The fact that you are reading this book means you don’t need to be told how ubiquitous mobile is, how quickly the mobile market is growing and changing, and how much mobile computing is supplanting desktop computing as well as more traditional media such as film, television, radio, newspapers, and books.
Mobile is so huge and is growing so fast that astonishing growth numbers from just a few years ago pale in comparison to growth numbers today -- so much so that we won’t even bother quoting any figures, as they will be outdated long before the rest of the content loses its relevance.
One thing that has not happened yet is true standards for design. Movements are now underway to design for the mobile experience first, before focusing on other forms of computing. A good reason for this is that in many markets, many of your customers look at your website on mobile devices more than on desktops.
Yet, too much design is based on older paradigms for the desktop, or even for TV or print. Within mobile, too many design discussions are very narrowly focused. They pay special attention to applications on a single platform, or only to the mobile web—and almost al- ways at the expense of every other platform. Certainly, almost no one discusses anything but smartphones, despite the huge market share and vast usage rates of feature phones.
Fragmentation is discussed as a bad thing for marketing, and sometimes for design, but designers themselves contribute to this fragmentation too often by focusing on pixel- based layouts and the specifics of their favorite OS. This does no one any good, and is es- pecially pointless when you consider the user. Devices generally have many more features and methods of interaction in common than their differences might imply.
Serious mobile design now, and especially in the future, will require building for every user, and providing some solution on every platform.
This book offers a set of common patterns for interaction design on all types of mobile devices. A few patterns require specific hardware or form factors, but most are absolutely universal.
Most do not concern themselves at the top level with implementation details. The correct solution is correct even at the OS level, as an application or as a website.
Of course, there are notes to discuss alternatives, methods, and limitations to assist with decision making. And many of the specific patterns are coupled with alternatives or varia- tions that allow similarly useful solutions to be achieved on any type of device.
Next: Who This Book Is For
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