Rethinking the Mobile Web by Yiibu

Rethinking the Mobile Web
a pragmatic look at creating an accessible and inclusive mobile experience

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/fpat/3692425154

we apps, and...
a lovely, location-b
ased,
social, photo thing
y...

this presentation
is
not about these.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/scobleizer/3985020876

Dinosaurs!

we think the iPad is pretty awesome, but...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/goincase/4647893507

1.8 billion
the number of internet
connections in the world today...

26% of the world’s population at the beginning of 2010 – http://www.internetworldstats.com

6.8 billion
the number of people
in the world today...

*2009 estimates put the population around 6.79 billion inhabitants...

3.4 billion
the number of people
with mobile devices today...

or roughly 1/2 the population of the planet, which is...

it’s about people not devices...

so here’s the dilemma...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/soundman1024/1796003688

"The future is already here – it’s
just not evenly distributed."
– William Gibson

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/kiwanja/3169447879

no home

Sony Ericsson
w810i

no iPhone

technology should not only be accessible...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/walkadog/3093763311

but inclusive...

iPhone

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/javiercito/2319331695

and available to everyone...

iPhone

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/pictfactory/2796367140

yes, even this man who
does not have an iPhone...

not an iPhone...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dopesmuglar/486087009

so, who actually has an iPhone...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/data_op/2468057934

about 6% US market share...
US Population: 307 million
Smartphone penetration: 31% of pop.
iPhone market share: 21% of smp.
enormous Total iPhones in US: 19 million (~6%)
impact

low overall
penetration

The iPhone Reality in Europe: Low Overall Penetration, Enormous Impact
http://moconews.net/article/419-deep-discounts-on-smartphones-drive-u.s.-adoption-rates-to-nearly-a-thi/ and http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_100510.html

only 4% EU5* market share...
enormous EU5* = France, Germany, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom
impact

low overall
penetration

The iPhone Reality in Europe: Low Overall Penetration, Enormous Impact
http://www.comscore.com/layout/set/popup/layout/set/popup/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/6/The_iPhone_Reality_in_Europe_Low_Overall_Penetration_Enormous_Impact

<4% global market share*

enormous
impact

low overall
penetration

*I suspect it’s actually much less, but finding accurate global figures is a tad difficult...

ie: BMW
The ”most popular” devices don’t necessarily
translate to the most used devices.
ie: Ford

”
yeah, but those
devices suck!

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/eldret_99/3311540398

the first smartphone in 2003...
considered
portable in 1984 fits in your pocket

still widely used...

Released: 1984 Released: 2003
CPU: 8 MHz CPU: 104 MHz
RAM: 128k (512k max) RAM: 6 MB
Storage: 400k (3.5” floppy) Storage: 32 MB MMC Card
Display: 22.9 cm Monochrome Display: 5.3 cm Thousands of colours
Dimensions: 34.5 x 24.4 x 27.7 cm Dimensions: 10.9 x 5.8 x 2.4 cm
Weight: 7.5 kgs Weight: 122 g

the music phone in 2008...
again, it was ‘portable’...?

...this runs Flash

not a feature phone,
nor a smartphone...

RAM: 32 MB (512 MB max) RAM: 128 MB
Storage: 4 GB (+ optical drive) Storage: 8 GB (16 GB max)
Display: 38.1 cm Millions of colours Display: 8.1 cm Millions of colours
Weight: 17.3 kgs Weight: 109 g

the feature phone in 2009...

smartphone from 2005 extremely
popular today...

still widely
used today...

RAM: 22 MB RAM: 30 MB
Storage: 64 MB Storage: 1 GB (16 GB max)
Display: 5.3 cm Thousands of colours Display: 5.1 cm Thousands of colours
Weight: 126 g Weight: 88 g

the smartphone in 2010...

...playing “catch-up”
raising the “bar”...

CPU: 680 MHz CPU: 1 GHz A4 Processor
RAM: 256 MB RAM: 512 MB
Storage: 16 GB (32 GB max) Storage: 16 GB (32 GB max)
Display: 8.9 cm Millions of colours Display: 8.9 cm Millions of colours
Weight: 135 g Weight: 137 g

”
...but folks with those other phones
simply don’t use the Internet.

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/carbonnyc/3369424492

yeah, and grandma
doesn’t do Facebook... ”
Grandma*

Facebook

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/amagill/304701054
*not my Grandma

1.3 billion
the number of mobile internet
users today...

...includes WAP and ‘real web’ via Tomi Ahonen Consulting

1/3
number of global internet
users who access the internet
only via mobile...

