Developer resources
http://my.opera.com/dev/
http://labs.opera.com/
#opera, #widgets, and #userjs on irc.opera.com
Related presentations
Benjamin Smedberg, “Converging Rich-Client and Web Application Development with Mozilla XULRunner” (discusses Mozilla XULRunner as a platform)
Håkon Lie, “Mobile Web Applications”; teaser: “A modern web browser, once installed on a mobile device, can be used for much more than just browsing. In fact, the whole user interface for the device can be built using web formats.”
Goodbye web apps, hello widgets?
The emergence of browsers as platforms for running standards-based (HTML, CSS, Javascript) apps that that are powerful but at the same time lightweight by design. Widgets, basically. Sets of apps developed around the platform will displace some of the apps that have been developed using other technologies (chiefly, Java and BREW applications), and may in fact obviate the need for certain types of web-based apps.
One possible answer
One person in particular who has spent time thinking about, and writing about, the possibilities is Ajit Jaokar,whose essay “Mobile web 2.0: AJAX for mobile devices -- why mobile AJAX will replace both J2ME and XHTML as the preferred platform for mobile applications development - Part two”, is a must-read for anyone considering development for mobile devices.
A perhaps more interesting question.
What might Javascript and AJAX be used for other than, say, developing the kinds of unmobile (an often monolithic) web apps it's mostly been used for so far?
What use to make of mobile AJAX?
Commonly asked: How do I take a web app designed for viewing on a PC screen, and for interacting with using a pointing device and cursor, and make is usable on a mobile device?
The short and obvious answer is, you can't. Current mobile handsets do not have pointing devices, and if your app requires windowing within a browser frame, it's not going to be usable on a small screen.
AJAX support?
Finally, we come to asking about that most-obvious aspect of Web 2.0: the rich user experience enabled by browser support for AJAX/Javascript, and the question of how AJAX relates to mobile web browsing.
Short answer: AJAX-enabled mobile browsers are available today, now. Developers who focus on users of the mobile web have already built web applications that make use of those, and will be building a lot more.
Peter Ferne session description
“Current use of GPS is highly focused on navigation; we are changing this paradigm to a focus on exploration, discovery, sharing and interaction. Conversely much mobile technology strives to be insensitive to physical location; we are augmenting this with additional location-specific content.”
Apps related to social interaction
A key piece of Web 2.0 is the facilitation of a variety of group behaviors and social interactions that Tim O'Reilly, in his oft-cited “What Is Web 2.0” essay, describes as enabling users to “harness collective intelligence”.
Example: Peter Ferne's “Sharing Places -- find, remix and share located media with the world” presentation at XTech 2006
Cameraphones & QR codes (barcodes)
Handsets equipped with cameras and barcode reader software enable use of the camera as an input device; example: instead of typing in a URL manually to get a certain site, I just point my the camera on my handset at a barcode that encodes the URL, and the handset reads the code, recognizes it as a URL, and automatically launches the browser on the handset.
GPS chipsets and location-based services
Example: NaviWalker, a real-time, location-aware trip-routing service built by Navitime.
If there is currently anything that might be considered a “killer application” for mobile devices, location-based applications such as NaviWalker are it.
Exploit mobile-specific hardware capabilities
- GPS chipsets
- cameras as input devices (OCR translation, barcode reading)
- bluetooth
A new lease on life for “push” apps?
Unlike most unmobile usage, where users sit down in front of their PCs with a specific purpose in mind, users often initiate mobile-device usage without a specific intention of what they plan on doing or finding.
Remember “push” technologies? They may have made a bad name for themselves in the desktop world, but in the mobile world -- where push is actually useful -- idle-time mobile users will appreciate pushed content.
Idle-time browsing
Mobile-web usage is not just about services. Example: In Tokyo, people spend much time in transit -- riding on trains, waiting for trains; it's common to see people using their mobile handsets during those times.
Often they have some specific purpose in mind (sending e-mail), but increasingly more often, the purpose is simply to pass time doing something other than just remaining idle -- e.g. by reading news or just browsing.
