Treat navigation as second. On mobile, you can decide to only place navigation at the bottom of your site. The nav icon can just be an anchor link (#nav) to the bottom of the website, where the navigation resides. Alternatively, the navigation icon could link out to a separate page that only has nav on it – has same experience for user, but different approach for designer/developer.

Why do we make password fields display as dots? This is just faux-security and doesn’t add any extra security, except from someone looking over your shoulder?

Jeremy Keith challenges us to make the password field real text by default and give the option for hiding it with the click of a button. This approach would increase the success-rate of logging in – which increases usability.

“Every user is a non-Javascript user while the website is still loading” —Jeremy Keith

Because of this, our progressive enhancements should include both CSS and Javascript. Javascript failing should not stop your website from loading fully.

Try conditional loading for 3rd party services like social buttons and embedded content.

Think in terms of performance load time as well as in terms of the many years your website will be used for. Short vs long time scales.

In the long-term, image formats may not stick around, but text formats will.

“The cloud – what a bullsh*t word” —Jeremy Keith

I didn’t know where he was going with this, but I found a blog post where he describes further about how the term, ‘the cloud’ just encourages ignorance about where things reside on the web. He compares it to Miasma theory which said that some diseases were caused by ‘bad air’, but the theory was later replaced when germs were discovered.

Some will say, “Why would anyone want to do ____________ on mobile?” It could be something like, do your taxes, apply for a job, etc. This sort of question limits us and discounts the fact that many of the world’s developing countries, poor and minorities can only access the Internet from a mobile device.

Disruptive Innovation = a product/service that is inferior in many ways comes out but ends up creating a brand new market of customers for their ‘inferior’ product or service

Examples of disruptive innovation include:

large, high quality furniture-sized radios vs smaller plastic radios

Offset printers vs desktop printers

DSLR camera vs smartphone camera

Kodak (bankrupt) vs Instagram (sold for 1 billion)

Desktop Internet vs mobile Internet

The connection I made and the example I can’t stop thinking about: DIY website solutions like Google Sites, SquareSpace, etc vs hiring a web designer/developer

The mobile-only user – someone who only accesses the Internet through their mobile devices

45% of low-income people

45% high school students

60% Hispanics

50% young adults

By not making the web mobile-friendly, we make a second-class Internet for people who might already feel like a second-class citizen

“Browsing the web on mobile can sometimes be like reading the web through a toilet paper roll” —Karen McGrane

There is no such thing as ‘writing for mobile’, there is just good writing. If it’s good enough for mobile, it should be on your regular desktop website.

Good content transcends platform

Responsive design won’t fix your content problems

Don’t ask, “Why do that on mobile?” Ask, “What else can we do on mobile?”

At An Event Apart – Austin 2013, Ethan Marcotte shared his thoughts on how our conversation about enhancing the web incorrectly centers around the map (people from different locations) instead of around the territory (people of similar demographics). Here are my take-aways from the talk:

The map is not the territory – meaning all people in one particular locale have widely different access to the web. A physical location on the map can’t be easily categorized as having the same access to computers/internet.

Because the map is not the territory we need to design for reach (meaning faster loading websites)

In Africa, there are a majority of people who only have access to the internet from a mobile-device.

In fact, among minorities, the poor, and the developing world; mobile-only internet access is the main-stay.

Moreover, the developing world will soon overtake the developed world when it comes to mobile-use.

The biggest take-away for me: As a web designer, I need to craft mobile experiences that ensures that people who might feel like second-rate citizens do not also have a second-rate web browsing experience on the only device they can access the web on: their mobile device.

At An Event Apart – Austin 2013, Luke Wroblewski shared his thoughts on how we should be designing for mobile creation. This means – how should we build web forms and interactive websites that take into account the user’s habits/posture when using their device.

Ergonomics is now important for touch devices, since the mouse and keyboard barrier are gone. This means how we design the website/app should take ergonomics into account.

“It takes big changes to go small” – Tim Cook, Apple CEO

This means the mobile experience should have a focused and clear flow.

“Just in time education” is best when showing tips on using the website or app. This means only showing tips as the action is being taken. Avoid showing a full how-to guide up-front.

The answer for the debate between native apps vs mobile web is – They should both good for their own strengths.

The ideal world would utilize cross device usage – so you can pick up where you left off – think reading books on Kindle, using Chrome for browsing on various devices, that remembers what you viewed/searched

My summary:

As I begin building websites for mobile, I need to research and test different ways that are ergonomically correct for users to interact with the device. This involves how large to make buttons, where to place them on the screen and much more.

I was lucky enough to attend my very first web design conference this week. It was amazingly inspiring and gave me a lot of things to think about – mostly a lot of things I need to do better at in my work. It was great to be in a room full of 400-500 other folks with the same mindset, skill set and goals as me. It was also great to hear talks by some of the people I’ve been learning from for many years – through their blogs and books.

I’ll be sharing my take-aways from each of the speakers. One blog post at a time. First Up – Jeffrey Zeldman.

At An Event Apart – Austin 2013, The Godfather of Web Design – Jeffrey Zeldman – shared his 10 commandments of web design. Below I’ve shared them and how I interpret each.

Remember content and keep it holy

Thou shalt make magic – not perfection

My interpretation: Make your websites magical, but that doesn’t mean making it perfect. Focus on previous commandments and ship the minimal viable product. Think Instagram, it was ‘magical’ but not perfect at first – because it didn’t allow for sharing, commenting or even have a website presence, only app presence.

Thou shalt prioritize

My interpretation: Do most important thing first (obviously) and think about using Github ‘issues’ feature to help prioritize.