I have been thinking a lot about the current state of web development. And, I think that with the next generation of web browsers we are going to see a turning point for how front-end developers approach the problem of building a website or web application. In the past, there were really two major problems that complicated front-end development. The first was the need for cross-browser compatibility. Legacy browsers and evolving standards really made it a chore for a front-end developer to develop a site that worked well across all browsers. I use to joke that my job as a front-end developer existed solely to support buggy IE browsers. And, honestly, this joke wasn’t far from the truth. To complicate things, there was an opposing force that said that not only should sites work well across browsers but they should be as rich and interactive as native applications. This was the RIA (Rich Interactive Application) movement. I was recently in a meeting where someone lauded the use of a simple table in favor of interactive data-grid because it was something that we used 10 years ago. This attitude characterized RIA, in that the coolness or the richness of the widget was more important than the problem it was trying to solve. RIA applications really epitomized the virtue of using something because we could, not because we should.

But, as the title mentions, I think we are at a turning point for web development. With the emergence of HTML5 and an increased emphasis on standard support in the next generation of browsers, gone are the days of worrying about browser compatibility. Sure, it will be in the back of our minds, but it will never reach the frustration level of having to build an IE6 compatible site. With that said, I don’t think it will be all hammocks and Mai Tais for front-end developers. I think the problem of browser compatibility will quickly be replaced with the new problem of platform compatibility. Brought on by mobile devices and touch input, platform compatibility is the new major problem facing web development. It introduces a slew of new problems such as scaling to mobile resolutions (typically 320-480px), handling new input events (swipe, long tap, etc.), making touch friendly widgets, etc, etc. This will have a major effect on how we build sites. I speculate that we will see more fluid layouts, less data-grids, and whole lot less RIA widgets. We will do a lot more with standard HTML5 and CSS3, because it will be more feature-rich and work better across emerging platforms.

Personally, this turning point has changed how I approach web development. On my personal projects, I have shifted focus toward HTML5 development and now approach UI design with an emphasis on touch-friendly elements and flexible layouts. I have discontinued the use of hover based input, and have gone away from using grids to display data as they scale poorly horizontally. I will be introducing a new version of matthewsmith.com in the next couple months that follows this new focus, and am actively making changes to projects I have in development.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 8th, 2010 at 8:10 am and is filed under Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.