e’ve got a ebsite for that The FT eb app and the future of the mobile eb ndre Betts (@triblondon) Fluent, San Francisco, 29th-31st May 2012

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Nespapers don’t make money from selling papers. e make money from selling content.

Less paper. More content.

Digital distribution •  Ubiquity across conventional and ‘post PC’ devices •  Ease of use •  Lo cost •  Lo risk of obsolescence •  Ideally something designed for publishing

1999: P. Seriously?

2001: BlackBerry®. No e’re talking. (except ironically e’re not talking because RIM ouldn’t add telephony capabilities for another 3 years)

2007: iPhone. Cracked it.

2008: pps arrive. Er, ait, hat?

hat exactly is an “app”, anyay? But ait…

Strictly: app (n). abbreviation of ‘application’,  computer program ith an interface, enabling people to use the computer as a tool to accomplish a specific task. ord processing, spreadsheet, and communications softare are all examples of applications.

s ‘adopted’ by pple: app (n). n installable computer program ritten for a specific mobile platform, installable via an online app store, ith a touch-optimised interface.

Popularly: app (n).  tool designed for touch sensitive smartphones and tablets, hich can be launched from the homescreen, ith a ‘native feel’

hat an ‘app’ is to us: app (n). a distributed computer softare application designed for optimal use on specific screen sizes and ith particular interface technologies,

Screen size Interface technology + Phone Tablet Notebook TV/desktop Touch Click Type Move Speak Think Point

Native/hybrid app + Phone Tablet Touch

Traditional eb Type TV/ Desktop Netbook/ Laptop + Phone Tablet Click

People built apps because their ebsites eren’t adaptive to the ne touch interfaces

The promise of eb today Type TV/ Desktop Netbook/ Laptop + Phone Tablet Click Touch Point

Should e use native apps? •  Not ubiquitous •  Can require proprietary tech •  Ne tech, could be obsolete quickly •  Not designed for publishing •  Very easy to use

The eb in a ‘post PC’ orld •  Still ubiquitous •  Free and open source •  Very lo risk of obsolescence •  as designed for publishing •  Not easy to use – loest common denominator user experience

Make the eb better

+ Traditional eb Phone Tablet

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+ Touch Traditional eb

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Make your perfect recipe using eb technologies.

The future of eb Type TV/ Desktop Netbook/ Laptop + Phone Tablet Click Touch Point Move Speak

Challenges for the eb •  Layout –  dapt, adapt, adapt •  Navigation and interaction –  Interpreting touches is a subtle art •  Offline use –  Just reinvent the hole ay the eb orks •  Rethink backend architecture –  Feer pages, more PIs •  nalytics –  Record activity hile user is offline

Floed columns

Floed columns

•  Load an article page hile offline •  Not in broser cache, not in app cache •  pp cache serves fallback •  Fallback acts like front controller Offline start

Re-encoding base64 Original   A   B   C   D   o   p   q   9   b64  index   0   1   2   3   40   41   42   61   As  binary   000000   000001   000010   000011   101000   101001   101010   111101   Shi?ed   00000000  00010000   10000011  10100010   10011010  10111101   As  hex   00  10   83  A2   9A  BD   UTF-­‐16   ☐   莢   丢  

eird. Not your father’s compression algorithm, that’s for sure.

Snoman sniffing •  Speed vs storage •  Encode some stuff, don’t encode other stuff •  Encoded strings prefixed ith a snoman ☃嘴璢璪䖪...

In summary •   ebsite can be an ‘app’ •  But it needs to be tailored for size and interface tech. •  eb technologies can do this •  eb approach retains all the benefits of the eb that you give up hen building native.

“Don’t build native apps, build eb apps” -­‐  Tim  Berners-­‐Lee  

Thanks andre@labs.ft.com @triblondon, @FTLabs Do you ant to build this stuff? Join in. jobs@labs.ft.com