic familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript would be very helpful but is not required.

Fundamentals of Mobile Application Architecture

The portion of a mobile application that is installed on a client device is just the tip of the iceberg. Virtually all mobile apps rely on a cloud component that provides centralized delivery and administration of business logic, data persistence, performance optimization, security, analytics, and more.

What will be covered?

  • The six considerations of enterprise-class mobile solutions
  • Reference architecture diagrams
  • Importance of web services
  • Sync strategies for offline data
  • Supporting legacy systems
  • Overview of off-the-shelf solutions (MEAP)

Who is this module for?

This module is for front- and back-end application developers and IT professionals who are interested in creating robust and enduring mobile apps. A basic familiarity with database programming, web services, and general cloud computing concepts would be very helpful but is not required.

Responsive Web Design Bootcamp

It is no longer safe to assume that visitors to your website are sitting in front of large monitor equipped with a keyboard and mouse. As smartphones overtake the desktop as the primary portal to the Web - and as new device types and interaction models continue to emerge - designers need to adopt future-friendly strategies that support a full range of user contexts with a single codebase.

What will be covered?

  • The “One Web” philosophy and benefits
  • Mechanics of media queries
  • Code organization and best practices
  • Adding support for adaptive images
  • Fallback techniques for older browsers

Who is this module for?

This module is for web designers and developers who are interested in creating mobile web sites and web apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript would be very helpful but is not required.

Advanced CSS Styling & Animation for Mobile Apps

Smartphone owners have come to expect a highly polished user experience and they’ll go elsewhere if you don’t deliver. Fortunately, recent advancements in CSS provide web designers the tools to deliver 2D & 3D transformations, simple transitions, powerful animations, and other advanced visual effects.

What will be covered?

  • Border images
  • Box shadow
  • Linear & radial gradients
  • Data URLs
  • Sprites
  • Transforms, transitions, & animations
  • Fallback techniques for older browsers

Who is this module for?

This module is for web designers who are interested in creating mobile web sites and web apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML & CSS is required. Experience with JavaScript would be helpful but is not required.

Touch & Gesture Event Handling

The responsiveness of Web and hybrid mobile apps is sometimes described as sluggish compared to native apps. Often, this is because the developer has bound event handlers to mouse events rather than touch events. By taking advantage of the touch events exposed by modern mobile devices, developers can potentially shave hundreds of milliseconds off of each user interaction, as well as enable gesture interactions that would not normally be available in an HTML context.

What will be covered?

  • One-finger events
  • Two-finger events
  • Multi-touch events
  • Gesture events

Who is this module for?

This module is for front-end developers who are interested in creating web or hybrid mobile apps. Intermediate to advanced understanding of JavaScript is recommended.

Building Offline Web Apps with HTML5

For years, the terms “web” and “online” have been intrinsically linked in people’s minds. With HTML5, the web’s dependency on a connection to the internet has been broken. Web apps can now run offline in modern browsers thanks to HTML5 support for client-side storage of relational data, key/value data, and static assets.

What will be covered?

  • Web Storage
  • Web SQL Database
  • Offline Application Cache
  • Indexed DB
  • Offline data sync strategies
  • Fallback techniques for older browsers

Who is this module for?

This module is for web designers and developers who are interested in adding offline support to web sites and web apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML and JavaScript is required.

Building Hybrid Apps with PhoneGap

Cross-platform native mobile app development is often prohibitively resource intensive. Mobile web apps offer a relatively inexpensive solution based on a single codebase, but web apps can’t access desirable device APIs like the camera, microphone, file system, and more. PhoneGap solves this problem by wrapping open standard web apps in native code for all major smartphone platforms. This allows web development teams to build apps using their existing skills and tools, access native mobile device APIs directly from JavaScript, and package their web apps for sale in platform app stores.

What will be covered?

  • Decision tree for web vs native vs hybrid
  • Accessing device APIs with JavaScript
  • Packaging apps locally
  • Compiling apps in the cloud
  • Using native code to extend PhoneGap

Who is this module for?

This module is for web designers and developers who are interested in leveraging their web skills to create native cross-platform mobile apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is recommended. iOS or Android development experience is helpful but not required.

Debugging Mobile Apps

Mobile app development is still in its infancy. Because of this, the tools available for troubleshooting are quite limited. Debugging apps - especially cross-platform - can be extremely difficult. Fortunately there are a few cutting edge technologies and techniques that can ease the pain while we wait for more mainstream solutions.

What will be covered?

  • Webkit developer tools
  • Remote DOM inspection with WEINRE
  • Synchronized browsing with Adobe Shadow
  • Remote JavaScript console with JS Console
  • Web debugging proxy with Charles

Who is this module for?

This module is for front-end designers and developers who are interested in creating web or hybrid mobile apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is recommended.

The Mobile Frameworks Landscape

The quantity and variety of mobile development utilities, tools, and frameworks, is exploding. From JavaScript micro-frameworks to Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAPs), it’s becoming a full time job just keeping up with the acronyms, never mind the capabilities or quality of each. This module will cut through the hype and provide a mental framework for deciding which tools to use in a given situation by describing and demonstrating the most popular options in each category.

What will be covered?

  • JavaScript Utility Libraries (e.g. jQuery, Zepto, XUI, Underscore)
  • Mobile UI Frameworks (e.g., jQuery Mobile, jQTouch, Sencha Touch)
  • Native tools for Cross-Platform Apps (e.g., PhoneGap, Titanium, Corona)
  • Decision tree for web vs native vs hybrid

Who is this module for?

This module is for front-end designers and developers who are interested in creating mobile web sites, mobile web apps, or hybrid mobile apps. A working familiarity with standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is recommended.

Sample Schedule

Following is a sample workshop schedule. Exact times will vary based on the level of audience interaction but every effort will be made to stay on schedule. Times can be shifted or otherwise modified in advance by request. Attendees will be on their own for food and beverages during the breaks.

Day 1

8:30 - 9:00Welcome
9:00 - 10:30Session
10:30 - 11:00Break
11:00 - 12:30Session
12:30 - 1:30Break
1:30 - 3:00Session
3:00 - 3:30Break
3:30 - 5:00Session

Day 2

9:00 - 10:30Session
10:30 - 11:00Break
11:00 - 12:30Session
12:30 - 1:30Break
1:30 - 3:00Session
3:00 - 3:30Break
3:30 - 5:00Session

Booking & More Info

Please contact me to book your workshop or to make special arrangements for additional days or attendees.

Jonathan interviewed by #SXLB at #SXSW about Jonathan's Card, social media, mobile payments, and advice for brands.

About Jonathan

Jonathan Stark is a mobile consultant and web evangelist who believes that wireless computing will transform every aspect of society.

Jonathan is the author of three books on mobile and web development, most notably O'Reilly's Building iPhone Apps with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript which is available in seven languages.

His Jonathan's Card experiment made international headlines by combining mobile payments with social giving to create a "pay it forward" coffee movement at Starbucks locations all over the U.S.

See Jonathan in person, check out his blog, join the mailing list, or connect online:

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