current trends in mobile web and what it means for open educational resources
TRANSCRIPT
Statistics
14%
39%
47%
Desktop Mobile Tablet
Source: http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2015/02/safari_ios_bigg.html
Source: https://twitter.com/BIIntelligence/status/452174966788608001
Snapchat 100M+ monthly users
Source: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/05/28/idc-tablet-projections/
Problems
• PDF doesn’t reflow
• Flash apps often don’t resize
• Java has similar problems, if the apps aren’t built with responsibility in mind (and security)
• Conversation tools won’t fix the above problems
Responsive is not enough
• Often reduces user experience by forcing fixed user patterns on users
• Device pixels vs. device resolution
• Often requires technical workarounds that are hard to test and maintain
• Wide range of input devices
Accessibility
• Basic HTML is still the best
• Following W3C Web Accessibility standards (aria-*)
• Descriptive, optional information
• Subtitles, captions and transcripts
Data
• (Mobile) internet access is still very expensive
• Don’t assume your users can always access your content (e.g. iPod Touch, Tables)
• Compiled formats that are device agnostic - .mobi / .epub
Prototype and test• Storyboard student experiences
• Survey and test the experience, check the stats (Google Analytics)
• Test on actual devices with target students
• Consult with your accessibility team
• Embrace Agile development workflows
Good practices• Provide offline, device agnostic downloads using
(open) standards
• HTML, MP4, collection in .ZIP
• PDF with .ODF, .mobi and .epub as alternatives
• iTunes U and Podcasts as alternative download formats
• YouTube as alternative
Problems• It’s not currently possible to use standards to
download and cache content on all devices
• You can stitch them together, but it’s complex
• Solutions are Desktop oriented The coming war on general-purpose computing by Cory Doctorow - http://boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html