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November 18, 2007
Web divergence, mobile divergence
Web divergence, mobile divergence: Striking quote, from David Carroll at Dr. Dobbs Journal: "The difference between Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer pales in comparison to the divergence on mobile devices. Taking something to market on mobile devices is a much bigger deal than publishing a cross-browser web site." The different brands of JavaScript runtime may vary in application basics like key events or memory management, but the mobile world also has device differences to resolve: "Can you trigger the vibrate, can you extend the backlight duration, figure out the battery status or network signal status, what kind of network you're on, how much data can you store locally?" At Parsons New School for Design they're using the Device Central publishing preview in Adobe Creative Suite 3 to smooth over many of these delivery differences, but the final user experience still needs to be tested directly by the designer: "In Flash Professional 8, the emulator was a mere approximation. In Device Central 3 it was a giant leap in the kinds of conditions you can simulate and the accuracy of the emulation. In Device Central 3, you can calibrate the device to a device profile, and the desktop computer tries to simulate the performance of the device based on RAM, processor considerations. But it's still not enough to really know the quality of the user experience. Not just from a technical perspective, but from a design perspective and a social perspective. You still need to take it out of the lab and go use it in the real place it's going to be used." Twenty years ago Adobe PostScript helped smooth over the differences between printers, but you'll always need to get out and proof the final result before delivering a job. The abstraction layer just makes it quicker, easier, and cheaper to deliver.
Posted by JohnDowdell at November 18, 2007 2:13 AM