- mo·bile
- —noun, Communication technology in a take-out container.
This is a declaration of Domain7’s approach to developing websites and applications for mobile phones, iPads, tablets and anything else that puts the web in the palm of your hand. It’s just a simple set of principles we use in our approach to mobile:
Our principles are rooted in the web: we believe open standards and the web will define the mobile landscape more than any single software vendor. Web technologies, not proprietary platforms and device specific apps, are the best approach in the long run. We are not interested in favouring any one certain mobile platform.
From a technology perspective, we are biased to open APIs that tie into mobile functionality rather than vendor-specific SDKs. A simple example of this is the work of the W3C to define a geolocation API for browser makers. This beats compiling an app for every mobile platform, simply to access a device’s geolocation information.
People need to be able to find the content they need quickly, and determining the best way to provide it can be a challenge. In our experience, mobile websites are often the best first step for most businesses. Here are a few reasons why:
Part of what makes the web great is the ability to link to anything, which makes everything sharable and social. It also makes it easier to search and find.
We are biased to expose mobile app content as plain old HTML—indexable by search engines—whenever possible. This means we tend to avoid App Stores (which we think of as exclusive “walled gardens”—the opposite of openness).
When coding for mobile, we subscribe to the concept of “Least Power.” Yes, some complex coding languages can be incredibly effective, but they are also the domain of an elite few “experts.” We see much more opportunity in choosing simpler, natural and more expressive languages. That’s why we prefer to keep our code in “plaintext.”
This way, almost anyone can analyze, write and extend systems. We see it as a huge opportunity for the massive amounts of data on the web to be unlocked and used by people who are not part of the technical elite.
Mobile is a relatively new frontier, and we’re all learning as we go. We think it’s best to validate all initial assumptions through trial, error, research and passionate experimentation. The mobile landscape changes far faster than the desktop market, and reaching every platform may not be within budget, so its important to identify your market at the outset. It means you can make the right decisions before they become costly mistakes.
Sometime between 2013 and 2015, half of a typical site’s visitors will be browsing on a mobile device. Developing sites that work on mobile is no longer a luxury. If it doesn’t work on mobile, it’s not a basic site: it’s broken.
Every site we build will be accessible to “mainstream” mobile devices. And our standard for “mainstream” are those devices used by at least 99% of the site’s mobile visitors.
A foundational principle of the Web is that online content should be available to visitors, regardless of the device they’re using. There should be no separate “desktop Web” or “mobile web”—there’s One Web.
The W3C states in its Mobile Web Best Practices, “One Web means making, as far as is reasonable, the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using.”
We will avoid building separate mobile sites, tablet sites, or e-reader sites. No one will be forbidden to view content on the sites we build because they are using the “wrong” device.
The W3C goes on to state that One Web “does not mean that exactly the same information is available in exactly the same representation across all devices.” The constraints—and opportunities—of mobile devices require that we optimize the user experience for users on different devices.
We will employ a Responsive Web Design approach so that a single source of content—the web page—will intelligently adapt how it displays itself on different devices.
Our sites will follow the principle of progressive enhancement: we first deliver a basic page that will display on all devices, then we enhance the display of the page using a combination of client- and server-side technologies.
Your online strategy and your mobile strategy are not separate processes. They are completely dependent on one another.
We know we’re taking a pretty bold stance on mobile development, but we really do think it’s that important. You should too. If you want to chat more about why mobile matters to your company’s online marketing strategy, email us or contact your Account Manager.
We recently offered a D7 Labs workshop for designers, developers and keen clients called Designing and Building for the Mobile Web. Sorry you missed it, but you can check out the slides right here. Stay tuned for future D7 Workshops!