evolved quite a bit in their lifetime • Sophistication • Lowering of production costs • Lower barriers to entry for consumers • But • User interaction models haven’t changed much in their lifetimes • Models & paradigms from the dawn of the media largely still apply • This has led to false sense of complacency with the web Wednesday 10 October 12
dimensions Tablet Desktop TV Mobile 176 x 220 to 800 x 1280 600 x 800 to 2048 x 1536 800 x 600 to 2560 x 1600 1280 x 720 to 1980 x 1080 0.3m 0.5m 0.7m 3m Contexts, interfaces, input methods defies easy classification 106x Wednesday 10 October 12
is changing the way we access the web • Unprecedented rate of change compared with previous media • Radically changed interfaces & use cases mean that web on mobile is more new medium, than differently sized one • Long period of stability, huge changes: everyone caught off guard ? ? Wednesday 10 October 12
images & image maps used in place of web-native content • 15+ years before the first “web- native” ideas were invented • sites that had no real precedent • things that were “inherently web” could’t really have been done with previous media • Facebook, Google maps • We’re still getting used to the idea that there isn’t really a “fold” on the web—scrolling is effortless Wednesday 10 October 12
struggle to understand new media • Initial uses mimic those of previous media • New medium capabilities remain misunderstood and under-utilized • Experiences “native” to the new media emerge slowly— decades • Retro-fitting old content to new media stifles innovation • So what about the new web? Wednesday 10 October 12
HTML, CSS and JavaScript, just like the web we know • But it is effectively a new medium, and should be treated as such • This new medium runs on a vast array of devices, sizes shapes • New interfaces: touch, accelerometers, cameras, gyros, compass • New contexts: outdoors, on the move, supine 176 x 220 to 800 x 1280 0.3m Wednesday 10 October 12
previous media: • Good experiences are native to the medium • Good experiences acknowledge and harness their container • Retro-fitting doesn’t work—let’s not force-fit our desktop web to the new devices • Let’s not wait 20 years to work out how to use newly diverse web Wednesday 10 October 12
problem, an opportunity • Things are blossoming—not the right time to seek silver bullets • Let’s not limit our experiences of the new web to those we know from web desktop • Previous experience: natively designed experiences work best • The best way to cope with the changes is to cater for the aspect that changed—the devices Wednesday 10 October 12
• Most existing tools are either: • not helpful (neutral), or, • mired in monoweb thinking • Industry is still grappling with the changes • Situation not going to change any time soon. AUTHORING PUBLISHING CMS Wednesday 10 October 12
the web, the device is the canvas—from feature phone to TV • But the canvas isn’t fixed— this is no longer a valid assumption for the artist • The paint is still HTML, CSS and JavaScript, the protocol is still HTTP ..but the techniques have to change Wednesday 10 October 12
by the devices that constitute it • Embracing the device in question is best way to ensure a good experience • Craft experiences to suit the context & device: • Be aware of its features, harness them • Know its limitations, work around them • How can we achieve this? ☒ makes calls ☐ big screen ☐ touch screen ☐ makes calls ☒ big screen ☒ touch screen ☐ makes calls ☒ big screen ☐ touch screen Wednesday 10 October 12
practice has been called, is a fragile one, however.” • “Browser sniffing has a justifiably bad reputation” • “Flawed concept” • “Browser sniffing doesn't work” • “There are too many browsers to handle” • “..the user agent string was a complete mess, and near useless, and everyone pretended to be everyone else, and confusion abounded” • “it’s simply not necessary, besides being wrong on a fundamental level” • “Nearly everybody did it. And everybody was wrong. Not `there’s something to say for it but sometimes you don’t need it’ wrong, but just plain `you have no clue what you’re doing’ wrong” Wednesday 10 October 12
explanation: device DB goes out of date. • Clearly untrue—the vendors of such solutions vendors very existence depends on this not happening • Anybody who uses Facebook, Google etc. is enjoying the benefits of device detection • Clearly, if it really was fragile it would not be used by the industry-leading web brands • Silent evidence / confirmation error problem: its successes go unnoticed; its failures are very obvious • Device detection can be used badly, just like any technology. Bad implementation ≠ bad idea. gile Wednesday 10 October 12