Portable services: Another example
Example: Rocco Georgi's AJAX lightning demo at XTech 2006 -- a web app designed for a specific kind of mobile use: looking up used-car prices in real time while you're out car shopping.
Certain types of data have higher value depending on location; you go to a used-car lot without knowing what you might find there. You don't know what data you need until you get there.
Realize that much mobile-web usage is acutely service-driven
Example: In Tokyo, where most people do not own cars, but instead travel by train and by foot, services that provide information about navigating the city by train and by foot are in already in heavy use on mobile devices.
Examples from the MWBP draft
06. [NAVBAR] Provide only minimal navigation at the top of the page.
23. [CENTRAL_MEANING] Ensure that material that is central to the meaning of the page precedes material that is not.
55. [AVOID_FREE_TEXT] Avoid free text entry where possible.
Fortunately, help is available
Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
A collation of existing wisdom (currently, 60 separate items) from a variety of sources, refined through WG discussion and solicitation of public comments.
Mobile-considerate site design
- Reality check.
- Not practical for most developers to create mobile-specific versions of their sites and web apps, even if they thought it would be a good idea to do so.
- But a little consideration goes a long way.
- You can, with very little additional effort and cost, provide a usable mobile experience by designing your sites and apps in a “mobile considerate” way.
A painful disease, and a cure.
- The versionitis problem
- Mobile-specific sites -- often N different mobile-specific sites for N different mobile carriers (in Japan, separate sites for Au, Jphone/Vodaphone, and DoCoMo)
- The sane (“one Web”) solution.
- Create only one version of a website and serve it to all kinds of devices, cell phones included
Design considerations (cont'd)
- Exploit mobile-specific hardware capabilities
- Take advantage of increased opportunities for creating apps for social interaction
- Say goodbye to web apps and hello to widgets?
Design considerations (cont'd)
- Exploit mobile-specific hardware capabilities
- Take advantage of increased opportunities for creating apps for social interaction
- Say goodbye to web apps and hello to widgets?
Design considerations
- Abandon the “versionitis” approach
- Design all sites and web apps to be mobile-considerate
- Anticipate service-driven and “idle time” mobile-web usage
The time is now
Users now have the means to productively browse the real Web from their handsets. Our job as web developers is to get over our (ahem) myopic focus on developing exclusively for viewing on unmobile (aka desktop) viewing and start making sure our web sites and web apps are usable on mobile devices.
Going beyond just sucking less
- Javascript support
- XMLHttpRequest support
- and more (e.g., SVG support)
Minimal criteria for making a mobile web browser that sucks less
- ability to intelligently reformat pages for small-screen viewing (including inconsiderate page designs)
- ability to handle large images
- ability to display pages in excess of 500Kb
Hey, this mobile browser actually doesn't suck
Most users have never had particulary compelling (or even marginally satisfactory) experiences with the legacy browsers on their handsets. Their expectations are low...
So when users finally encounter a real mobile browser, it can be quite an epiphany: “Wow. I think I might actually be able to use this thing to browse the real Web.”
Factors driving change
- speedier CPUs and increased RAM (?)
- faster data rates (2.4Mbps at KDDI) (?)
- flat-rate pricing for data services
- wider availability of non-crappy mobile browsers (aka “full browsers” that actually let you browse the real Web (as opposed to the hobbled, walled-garden “toy” Web)
What the numbers tell us
The percentage of users browsing the web from mobile devices has increased dramatically and will continue to increase dramatically.
Believe it.
Math lesson #3
source: Nokia report, by way of Philipp Hoschka, April 22, 2006
Math lesson #2 (cont'd)
Math lesson #2
Math lesson #1
source: eMarketer, April 21, 2006 (hat tip to Russell Beattie)
I answer:
Do the math.
You ask:
Why bother designing for “the mobile web”
viewing on mobile devices?
Isn't it too early for that?
What do you mean by Mobility?
I want to help enable people to access the real Internet from wherever the want, any time they want.
Home: Tokyo, Japan
Employer: Opera Software
Religious affiliation: Mobility
mikes@opera.com