Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch wrote today about Opera Mini and its claim that it’s the world’s most popular browser.
He also talked in general about the proliferation of mobile browsing. Opera claims that almost 32 million people are using Opera Mini. He also deduced that the number of pages being downloaded has increased a whole bunch. That obviously means more people are using their phones and other portable devices to surf the web.
What does this mean to those of us who write design and craft for the web? The biggest change is for the programmer, but that’s a no brainer. Really, the programmer is where it all starts for the rest of us. As software platforms grow smarter, the rest of us have less to change. Or do we?
Sure, devices like the iPhone and Palm Pre are able to see, view, zoom, rotate and pivot, but that may not be the best way to experience the web on a 2 X 3 inch screen? If you’ve ever used one of these devices, it’s almost more frustrating than it was using the older browsers. Back then, you were happy just to get the content and a few pictures, much less a clean formatted web page.
Nowadays, the experience is so close you can touch it. You open up a WebOS browser and up pops your page, unless you’ve got some hardcore Flash or Active X. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Want to read an article or blog? Unless you’ve got an app for that, you’re likely to spend a little time zooming in and out and rotating to get just the right size.
So here we are again, trying to decide whether or not we need to cut, slice, simplify and otherwise dumb down for the web. The answer is an unfortunate, “yes.”
Either make text and images smaller, or design for mobile browsing. If you need proof, look at bankofamerica.com on an iPhone or Pre. Suddenly, the answer is clear.
Who knows, maybe technology will prove me wrong.