less than 5 nefarious masquerades (0.05%) • Remaining devices easily differentiable • Opera Mini sends headers for underlying device • Conclusion—simply not true in mobile world. “iPhone W88” Wednesday 10 October 12
1.0), T. Berners-Lee, 1996 10.15 User-Agent The User-Agent request-header field contains information about the user agent originating the request. This is for statistical purposes, the tracing of protocol violations, and automated recognition of user agents for the sake of tailoring responses to avoid particular user agent limitations. RFC 1945 Wednesday 10 October 12
includes the following request-header fields for enabling server-driven negotiation through description of user agent capabilities and user preferences: Accept (section 14.1), Accept- Charset (section 14.2), Accept-Encoding (section 14.3), Accept- Language (section 14.4), and User-Agent (section 14.43). Response tailoring is built into HTTP 1.1 RFC 2616 Wednesday 10 October 12
reasonable, the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using. However, it does not mean that exactly the same information is available in exactly the same representation across all devices. The context of mobile use, device capability variations, bandwidth issues and mobile network capabilities all affect the representation. Furthermore, some services and information are more suitable for and targeted at particular user contexts. W3C’s “one web” is often misunderstood Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 Wednesday 10 October 12
from working around browser flaws in early days of web • Important not to conflate two uses cases for detection: • Working around browser defects (historical) • Catering to devices with radically differing capabilities (modern) • The former usage may be objectionable, but the latter surely is not • Don’t let historical misuse prevent you from using a useful tool vs. Wednesday 10 October 12
need to each device/experience • Huge expressive range— from feature phones to televisions • Change design, input mechanisms, image sizes, everything for each device type CONTEXTS INTERFACES SCREENS Wednesday 10 October 12
but: • you don’t know what the device is • you know only browser features (not device) • Properties unknowable via JavaScript feature tests: • device type: mobile | desktop | tablet | TV | e-reader | set- top box • hardware features: camera | screen colour depth • model, vendor, operating system, version mobile device? has camera? supports touch? Wednesday 10 October 12
Multiple different views on single URL • Different site / sub-domain for each experience • Full flexibility over experience & content served in each case • Easy to add additional segmentation without compromising other experiences • Easier testing—different device experiences can be isolated • Big differences between form factors is easy (feature phone vs. TV) site.com site.com touch.site.com tv.site. com lite.site.com 1 2 Wednesday 10 October 12
be known in advance e.g. cookie support, orientation, detecting iPhone versions etc. • Server-side skills required (a new reality for the web?) • Cost—detection solutions have annual licensing fees • Device data must be updated • single biggest issue • not “future friendly” Wednesday 10 October 12
is external dependency • But so too do server OSes, libraries, media query breakpoints • Also, sensible defaults mean graceful degradation when faced with unknown devices • Don’t forget present-friendliness • Are you supporting all currently available devices? Including feature phones? • Don’t care, getting no feature phone traffic? Are you sure? Wednesday 10 October 12
web landscape you need all of the help you can get • There are no silver bullets yet—so use everything available to you • Device detection is a fantastically powerful tool • Don’t let perceptions from bygone era preclude great performance & expressive range • Not either/or—works well in tandem with client-side approaches—fine tuning layout, user settings • All best-of-breed experiences are using it Wednesday 10 October 12
web, a web renaissance is beginning • New devices are finally enabling the web to reach its full potential • The new capabilities effectively engender a new medium • Every indication that this diversity will increase over time —phones & tablets are just the beginning • The web experience in this new landscape is becoming a differentiating factor for brands Wednesday 10 October 12
of the canvas, the device • Embrace all tools in the toolbox— there are no silver bullets • If you don’t you’re discarding useful information • Don’t compete with half the available tools— your competitors won’t make same mistake Wednesday 10 October 12
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