The Mobile Web

Mary Meeker from Morgan Stanley has been quoted (quite frequently) as predicting that within the next five years “more users will connect to the Internet over mobile devices than desktop PCs.” Should this come to pass I can’t say that I will be surprised. When the first smart phones were letting people browser the Web I was tempted to get one, but held out because I felt not enough people were using the Web that way yet that I needed to change how we built our websites. Over the years, as the percentage of mobile surfers increased, we have taken it more into account. My instinct tells me, however, that we’re on the edge of a paradigm shift.

While the part of me that’s getting old says, “why can’t we just do it like we did before,” the techie in me is excited. The move to mobile in use of the Internet marks a huge step toward the removal of the barriers between us and our connections to each other and information. The device itself is becoming more transparent and allowing us to interact more directly with content, in more ways, on our own terms. As a website designer and developer, I find this both a bit intimidating and a bit exhilarating. When I first started building websites, what drew me to it was the way we could take a few simple rules and build something greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Some aspects of this shift concern me – in particular the move from a more “open” Internet to one that’s walled off for the sake of security and proprietary experience. In a way it’s a return to the old days of CompuServe and AOL, where the producer of the device controlled the experience of the user. It falls to we developers to maintain the push toward stepping outside of the intended bounds of the new products and systems. Yet it’s easy to understand the drive behind this change. People are tired of spam and viruses, and a more protected environment is appealing.

Another effect this shift will have will be to make large-scale fancy website designs a bit irrelevant. (You know, the ones with all the flowing shapes and flowered patterns, with animated photos and fancy Flash.) For years now, many web designers and developers have pushed for content-based websites, where the design is more a subtle part of the whole, while the content is flexible to accommodate as many viewing/reading devices as possible. This trend will only increase, as the range of devices increases. I think this is a good thing.

If you haven’t jumped in and joined the ranks of the smart phone owners, don’t feel bad, as of the date of this posting I haven’t either. But it’s about time.