Perhaps the most difficult aspect of a web developer’s job is anticipating how the average visitor will use a website. Also, there’s always going to be a trade-off: design vs. utility. Stylish, high concept websites frequently sacrifice a large number of features and options for the sake of eye-popping design. On the other hand, you’ll find that websites such as high volume e-commerce sites which allow visitors to customize product features online tend to have more subdued designs.
With the range of design and layout features now available, the choice between design and utility is not as pronounced as it once was. In point of fact, we probably have the advent of mobile devices and touch interfaces to thank for this. Content panels which slide open at the click of a mouse or touch of a fingertip; responsive design which allows content to fill all available screen space instead of leaving gaps in some places and too-small-to-read-text in other places; connecting interactive scripting with databases via Ajax: all of these are features developed to make richer mobile experiences and have since migrated to standard website designs.
However, this often makes the job of selecting a design layout which compliments the intended function of a website more, not less, difficult. There’s now so much more from which to choose. The task of a web developer these days is to create feature-rich websites which also incorporate the latest design trends in addition to having an integrated mobile version.
At WebVellum, we tend to blend a few different technologies together – incorporating script-based solutions, style (CSS) which transitions based on screen size, as well as programming which automatically detects the type of device a visitor is using – as a means of customizing a website to exactly what the client needs while offering visitors a stylish, yet easy to use interface.
Possibly the best example of how we accomplish that is the primary WebVellum website. It’s built using responsive design, but also has a jQuery Mobile version which you only see while using a smartphone. by using jQuery Mobile, we can take advantage of the multiple ways to manage content and avoid pages where you have to scroll forever. However, if you’re using a tablet, jQuery Mobile can become a little awkward to use on this particular website. Here’s where we use responsive design to make the desktop version optimize for the smaller screen size of a tablet.
Mobile detection programming, which we frequently use to replace elements on the desktop versions of websites with features more friendly to mobile devices, can also be used to present different content based on whether a visitor is using an Apple, Android or Windows device. This is particularly handy for video and other media. However, it can also be implemented for advertising and user account management.
The important thing to keep in mind, though, is that the wide range of tools available for optimizing user experience does not necessarily result in better websites. It’s not about stuffing as many bells and whistles into a website as possible. The point is that with the tools available today, a savvy developer has the ability to create websites which optimize content for all visitors, no matter what device they’re using and no matter what the primary purpose of the website is.
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