Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
Although the recent Pew Research Center study, entitled The Explosion in Mobile Audiences and a Close Look at What It Means for News, is specific to how people access news today, many of the study’s results are applicable to the entire mobile usage spectrum. One in particular caught my eye: “Rather than replacing old technology, the introduction of new devices and formats is creating a kind of ‘multi-platform’ news consumer.” The study goes on to include the percentages of people who use more than one device and notes that 25% of those who participated in the study use four platforms (tablets, smartphone, desktop/laptop and print) to satisfy their thirst for news.
The broadening mobile population is certainly willing to try new ways to interact and communicate but that doesn’t mean they intend to give up their more traditional formats in return (66% of tablet users prefer reading their news on the mobile Web). They expect to see an agreeable facsimile of what is on their computer transferred to the devices of their choosing, and they are generally not that sympathetic to the plight of developers and engineers who are tasked with making that happen.
Many of those charged with this work are turning to Responsive Web Design (RWD), a relatively new toolset (the term was coined by Ethan Marcotte in an article published in 2010) that uses media queries to adapt conditions like screen resolution, color, height, width, etc. to be device-specific. RWD also uses a flexible image and fluid grid setup to size the content so it fits the device screens properly.
Problems with things like banner advertisements and videos have led others, such as Luke Wroblewski, to propose concepts like Device Experiences and Responsive Web Design with Service Side Components that build on the basic RWD to better optimize designs that work for mobile devices. But the goal is the same for all: To build a website once and then have it work equally well across thousands of different screens. A tall order.
Fernando Alvarez leads Capgemini’s recently launched Mobile Solutions Global Service Line.
