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Trends and Opportunities in Mobile Web (2014)

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December 18, 2014

Trends and Opportunities in Mobile Web (2014)

Talk by @jmwai at Emobilis training institute in Nairobi

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James Mwai

December 18, 2014
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  1. Agenda • About Me • What is Mobile Web. •

    Why is Mobile Web Important. • Trends we saw in 2013. • HTML5. • Libraries / platforms for Mobile web. • Mobile web design patterns. • Tips for building a great mobile web experience. • Discussion.
  2. Me • James Mwai • Mobile/Web developer. • Consultant at

    ihub. • Winner of Nokia create for millions 2012 global challenge. • @jmwai
  3. Mobile web Access to the world wide web from a

    hand-held mobile device, such as a smartphone or a feature phone, connected to a mobile network or other wireless network. Maybe through a mobile website or a packaged mobile webapp.
  4. Why mobile web is important. • More people are now

    accessing the Internet through hand-held devices such as smartphones and tablets than from personal computers. • Majority of web access in Africa is on Mobile web. • Unlike native apps, mobile web apps will run across all smartphones and tablets. • Building mobile webapps is not hard.
  5. What you need to know • Good understanding of JavaScript,

    CSS and HTML. • HTML5 and CSS3. • Basic structure of a webapp. • How to make your webapp communicate with a remote server. (REST) • Available frameworks/libraries/platforms for modern web development both for mobile and desktop.
  6. Some trends we saw in 2013 • Responsive design •

    QR Codes • Infinite Scrolling • Increase in HTML5 adoption • More frameworks and libraries targeting mobile webapps. • ….....
  7. Responsive design • Webapps that provide an optimal viewing experience

    across a wide range of devices. • Layout that responds to any screen size. • No need to create a different mobile version of your site.
  8. How? • Fluid grids • Flexible images • CSS3 Media

    queries – Allow content rendering to adapt to screen resolution. • Server-side code to improve site loading speeds.
  9. QR codes • Usage continues to grow at a high

    pace. • Used in mobile web as a form of advertising to get the user easily to a company's mobile site without having to type the URL.
  10. HTML5 • Designed with touch devices in mind. • Works

    across a multiplicity of devices. • Support for gestures, hardware acceleration, gps, camera, more • Easier to Bake into existing web experiences. • Local storage helps in caching data offline which is great for mobile networks. • Faster, cheaper, easier to develop.
  11. JQuery Mobile • Based on the Jquery Library. • Let's

    you build a single mobile site that will work across all popular smartphones and tablets. • Completely free and open source. • Easy to learn.
  12. Sencha Touch • Feature-rich HTML5 mobile framework. • Enables developers

    to build world-class user interfaces and powerful apps that run across iOS, Android, Windows Phone, BB.... • Over 50 built-in components for each popular mobile operating system.
  13. PhoneGap • Easily create apps using the web technologies you

    know and love: HTML, CSS, and JavaScript • Owned by Adobe. • Free and open source framework. • Phonegap-build allows to package mobile webapp in the cloud. You don't have to maintain sdk's for each and every platform you are targeting. • Great documentation: docs.phonegap.com • Apache cordova allows you to compile your app in the cloud and make releases for each mobile operating system you are targeting.
  14. Phonejs • HTML5 JavaScript framework for smartphones and tablets. •

    Create native client applications using HTML5 and JavaScript with a single code base and deliver solutions that target today's most popular smartphones and tablet devices • Touch-optimized user experience, natively rendered widgets, straightforward page navigation, view management, and data access layers • Can be packaged using apache cordova.
  15. The-M-Project • Create cross-platform mobile web apps that look stunning

    native • The-M-Project is a mobile HTML5 JavaScript framework that helps you build great mobile apps, easy and fast. • Cross platform – Pure HTML, JavaScript, CSS3 code base that can be compiled to run on iOS, Android, Windows phone. • Free and Open source. • You can make builds using apache cordova.
  16. Dojo Mobile • Based on the Dojo Toolkit. • Enables