...includes WAP and ‘real web’ via Tomi Ahonen Consulting

21% the projected worldwide
3G penetration in 2010...

via Morgan Stanley

mobile browser market share
via http://gs.statcounter.com - 02/2010
other?
things have changed

skeptical

UC ate Nokia’s share...
other?
other?

note OperaMini...
Blackberry!
quality + sample size?
Data Source: http://gs.statcounter.com
Published Under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License
You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work and to adapt the work providing it is attributed to www.icrossing.co.uk

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/icrossing_uk/4342659861

something happened in February...

UC browser...

Nokia browser...

Top 9 Mobile Browsers in China from Sep 09 to Aug 10 | StatCounter Global Stats
http://gs.statcounter.com/#mobile_browser-CN-monthly-200909-201008

moving forward...

used in iOS, Android, Palm WebOS, Nokia Qt, primarily used on feature
Bada, Symbian and new Blackberry... phones supporting Java ME...

+

WebKit OperaMini Windows Mobile

proxy browser...
watch these...
lots of new browsers, variation and of course – legacy browsers

“Fennec” Browser UC
Obigo SkyFire
proxy browsers

Internet Explorer MicroB Internet Browser

the importance of WebKit...

open source
licensed under the GNU Library General Public License

excellent standards support
including HTML, CSS3, SVG, etc.

innovations often contributed back
example: HTML5, CSS animations, SquirrelFish, etc.

adopted by many leading companies
including Apple, Nokia, Samsung, Google, Palm, etc.

WebKit used in many mobile operating systems
including iOS, Android, webOS, Bada, Symbian, etc.

btw - “There is no WebKit on Mobile” by @ppk
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2009/10/there_is_no_web.html

the importance of OperaMini...

free
costs consumers absolutely nothing

a full-web experience
supports Ajax, zooming, tabbed browsing, etc

excellent standards support
based on the same code-base as the Opera browser OperaMini
available just about anywhere
on JavaME, iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile + more

an extremely eﬃcient browser
a proxy server ﬁlters, compresses & pre-renders content

usable on older devices
breathe new life into those antique devices...

very important

rendered + optimised and proxy browsers...
proxy browser on proxy server...

free + unlimited
bandwidth

OBML* HTML
limited + costly proxy server bbc.co.uk
bandwidth

*OBML (Opera Binary Markup Language) is highly optimised for mobile networks + devices.

on private networks...

caller

a

d
limited + costly
bandwidth

switching
centre receiver

c b

base-station

to the Internet...

transcoding, bandwidth limitations, service blocking and no packet neutrality

also availabl
e for Android
...

OperaMini is great for browsing
the web on iPhone when your
connection stinks. Which is
unfortunately is fairly often in my
”
case. – @jonathanstark

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/johanl/4424185115

app
yeah, whatever–I just wanna build a mobile website...

traditionally you might consider...

a device database
ie. DeviceAtlas
device detection or WURFL

content adaptation
an abstraction layer
device various standards
exhausting capabilities
media types WURFL/WALL testing

transcoding multiple templates private networks
mimetypes geing “on-deck”
data limits multiple sites
an oﬀ-deck strategy... cHTML
the “One Web” dream thematic
correct doctypes consistency
fragmentation switching algorithms
WML using UAProf data XHTML-MP

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rmlowe/3281353786
WAP

but that might be a bit overwhelming...

OMG... ”
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/richardmoross/1413692087

start somewhere familiar...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/adactio/4742158560

...a look at what we’re doing now?*

*for illustration purposes only

we could
do nothing...

http://www.alistapart.com/

but that’s not terribly mobile friendly – what about...

a mobile
speciﬁc site...

http://mobify.me

http://m.alistapart.com/

oh, but then that just begs the question...

other...

laptops/netbooks TVs

handheld consoles

what exactly is mobile...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/amagill/26273015

128x160

240x320

320x480

what isn’t...
1280x768
1024x768
480x800

create an adaptive experience...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/rohit_saxena/4873732679

an example
http://colly.com*

*for illustration purposes only, I’m not criticising the talented Mr. Collison or his ﬁne work...

http://colly.com

MOBILE SITE OF THE YEAR
NOMINEE

http://www.thenetawards.com/

a lovely website

http://colly.com/

squishy squishy

with ﬂexible layout

http://colly.com/

also available on mobile...

squishy squishy

http://colly.com/

al
an optimce
experien

squishy squishy tada!

brought to you through the magic of @media queries...
http://colly.com/

ahem...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/jakerome/3481634789

these are also mobile...
WebKit WebKit

approximations based on actual device testing - font rendering will vary...
http://colly.com/

as are these...
the iPhone is #1 device for OperaMini

*OperaMini is often preferred by many users as it optimises content prior to download, which reduces data costs.
http://colly.com/

and these...
Mozilla
77mm
47mm

insanely tiny!

expect many more tablet
devices on the market soon...

http://colly.com/

traditionally used
for the ﬁne print...

which now require this...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/chrisbrenschmidt/1832787028

viewport is much smaller
than the actual content

and this...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/katerha/4592429363

keyhole browsing

for this experience

http://colly.com/

...would you be
happy with this?

hmm...

http://colly.com/

once again

why are we writing for only one browser...

