Tablets and Hybrids Need Mobile-Optimized Websites, Too!Andrew Malek

@malekontheweb

http://malektips.com/

Who Uses Tablets?

“As a real estate agent, I am expected to have a lot of

information in my head, and I do but I have a constant need

to look things up, especially when I am out with clients. The

screen on my phone just isn’t big enough to poke through

tax records and other information on websites that are still

not optimized for mobile devices.”

- Teresa Boardman, Inman

http://www.inman.com/2015/05/01/ipads-are-5-years-old-

heres-how-i-learned-to-use-mine-for-real-estate/

“We needed to connect mothers to their babies’ care when

they couldn’t physically be there. This technology proved

the best solution,” Caceres said. “When doctors and nurses

are treating a newborn in the NICU, mom now can be right

there asking questions and getting updates, even if she’s on

a different floor.”

- https://www.cedars-sinai.edu/About-Us/HH-Landing-

Pages/iPads-Help-New-Moms-Connect-With-Their-Infants-

in-the-Neonatal-Intensive-Care-Unit.aspx

•Maximizing the Effectiveness of the iPad for

People with Autism

•“Using Your iPad for Encouraging Communication”

•“Using Your iPad for Daily Activities”

•“Using Your iPad as a Reward”

-Autism Speaks

https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-

services/technology/maximizing-use-ipad

“The fourth quarter of 2016 (4Q16) marked the ninth

consecutive quarter that tablet shipments have declined.”

Vendors “shipped 52.9 million tablets in the fourth quarter,

which was a decline of 20.1% from the same quarter one

year ago.”

- IDC Research

http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=prUS42272117

“The iPad 2 is still in use today,” IDC Senior Analyst Jitesh

Ubrani tells TechCrunch. “The [original] iPad Minis and Air

are all still in use today. They were being supported by Apple

until very recently. People have been hanging onto these

devices and they’re finding that they work just as well as

they did when they were released.”

- Brian Heater, TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/21/what-happened-to-

tablet-sales/

http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/

So Many Screens…

Just Use the Desktop Website?

•Tablet resolutions usually >=1024 pixel width (with a catch…)

•More room for text & graphics than cell phones; sites designed for those may result in too much whitespace on tablets

•Reduce development time – concentrate on desktop/laptop and cell phone users

Unoptimized experience…

No Plugin Support

Desktop / Laptop Websites, Too…

“Microsoft's Windows 10 Edge browser automatically pauses Flash content not central to a webpage. Google's Chrome browser will block Flash on virtually all websites. And Mozilla's Firefox blocks any old and potentially unsecure version of Flash and offers a "click to play" option that requires you to manually activate Flash should you need it.”

- Lance Whitney, CNET

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-to-neutralize-adobe-flash-by-default-in-next-version-of-safari/

Landscape AND Portrait

Fixed Width / Fixed Grid

•Shrunken text and images

•Manually pan through website, or pinch-and-

zoom

•Text / images reach outside containers

Picture and Text Blocks Don’t Fit Onscreen

Notice the “Transportation” Button

Responsive Grids

•Unsemantichttp://unsemantic.com/

•Pure.css, supporting regular and responsive gridshttps://purecss.io/

•Bootstrap framework, supporting a 12-column grid system (columns can stack on tablets and below)http://getbootstrap.com/

“Illusion of Completeness”

•User cannot tell there is more to scroll

•Often due to whitespace between elements (but whitespace is good?)

•Two different tablet orientations to test

- Kim Flaherty, Nielsen Norman Grouphttps://www.nngroup.com/articles/illusion-of-completeness/

Smart App Banner examples

Fonts and Whitespace

Font sizes may need to

be a little larger.

…maybe not that large, but larger.

•Example: Gill Sans MT vs. Gill Sans MT Condensed

•“Avoid horizontally-condensed fonts, especially in

small sizes”

http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/56125/

•“As a general rule, condensed fonts do not lend

themselves to readability.”

http://tympanus.net/codrops/2012/03/20/conde

nsed-fonts-the-good-the-bad-the-ugly/

The Serif vs. Sans Serif Debate

“Letterforms that are too intricate and thin are not only hard to read, especially for those with dyslexia or visual disabilities but also tend to break down at smaller sizes… To avoid this problem, many designers have opted to use sans-serif fonts… The simple, straightforward letterforms of sans-serifs tend to scale better and make for a more readable presentation…”

http://www.creativebloq.com/web-design/how-choose-right-fonts-small-screens-91516966

The Serif vs. Sans Serif Debate

“While the average reading speed was 9% faster for the group that read the sans serif passage, that difference was not statistically significant.”“The only notable difference between the two groups was that the serif group complained about the text twice as often as the sans serif group.“

- Hannah Alvarez

https://www.usertesting.com/blog/2014/08/06/choosing-the-right-font-a-guide-to-typography-and-user-experience/

•1 Ill ocean (Bauhaus 93)

•1 Ill ocean (Rockwell)

