Seven clicks towards Mobile First

10. okt 2011 The net is flooded with apps - for smartphones and tablets. But web sites are still better viewed on a computer, right? So the marketing department is happy and web design is business as usual. Maybe because apps and web sites are considered as two different things, rather than two versions of the same.

You may create coherence in web strategy by looking at app and website as the same project – in different versions, admittedly - with adapted features and design. And the task of doing this becomes easier if you design for the small mobile phones first.
I wrote the following is seven notes at the Mobilism konfererencen in Amsterdam in May. Notes that appropriately is made ​​public now that ticket sales for Mobilism 2012 is close to starting.
11

Mobile first

According to Luke Wroblewski has the number of mobile devices exceeded the number of people in the world. In US is 20% said to be mobile only. And it doesn't seem to stop.
Thus, future development for website and internet applications should focus on the mobile: Mobile first, or at least at the same time.

The progress is faster than we imagine

Statistic predictions about mobile market mostly come through long before expected. Even though there is more internet traffic from the computer, there are now more mobile devices connected to the internet than pc's.

Web based vs app?

The possibilities in the web based applications for mobiles may be much underrated, especially by the marketing departments. Yet the discussion about web vs native apps is still going on, and not likely to be set. And according to Peter-Paul Koch {PPK}: To the question about which to choose the answer may well be: that depends…
Few of the arguments for web based:
  • Multiple platforms.
  • Instant update.
  • “No playing in anybody else’s backyard.”

The native has on the other hand, among other:
  • Access to a marketsplace where you can sell your product.
  • Access to the hardware of the device, such as camera.

Focus on the constraints

The small screen is obviously a severe restriction. But is also the one that helps you to focus the application on the most valuable. And it invites you to offer a simple and clean navigation to the next in line.
The question is then: If you may show 3 to 5 items on the page, which do you choose?

The app must learn to know the user

Example: The comfort zone of the mobile phone is in the bottom right area. So it seems appealing to put access for most used function there. But then again: Left handed will find the bottom left area more comfortable. The application should learn that and change the position of the functions accordingly for this each user.
Consequently: You don't don't want a strict design, rather than that kind of design ... that acts different depending on the user's behavior.

An epidemic web obesity

The web is created and has crown in our own image. And way past the childhood, the web has begun to suffer from the common lifestyle problems, such as obesity.
Ever faster computers and network have put the thrift of the 90es behind, and we have become increasingly careless about the kilobytes – as with the intake of large amounts of surplus data.
But if your app should fit into the coming new sleek collections, a diet is needed.
Size matters, again.

Be responsive and adapt

Portrait or landscape, iPhone, iPad, Galaxy, Android, netbook, air, or larger screen – name your own favorites. The number of combination of screen sizes … well, it is simply not possible to design a version of your web application for any brand, size and model. There ain’t enough designers, and we couldn't afford it. We need to automate the design process by setting up rules for laying out the content, at let the computer adapt the design to various screen conditions. The important words are flexible, adaptive and responsive.
And one of the major tools is css @media.

Mobilism 2011 workshop

The day 1 workshop at the Mobilism conference took place on the top floor of Felix Meritis, Amsterdam.
iSticks and iSkins

iSticks and iSkins

13. DEC 2010 // ipad /mobilt web /offentligt rum
The danish boulevard newspaper, Ekstra Bladet, has decided to campaign for the freedom of speech – seen as the freedom of nudity. The danish MEP, Morten Messerschmidt is supporting by taking the discussion into the European Parliament.
Your website is (almost) an app

Your website is (almost) an app

14. DEC 2010 // reklame /ipad /web /mobilt web /mobilism /web apps
I must admit, it’s (still) cool to have my icon right there on the iPad screen. As an app, yes, but a website can also do the trick. And website based app may sometimes even be a better solution than a native app.
Fingerpainted fontdesign

Fingerpainted fontdesign

12. MAJ 2011 // typografi /ipad
Take a few hours with iFontMaker on the iPad and tap, tap, draw, drag, pinch through the alphabet. And you may end up with a truetype font that you can write with on any computer, whenever the font is installed.
ATypI Copenhagen dynamisk logo

ATypI Copenhagen logo

We had the napkin with the notes from the galla dinner at ATypI in Leipzig 2000, Henrik Birkvig and I on the flight back to Copenhagen, and we knew that we, together with Kim Pedersen, were about to organize ATypI in Copenhagen the year after. And already then we sketched the cliches for identity of the conference: Red-white, old-new […]
Type, design and automated layout, Atypi 2011

Type, design and automated layout, Atypi 2011

Saturday morning at the ATypI conference in Reykjavík Torben Wilhelmsen was on stage to talk about integrating type and design through templates into automated page layout for multi platform publishing such as magazines and blogs on computer, ipad and other mobiles.
Catch me