2000 2010

...is WebKit the new Internet Explorer?

“This site works best in Safari 4”
”
is ok where “This site works best in
IE4” wasn’t?!? Open standards or
double standards? – @csssquirrel
via @brucel

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/pjanvandaele/3990379048

If you want to use the web on a
”
mobile device, is the purchase of
an iPhone the cost of entry?
or Android device

this design can work on
*many* more devices...

let alone only one device?

as per my highly sophisticated
mobile web triage process... ;)
Good
Could be improved
Needs to be improved

let’s make it more accessible...
http://colly.com/

3 one style sheet w/@media queries

4 jQuery used only for animation...

5 same images used for
all screen devices...

only a few issues...

2 well structured,
meaningful markup
Good
4 Javascript animations tend to work
poorly on the majority of mobile devices... Could be improved


2. use well structured, meaningful markup

for those still paying attention, yes there is a #1 and we will get to it shortly...

2 well structured, meaningful markup...

mmm... meaning!

structure

there’s lots more, but who
wants to stare at code...

http://colly.com/ view source

2 well structured, meaningful markup...
use <header>, <h1>, <p> and other semantically meaningful tags to provide basic structure

*Note: this is not from hp://colly.com
recreating
existing <tags>
<div class="body"> is not cool
<div class="header">
<div class= "h1">
<span>Hello World!</span>
</div>
</div> <div> soup...
<div class="body">HTML
<span class="emphasis">can actually be</span>meaningful.
</div>
</div>

soup is best served in a bowl...

without a basic, meaningful structure you will need to re-create many existing properties

3. the absence of support for @media queries
is in fact the ﬁrst @media query...

3 all-in-one stylesheet with @media queries...

a single css file is network efficient, but often includes
unnecessary style data for mobile devices...

<link href="screen.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen" />

....towards the end of ‘screen.css’ we find the @media queries

mobile specific tweaks are added at the very
end, and only through @media queries...

@media (max-device-width:480px) and (orientation:portrait) { ...

how retro...

kinda backwards...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/dumbledad/3400708183

rocket science

a desktop browser...

are we expecting too much...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/nasa_goddard/4678389619/

rocket science

a mobile browser...
...from our mobile browsers?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/wwworks/3749061604

1. mobile ﬁrst

aha, I told you we’d eventually get to #1!

Luke Wroblewski

mobile first
http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?933

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pete-karl/4637024524

traditional thinking goes like so...

is technically served to everyone...

a full desktop site

sprinkle on a few @media queries...

+ @media queries
a full desktop site

...if the @media query resolves
to true, tada - a mobile site!

= mobile site
+ @media queries
a full desktop site

FAIL
= mobile site
+ @media queries
a full desktop site
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/hendry/3053419265

= mobile site

a full desktop site
http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/hendry/3053419265

@media queries will resolve to false on most devices...

no, really – you simply cannot rely on them currently on mobile devices

resulting in this experience...

http://colly.com/

so it’s far more eﬀective when we start with...

is technically served
to everyone...

a mobile site

for browsers that support
them, other browsers will
just ignore them...

+ @media queries
a mobile site

tada – a desktop site! ;)

= full desktop site
+ @media queries
a mobile site

and not a new idea at all...
progressive enhancement

= full desktop site
Jeremy Keith + media queries
a mobile site

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/clagnut/315554083

1. mobile ﬁrst

3 default stylesheet plus @media queries...

place mobile related styles into a default stylesheet...

<link href="default.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen" />
<link href="desktop.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen
and (min-device-width:1024px) and (max-width:989px)" />
link additional style sheets using @media queries
to progressively enhance the content for more
capable browsers

some mobile browsers look for it...

*you may want to use both the ‘screen’ and ‘handheld’ media types for your default stylesheet

1. mobile ﬁrst

4. progressively enhance using JavaScript
and @media queries

4 jQuery/JavaScript used only for animation...

jQuery is still a rather hefty library
for use on mobile devices...

