Our screens act like windows to content of variable size and scale, demanding an awful lot of abstract thinking to design for. Sometimes we’re successful, revising content, designing modern day deliverables and embracing compromise like we know in our hearts we should. Other times…
In his astute post “‘Native experience’ vs styling select boxes”, Bruce Lawson correctly identified a common tension in the web world: > But why this urge to re-style page elements that end-users are familiar with? … Or is it that we love native look and feel, except when we don’t? Speaking as the guy who not only wrote JavaScript to help me create an accessible select element alternative, but who also made it the focus of a case study (PNG, 128kB) in AdvancED DOM Scripting, I am fully aware of the desire to have it both ways. I have not often seen the desire for both in a single individual, but it does happen in one particular instance occasionally.
This recent piece from Wired attributes dwindling tablet sales to cannibalization from larger mobile phones (aka “phablets”) which are nearly as big as 7-8˝ tablets:
Aside from the ability to make a phone call, the difference between a phone and a tablet comes down to 1.5 inches or less. … But the real issue is device makers are running out of good arguments for why these ever more subtle size gradations matter. After a point, the differences come down to personal preference rather than any meaningful new use case. As phones and tablets converge into this tight window, slightly bigger phones could accelerate the decline in tablet demand.
Personally, I’m not sure it matters. We’re in the midst of one big experiment being run by the device manufacturers. We’re in the scattershot. The industry is feeling out the “right” screen size (or sizes) that most people want to use and we are (in large part) footing the bill.
Great piece on how to carve out time while still working & living.
We find the time for those things we place importance on. ‘Finding the time’ often relies upon having a goal that is meaningful and important to you; a goal that is valuable enough to make a priority. If you consistently don’t have time to make progress on your project, take a reality check: is this something you really want to achieve? If you feel it really is a priority for you, move forward by fitting it in with the priorities you share with the people in your life.
So, a mere three years after my old “life blog” stopped working, I decided to scrap it and start fresh.
While you should try to support as large a proportion of your audience as possible, your analytics will show that a small group of browsers and devices make up the majority of your traffic, while the rest are a long tail of obscure browsers and devices. Take advantage of this.
Whatever we can do to increase the amount of ground will go a long way toward converting our users from passive consumers into brand evangelists.
Be dismissive of the non-smartphone only if you want to leave 4 billion customers on the table.
Interesting tech job truth:
The combined global workforces of Groupon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Zynga, Yelp, Pandora, and Zillow is smaller than the number that Circuit City fired in January 2009 when it was liquidated.
Yet another great argument for progressive enhancement.