    rapid development of mobile web applications with a native look and feel on modern webkit-enabled mobile devices such as iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Android and RIM smartphones and tablets. • Has inbuilt themes with a native feel and look. • Touch gestures, animated transition, smooth scrolling.... • Can be compiled using apache cordova. • Free and Open Source.
  17. Wink • Webapp Innovation Kit. • Lightweight JavaScript toolkit which

    will help you build great mobile web apps. • Designed and developed to meet the specific constraints of the mobile environment. • The toolkit's core offers all the basic functionalities a mobile developer would need from touch event handling to DOM manipulation objects or CSS transforms utilities. • Offers a wide range of UI components to help you improve the look and feel of a web app, or simply to experiment with new user interaction. • Can be compiled using Apache Cordova.
  18. Intel XDK • Intel's front-to-back HTML5 app development environment for

    cross-platform apps • Let's you develop, test, preview and deploy HTML5 apps. • You can make builds in the cloud for Android, iOS, Windows Phone.... • A well thought out HTML5 development environment.
  19. Nokia Asha Web Platform. • Provides a powerful, data efficient

    web apps development environment targeting Nokia Asha and Series 40 devices. • Includes Asha UI build based on the popular series 40 ui. • Helps you build and compile webapps to install natively on Asha and s40 devices. • Easy to publish apps on the Nokia store.
  20. Bootstrap Front-end Framework • A free collection of tools for

    creating websites and web applications. • Originally developed at twitter. • Has a powerful responsive grid system that scales from hand-held devices up to the desktop. • Great for responsive web design. One codebase for both the desktop and mobile version of your webapp.
  21. Some modern JavaScript stuff every mobile web developer should know.

    • JQuery • Angularjs • Backbonejs • Emberjs • Modernizr • Requirejs • HTML5 Boilerplate • Nodejs • And many more.... • Note: you don't have to know how to use all them but it helps to what they are and their uses.
  22. Popular mobile web design patterns. Hierarchy pattern • Standard site

    structure with an index page and a series of sub pages. • Good for organizing complicated mobile site structures that need to follow a desktop site’s structure.
  23. Tab View Pattern. • A collection of sections are tied

    together by a tab menu. • This allows the user to quickly scan and understand the complete functionality of the app when it’s first opened. • Good for tools based apps with a similar theme. • Suited for apps with simple content structure.
  24. Hub & spoke pattern. • Central index from which users

    will navigate out. • Users can’t navigate between spokes but must return to the hub, instead. • Good for multi-functional tools, each with a distinct internal navigation and purpose. • It’s the default pattern on Apple’s iPhone
  25. Nested Doll pattern. • Leads users in a linear fashion

    to more detailed content. • This is a quick and easy method of navigation. • The perception of moving forward and then back, gives the user a strong sense of where they are in the structure of the webapp. • Good for apps or sites with singular or closely related topics. • Users won’t be able to quickly switch between sections under this architecture as the have to return Home in order to select another section.
  26. Bento Box/Dashboard • Dashboard brings more detailed content directly to

    the index screen by using components to display portions of related tools or content. • Allows the user to glance at key information on the apps homepage. • More suited to tablets than mobile phones due to its complexity. • Suitable for content based apps like news apps.
  27. Filtered Hierarchy • Allows the user to navigate within a

    set of data by selecting filter options to create an alternative view. • The app could have side navigation bar with several menu options for different subcategories • Each subcategory is displayed on the main view without leaving the site's homepage.
  28. Building a great Mobile web experience • Use a mobile-first

    responsive design. • Build touch friendly interfaces. • Make it very easy for users to fill forms and give you information. • Reduce network requests to save bandwidth. • Bundle and Compress your JavaScript and CSS to make loading them faster. • Use CDN's to host your static resources – CSS, JavaScript, images. • Sacrifice complex features for a clean, simple and easy to use design. • •