<script type="text/javascript" src=".../jquery.min.js"><script>
<script type="text/javascript" src=".../scrollto.js"><script>
animation in JavaScript can be
very taxing on mobile devices...

mobile browsers aren’t as
capable as desktop browsers...

again, are we expecting too much...?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/mjryall/3638778588

4 use CSS instead of JavaScript for animations...
are jQuery (and JavaScript) necessary to
provide an experience on mobile devices...?

<script type="text/javascript" src=".../jquery.min.js"><script>
<script type="text/javascript" src=".../scrollto.js"><script>
consider using basic DOM manipulation, or a mobile optimised Javascript library

<script type="text/javascript" src=".../xui.min.js"><script>
the “jQuery Mobile” long before jQuery Mobile...
http://xuijs.com http://jquerymobile.com

use CSS for animations if available instead of Javascript

...use CSS animations
.scrollto { (where possible) instead
-webkit-transform: translate(540px, -200px);
-moz-transform: translate(540px, -200px);
-o-transform: translate(540px, -200px);
}
ignored on browsers that don’t support it

look ma, no jQuery?

from a time before jQuery...
Twier?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/wordridden/2474879344

then again, do you really need javascript?

*none of these services relied on Javascript when they ﬁrst started...

1. mobile ﬁrst

and @media queries

5. adapt content (especially images)
appropriately for each device

5 same images used for all devices...

one size rarely fits all...

ul li#biography a span.label {
background: url("../pig.png") repeat-x center bottom;
}
16 Kb
also adapt content used in <img /> tags

we should also adapt images found within the markup...

<img src="butterfly.png"
width="200" height="160" alt="butterfly" />

16 Kb

http://colly.com/

5 images adapted appropriately for each device...

ul li#biography a span.label {
background: url("../pig-small.png") repeat-x center bottom;
}
provide appropriate sized images for various devices
6 Kb
also adapt content used in <img /> tags

many CMS’s such as WordPress provide a means of
filtering HTML before it’s sent to the client

<img src="butterfly-small.png"
width="100" height="80" alt="butterfly" />
6 Kb
be sure to update the width and height aributes accordingly

services such as http://tinysrc.net can automatically resize + compress your images
http://colly.com/

we could also rethink the <img />* tag...

one image can have multiple source
files, each for an appropriate context
<img alt="butterfly">
<source src="butterfly-small.png" width="100" height="80" />
<source src="butterfly.png" width="200" height="160" />
<source src="butterfly-large.svg" width="400" height="400"
media="min-device-width:320px" /> image formats, and aspect ratios
</img> could be modified as required
and possibly even include media queries...

*I’m just dreaming here, this doesn’t currently exist...

much better...

approximations based on actual device testing - font rendering will vary...
http://colly.com/

quick

another example...
http://2010.dconstruct.org*

*again, for illustration purposes only, I’m not criticising the ﬁne folks behind dConstruct...

squishy squishy

http://2010.dconstruct.org/

diﬀerent diﬀerent tada!

again, brought to you through the magic of @media queries...

so close...


6 fonts often not supported on mobile

sprite image not used 6
on mobile devices...

6 images not used on
mobile devices...

only one real issue...

3 a single (and compressed!) style sheet

2 well structured, meaningful
and compressed markup
Good

simple DOM scripting without Could be improved
4 large Javascript libraries

1. mobile ﬁrst
3. the absence of support for media queries

and @media queries


6. compress content where possible,
and avoid sending unnecessary data

6 display:none still loads resources...
don’t expect mobile
bandwidth to be free...

@media (max-device-width:767px), all and (max-width:449px) { ...

.speaker-carousel {
display: none; all of the speaker-carousel images are actually loaded,
even though they are never displayed on mobile devices...
}

images not used on @font-face not supported
mobile devices... on most mobile devices...

367.35 KB 93.63 KB


6 ...avoid sending unnecessary data

@media (max-device-width:767px), all and (max-width:449px) { ...

.speaker-carousel {
display: none; ﬁnd another way to remove the
unused resources on mobile devices...
}

little tweaks...

ﬁxed relative
width width
width: 90%;
height: auto;


accessibility*

features functionality

usability performance

experience bandwidth

a balancing act...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/superfantastic/50088733

1. mobile ﬁrst

and @media queries


6. compress content where possible,
and don’t include unnecessary data

why even bother...

I’ve seen
that look...

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/eldret_99/3311540632

...people actually do use the mobile web

source comScore MobiLens

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/pictfactory/2796367140

...but, not only on these devices

but, also on these...

WebKit
OperaMini

and, these...

WebKit
OperaMini

and, these...

btw - expect many, many more devices to be heading our ways soon...

Dinosaurs!

...and shouldn’t everyone beneﬁt from technology?

http://www.ﬂickr.com/photos/goincase/4647893507

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