Newsroom Smartphone market drives 600% growth in mobile web usage eBay global mobile sales generated nearly $2 billion in 2010 The average smartphone user visits up to 24 websites a day and the top 50% of websites only account for 40% of all mobile visits Mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common web access devices worldwide by 2013 PayPal is seeing up to $10 million in mobile payment volume per day
● to focus on what truly matters ● to make sure that what stays on the screen is the most important set of features ● to emphasize content (over navigation) ● to know your business & customers ● about obtaining new abilities Mobile is
James Pearce “The fact that the user has a small screen in their hand is one thing - the fact that it is in their hand at all is another. The fact that the user may be walking, driving, or lounging is yet another. In fact, it’s quite likely that they really deserve different content and services altogether - or, at least, a differently prioritized version of the default desktop experience.”
Mobile Interaction Types Lookup/Find I need an answer to something now - frequently related to my current location in the world. Explore/Play I have some time to kill and just want a few idle time distractions. Check In/Status Something important to me, keeps changing or updating and I want to stay on top of it. Edit/Create I need to get something done now that can’t wait. urgent/local bored/local repeat/micro-tasking urgent/micro-tasking
● runs inside a native container ● uses the device’s browser engine [WebView] but not the browser ● has access to device capabilities that are not accessible in Mobile Web applications through a web-to-native abstraction layer A Hybrid App
Local Hybrid Package HTML and JavaScript code inside the mobile application binary, in a manner similar to the structure of a native application. In this scenario you use REST APIs to move data back and forth between the device and the cloud.
Server Hybrid Implement the full web application on the server (with optional caching for better performance), simply using the container as a thin shell over the UIWebview.
Sencha Touch Allows your web apps to look and feel like native apps. Beautiful user interface components and rich data management, all powered by the latest HTML5 and CSS3 web standards. Keep them web-based or wrap them for distribution on mobile app stores.
PhoneGap Allows your web apps to look and feel like native apps. Beautiful user interface components and rich data management, all powered by the latest HTML5 and CSS3 web standards. Keep them web-based or wrap them for distribution on mobile app stores.
Web Create sophisticated apps with HTML5 and JavaScript alone, while several limitations remain like secure offline storage and access to native device functionality
● each desktop URL has an equivalent different mobile URL ● only send what a client needs ● optimized source order ● optimized URL structure ● relies on user agent redirects to device-specific code templates ● templates per device class ● high duplication of code the Strategy
Ethan Marcotte “Rather than creating disconnected designs, each tailored to a particular device or browser, we should instead treat them as facets of the same experience. In short, we need to practice responsive web design.”
You can benefit from serving one document up to multiple contexts or devices You want to support the largest growing market of Internet users You want the cleanest, fastest, and most maintainable code base You understand that experience can and should be subtly different across different browsers You require the design to look identical across all browsers, including IE 8 and lower versions 70 percent or more of the current or expected visitors to the site likely to use Internet Explorer 8 or lower versions When to Use
1. The browser is your new canvas 2. DIY with “target / context = result” 3. Fluid grid system (columnal, semantic, skeleton) 4. Typography - percentages & custom fonts 5. Images & Videos (max-width & different resolutions) 6. Iframes (Youtube/Vimeo) need JS The Flexible Grid
Queried Features width The width of the display area height The height of the display area device-width The width of the device’s rendering surface device-height The height of the device’s rendering surface orientation Accepts portrait or landscape values aspect-ratio Ratio of the display area’s width over its height. For example: on a desktop, you’d be able to query if the browser window is at a 16:9 aspect ratio device-aspect-ratio Ratio of the device’s rendering surface width over its height. For example: on a desktop, you’d be able to query if the screen is at a 16:9 aspect ratio
Queried Features color The number of bits per color component of the device. For example, an 8-bit color device would successfully pass a query of (color: 8) color-index The number of entries in the color lookup table of the output device. For example, @media screen and (min-color- index: 256) monochrome Similar to color, the monochrome feature lets us test the number of bits per pixel in a monochrome device resolution Tests the density of the pixels in the device, such as screen and (resolution: 72dpi) or screen and (max-resolution: 300dpi) scan For tv based browsing. progressive or scan grid Tests whether the device is a grid-based display, like feature phones with one fixed-width font
Device Based 320 pixels For small screen devices, like phones, held in portrait mode 480 pixels For small screen devices, like phones, held in landscape mode or ultra phones 600 pixels Smaller tables like Amazon Kindle 768 pixels Tech-inch tables like iPad, iPad mini & Nexus 1024 pixels iPad in landscape mode 1200 pixels Widescreen displays, primarily laptop and desktop browsers
the Strategy ● 1 hyperlink = great experience across devices ● content adapted on the browser ● single URL structure ● single source order ● flexible media performance challenge
the Strategy ● consistent URLs ● one set of basic HTML markup ● layout covered by flexible grids & media queries ● optimized media ● optimized source order ● optimized application design ● optimization happens on the server
Why HTML 5? ● Lighter codebase with better W3C validated semantic markup => Smaller footprint on low bandwidth devices ● APIs to use the exciting new abilities of mobile devices
HTML 5 APIs WebStorage Recommendation Offline Cache Working Draft Geolocation Candidate Recommendation Device Orientation and Motion Working Draft File & FileReader Working Draft getUserMedia/Stream API Working Draft Canvas Candidate Recommendation Video/Audio Working Draft Page Visibility Recommendation Web Workers Candidate Recommendation
Ben Frain “Always be best to start a design thinking about the mobile/small screen experience and building up from there. Until then, it's likely you'll need to take existing desktop designs and retro-fit them to work responsively.”
Content over navigation ● No need for multiple navigation bars ● Show navigation only when user needs it ● No back buttons needed ● Be careful with fixed toolbars ● Focus at one task at a time
Optimize for touch ● Big tappable actions ● Destructive actions outside of user comfort zone ● Most reliable touch gestures: tap, drag, swipe ● Hover is obsolete, kill it with fire
Luke Wroblewski “On-hover menus on the web have also become dumping grounds for actions not deemed important enough to be on the screen but still important enough to reveal on hover. ”
● Show info on screen if it’s important enough ● Show info on tap/swipe if it doesn’t introduce an extra step ● Show info on a separate screen if content is excessive ● Kill it with fire to simplify, you know? How to deal with hovers
Forms & Limited Space ● No room for left- or right- aligned labels ● Top aligned labels are the way to go ● Even better: labels inside input fields ● Utilize the different input types (url, email etc) for even easier input
Alternative Input Types ● Alternative keyboards make entering a URL/email address much easier ● Avoid multiple select menus (tap-intensive) ● Provide alternative controls (e.g. spinners) ● Use smart defaults
● Besides enabling HTML5 structural elements for IE, it also provides the ability to conditionally load further polyfills, CSS files, and additional JavaScript files based on a number of feature tests. ● Makes it easy for you to write conditional JavaScript and CSS to handle each situation, whether a browser supports a feature or not Modernizr
Compass & Susy ● Replace Bootstrap bloat ● Only include the parts we need ● Lots of useful extensions available ● Susy makes creating flexible & fixed grids a (relative) breeze