When the internet was in its infancy, there was only one choice for users who were trying to connect. It was desktop or bust if you wanted to experience the internet. That’s no longer the case, with users accessing the internet on desktops, tablets and mobile devices and 17.4% of global website traffic originating from mobile devices and mobile website as of the end of last year. Keep mobile development in mind as you develop your site, so that all of your customers can achieve optimal interaction with your website from whatever device they employ.
Mobile devices have quite different hardware characteristics compared with desktop or laptop computers. Their screens are usually smaller, obviously, but they also usually automatically switch the screen orientation between portrait and landscape mode as the user rotates the device. They usually have touch screens for user input. APIs like geolocation or orientation are either not supported on desktops or are much less useful, and these APIs give mobile users new ways to interact with your site.
Until recently, the difference between browsing the web and using a native app has been clear to anyone who uses a smartphone.
But as devices become more powerful, and responsive and adaptive techniques become more sophisticated, it’s increasingly possible to blur the boundaries between native and web. Style.com is one such example of how you can use adaptive techniques to create some really interesting features that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible to bring to users on mobile.