•1 Ill ocean (Gill Sans® Monotype)

•1 Ill ocean (Source Sans Pro)

- ‘5 Faces for UI Design’ - Dan Eden

http://typecast.com/blog/type-on-screen-5-faces-for-ui-design

Consider using device system font in Safari for iOSbody {

font-family: -apple-system, "Arial", sans-serif

}

- Using the System Font in Web Content

https://webkit.org/blog/3709/using-the-system-

font-in-web-content/

•For other devices, call out system font names:

•“Segoe UI” - Surface/Edge

•“Roboto” then “Droid Sans” - Android

-Marcin Wichary, Smashing Magazine

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2015/11/usi

ng-system-ui-fonts-practical-guide/

Hover Support

•Cannot guarantee reliable hover support

•Animation on hover?

•Popup text or details on hover?

•Is a finger press meant to activate the hover

event, or the click event?

•Long press works on some devices / browsers to

show alt text – if people know…

•Could recognize a tap as a press / click and a long

press to show “hover” details

•Pressure.js to perform other actions on long press

or support Apple’s Force Touch / 3D Touch

Pressure.js example - http://pressurejs.com/

Tocca.JS - http://gianlucaguarini.github.io/Tocca.js/

Text Entry

Show password option (i.e. eBay)

Toggle Password JavaScript

•Bootstrap Show Password

https://github.com/wenzhixin/bootstrap-show-

password

•hideShowPassword - jQuery

https://github.com/cloudfour/hideShowPassword

<input type="number">

<input type="url">

•Other input types – date, email, time, week, etc.

•Support not universal – but should degrade to

<input type="text">

•Is particular type supported?

http://caniuse.com/

http://www.wufoo.com/html5/

•Toggle auto capitalization

<input type="text" autocapitalize="on/off" ... >

•Turn off autocorrect for proper noun input

<input type="text" autocorrect="off" ... >

•Reduce number of fields

•Don’t abuse dropdowns

- http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1950

There are other options besides dropdowns

Touch Targets

<label><input type="checkbox" name="checkbox" value="value"> Option1</label>

Higher Precision with Mice

•Whitespace separation between touch points to

prevent accidental press of wrong touchpoint

•Avoid UI interfering with swiping motions (i.e.

sliders)

I’m trying to adjust the brightness…

But now I get the volume control instead…

How Large Should Touch Points Be?

•“Give tappable controls a hit target of about 44 x 44 points.”- iOS Human Interface Guidelines

•“[T]ouch targets should be at least 48 x 48 dp. In most cases, there should be 8dp or more space between them.”- Google Material Design guidelines

Color Contrast

Cannot Assume Optimum Lighting

•Not all tablet use at office or desk

•Coffee shop

•Hotel room

•Kitchen

•Outdoors in bright sunlight

“Imagine trying to read low-contrast text on a

mobile device while walking in bright sun. Even

high-contrast text is hard to read when there is

glare, but low-contrast text is nearly impossible.”

-Katie Sherwin, Nielsen Norman Group

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/low-contrast/

Increase Color Contrast for Tablets

•Increases legibility – don’t do this

•Focuses user attention

•Color contrast between pressable and non-

pressable areas to determine what is a button

Popup

Color Safe - http://colorsafe.co/

WebAIM - http://webaim.org/resources/contrastchecker/

•Higher color contrast may make website easier to

use for everyone, not just for those with

disabilities…

•Good practice for desktop / laptop websites too,

not just sites dedicated for tablet or smartphone

users

Performance

Generally speaking…

•Tablets are slower

•Tablets have less RAM

•Tablets may be older

Obvious Performance Tricks…

•Minify / Compress JavaScript

•Optimize Images

•Reduce Background Tasks

•Reduce DOM and CSS Complexity

•Minimize Repaint and Reflow

•Optimize JavaScript

Repaint and Reflow

•Sitepoint - 10 Ways to Minimize Reflows and Improve

Performance

https://www.sitepoint.com/10-ways-minimize-

reflows-improve-performance/

•Google PageSpeed - Minimizing Browser Reflow

https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/reflow

JavaScript Optimization

•Google -https://developers.google.com/speed/articles/optimizing-javascript

• Cubiq (maker of iScroll component) – Performance tricks“First of all. Don’t believe “performance tricks” posts. Yes, including this one.”http://cubiq.org/performance-tricks-for-mobile-web-development

Perceived Performance

•Show button / link down state

•May not be visible for small buttons, however

•Show spinner for longer operations

Conclusion

•Avoid plugins

•Landscape and portrait

•Easy-to-read fonts

•Handle hover actions

•Ease text entry

•Mobile-optimized touch targets

•High color contrast

•Focus on performance

•“You’re designing a product for people, and it

doesn’t matter if it’s on Android or iPhone or

Windows Phone.”

- Joey Flynn, former product designer, Facebook

“You never know where the next order

will come from, the next newsletter

signup, the next word-of-mouth

recommendation or critical review.”

@malekontheweb