I was lucky enough to attend An Event Apart (opens new window) in Boston this year. Over the two days I learned a lot from web professional's on the future of the web and what we should be doing now to move it forward. I'm going to cover two main things which really stood out to me. One of my favorite things about this conference is how every session related to each other in some way to give an over all message.

Thinking about mobile FIRST instead of LAST

Luke Wroblewski (opens new window) spoke about the importance of "Mobile First!" which was one of my favorite talks during this conference.  A designer typically fills up the entire space for a 1024x768 design with useless functionality because they are given to much space. If you've used any mobile application or website that was redesigned for that platform you'll notice that the designer only highlights the most important parts of the site and its VERY easy to use. Why are the main sites so difficult to use if they can be more powerful and have more screen real estate?

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If you rethink your design process and start FIRST with designing for mobile (~320x480) your main website will benefit greatly from this. You will be forced to think about what the user wants to do on your website and highlight those features so they are front, center, and more prominent on the main website.

What other benefits do you get out of doing this? Well, Mobile web growth has outpaced desktop web growth by 8x. Smartphone sales will pass PC sales in 2011.  The future of the web is moving to small handheld touch devices and we need to be prepared for this. How do your sites look on these new devices?

CSS3 and HTML5

How many times have you heard "I hope CSS3 becomes standard in the near future, right now you can't really use anything because not every browser supports it.". I'm guilty of this and admit to this way of thinking, but not anymore. Andy Clarke (opens new window) changed the minds of many at the conference. No longer do you have to think that every site you create has to look the same in every single browser. That is the old way of thinking and we need to move on.

Lets face it, you've probably been waiting for the next big thing to become standard so you can finally use it. You're waiting for the day the web gods say CSS3 and HTML5 are completely standard and are ready for use! Your dreaming. This will never happen. You will always be chasing the next big thing and you will always be disappointed that you never used any of it.

We need to change how we think about web design. Our designs should be the best they can be for whatever browsers we choose to support. Its perfectly fine for your sites to look different in every browser. In fact, they should look different. New devices are being created every day to browse the internet. From mobile touch phones, to tablets, to desktop PCs. Why should you get the same experience on every device when each has its own unique features? We should make sites function the best they can for each of those devices.

Instead of designing for the lowest browser, it is best to design for the highest and think how it can degrade down to the lowest and still be functional. In the end, the user wants content, not design.  If the user can still access everything that is all that matters in the end. The user does not NEED rounded corners, drop shadows, or slightly rotated images. The user is not going to compare your site in 2 different browsers and say "Why didn't that rotate when I hovered over it it?". We're the only ones doing those things. They won't even know its capable of doing it. Also, who cares if they did? If they do realize browsers behave differently it will get them in the mindset that they need to upgrade to get a better experience.

The enhancements you can make with new browsers don't have to be huge changes. They can be small things stacked on top of the site to give the user a more interactive experience. Small things can "wow" someone and if you can make someones online experience better, why not do it?

End Thoughts

Creating different designs for mobile devices, tablets, and the desktop is going to be crucial in the upcoming years. We need to stop thinking about one design for everything and be okay with sites looking different in every browser. They should look and behave different based on the new tools provided to us. This is what is going to move the web forward. This conference has given me a lot to think about and I'm excited to discuss ideas with my co-workers so we can come up with a plan on how our office can adapt to the coming changes.

In our office our designers currently create one PSD file for every platform which is then given to our developers to turn into a website. The difficult part in implementing different changes per browser/platform is that a PSD file can't show animations. You can't show what happens when you hover over something, or click something. We face this problem a lot, and is one we are going to have to think about.