Alex Carver
January 25, 2012
There are almost certainly more developers testing on IE6 than people using it. The death of the 12 year old zombie browser has been predicted for many years, but it looks like we’ll finally see the back of it in time for the impending apocalypse. But what does this mean for HTML5?
Microsoft, once a ball and chain on the ankles of web developers, seems to have a refreshed attitude to the new possibilities HTML5 gives us. IE9 and 10 are quickly piling on the features that have given Firefox and Chrome their edge for many years. Here are a couple of reasons we look forward to HTML5 blurring the line between applications and websites over the next year:
Better design, easier design
2011 was the year the PC lost its grip on the website. Anyone with a smartphone or tablet has the internet at their fingertips, and they want websites to match: ‘Responsive Design’ is the new mentality for building websites that cater to all devices. Here at 3seven9 we’re a big fan of the concept.
Tailoring your service to multiple platforms is a challenge, but the results will have a big impact on your users, and developing a responsive design from the start saves time in the future as your site, and the devices that access it, evolve.
How do we adapt the same services to multiple sites? Media queries are the key. A media query is a CSS tool that allows us to select a certain design by matching them to certain device profiles. Our very own CSS wizard Adam has more to say on the matter and will be discussing it at length in his blog article next week (so stay tuned!).
Now our design fits perfectly to the screen it’s being viewed on, but what does HTML5 give us to give our design that extra punch? Better animation, gradient, shadow and font support (amongst many other things) are all provided by CSS3 and often included under the HTML5 umbrella. Rendered natively by the browser, these effects work across browsers for great performance and appearance, saving development time in the process.
Is it an App?
HTML5 is not just a look though; in fact that’s mostly CSS3′s hard work. HTML5 is about features and it is these features that are making websites more interactive. Soon to be behind all of this new interactivity are WebSockets, which enable a direct, two-way connection to the web server for instant communication between your browser and the service you are using. We’ve already experimented with WebSockets [see the video here] while the specification for them was still evolving. Now that process is almost complete you can expect to see a lot more of them.
We believe that WebSockets are soon going to make it hard to distinguish an HTML5 app from a native app built for a specific platform. Building a responsive HTML5 app means easier accessibility and continuity across multiple platforms, without having to build a native app for each. Potentially a single, responsive HTML5 app could be used on two separate devices at the same time, with WebSockets providing the responsiveness between the two views that users demand. We envisage the same HTML5 app behaving as a viewer of content on one device (such as an internet-enabled TV) and a controller of content on another (such as a phone) simultaneously.
Problems for HTML5?
We’re very excited by what’s on the horizon, and we hope that HTML5′s new features become available on all the devices we use today. But what of those who are building the devices? An HTML5 app can potentially be used by any browser on any device. The key players, Apple and Google, see native apps as an important feature, and an opportunity to lock users into their respective ecosystems. Despite the death of IE6 on the desktop, HTML5 may have another battle for acceptance ahead.
That’s what we think, but how about you? Are you actually one of the very few surviving supporters of IE6 who’s sad to see it go? Do you actually see the effect of HTML5 being much more reduced than we do in 2012? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below. Equally you can email us or call 01344 667410 to see how 3seven9 can use web sockets or responsive design to move your business forward.