Catch me

7. JUN 2014 // cd-cover
‘Grib mig’ is the title in danish, for the time being, of a coming cd, for which Marianne Mortensen and Michael Vesterskov had gathered four musicians for two days live recordings. I had the pleasure of being among the audience – and to design the provisional cover that together with a sign up form should make the audience pre-order […]
Egg pattern

Egg pattern

14. APR 2014 // design
Pattern with eggs for the tablecloth and the napkins for the easter celebration lunch. Enjoy.
Welt aus Schrift, type exhibition in Berlin

Welt aus Schrift, type exhibition in Berlin

12. NOV 2010 // design /typografi /berlin
Posters, books, jugend, bauhaus and de stijl ... via swiss to decon. The Welt Aus Schrift exhibition in Berlin is beauty in the literal sense of the letter. Do take a visit!
Bridges and letters in Amsterdam

Bridges and letters in Amsterdam

Round the city of Amsterdam, crossing the grachten - many of the bridges have their names displayed with ‘De Amsterdamse Brugletters’.

The photography is dead – long live the photographer

10. JUN 1998 // design /illustration
First the good news: The photography has lost its trustworthyness, because the digital technology has made it obvious to anybody that every photopgraphy can be manipulated.
And then the bad news: We are being told that actually the possibility of computer manipulation it self killed the reliability. And thus tend to maintain […]
Spis Bare [Just Eat] receives Bording Prisen 2009

Spis Bare [Just Eat] receives Bording Prisen 2009

15. JUN 2009 // design /tidsskrift /spis bare
The danish magazine Spis Bare is a very inspirering food-professional og well-informed magazine med professional depth and delicious presentation.
Friday June 12 the magazine Spis Bare was awarded Anders Bordings Mediepris 2009. I have in collaboration with the editor, Mette Jensen, developed the magazine during the last […]

The user rules

1. MAJ 2000 // design /web
Usability and accessibilty on the web becomes synonymous with free choice and professionalizing of the user. Thus, she is more and less self responsible for being able to recieve the information of the websites.
The computer is putting still greater demands to the user, but despite of that it is easier to use today than ever. […]
This is not a logo

This is not a logo

The logo is not an element, a graphical form, but the character in the way it is exposed in various contexts. Thus, the logo is not a categorism any more, but a organism, a being.
I was pleased at ‘Total Typographic Saturday’ in the end of october, as Tore Rosbo and Clea Simonsen from the design bureau 1508 presented the identity […]
Web design, home pages for starters

Web design, home pages for starters

1. SEP 2001 // design /web
To the puritan any design that make any demands, will be noise. But you may as well take the opposite stand, that the purely textbased information is reserved for the skillede readers.
Torben Wilhelmsen, Thomas Green and Geert Sander Published first time in 1997. The book was one the selected Books of the Year in 1998 in Denmark. […]
Is the QR bubble losing air

Is the QR bubble losing air

In 2011 the use of QR code seemed to explode. It was a magic spell, a funnel to more visitors to the web site - Accio Visitors. Or was it just that cool that the lemmings started to move again.

More web sites for the danish authorities are using webfonts

5. DEC 2013 //
But far the most of them still don’t! Only 22 out of 122 web sites for the danish authorities. And the majority of those are prefering free fonts. On the other hand is the number more than doubled in a year, since November 2012 when the number was 9 out of 115.
The study is a snapshot that I took November 6, 2013 and covers the […]
It looks like a mail from the agriculture association, but it might as well be phishing

It looks like a mail from the agriculture association, but it might as well be phishing

If I buy something on, say, sales.com, the response mail should come from sales.com and all links within the mail should be to sales.com. Anything else looks as a phishing attempt, and it might as well be.

Technical enthusiasm, please

1. SEP 2000 // web
Usability and accessibility on the net becomes more and more equal to unlimited choices and professionalizing of the user, who thus will be the responsible to be able to get the information from the websites.
You may say I am puritan. On the other hand, when I shuffle the web, I may too say that I have the right to be puritan. […]

Typesetting the net - font embedding

23. SEP 2000 // typografi /web
For a very low cost of 5-10 k fontembedding gives the possibility of getting typographic identity for a whole website – allthough with a litte trouble.
The frustration about missing typographic tools for web design might be well aknowledged. How do I make typography in a graphically sense for the web. Cascading stylesheets offers […]

Freedom through constraint

10. OKT 2001 // web
The postman is somewhat special. He brings all sorts of things. Postcards from Jamaica. Bills, too, unfortunately, but it’s not his fault, after all.
home.pages - preface - june 1997 The postman is somewhat special. He brings all sorts of things. Postcards from Jamaica. Bills, too, unfortunately, but it’s not his fault, […]