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Loading ...iPhone impersonators and the landscape of Web design
Telus and HTC launched the HTC Touch smart phone at a downtown Telus retailer this morning. One’s coming in for a full review shortly, but I had some hands-on time with it at the launch, and I must say … well, it’s a smart phone.
It’s not explicitly positioned as an iPhone competitor, but it’s implicit. David Neale, chatting after the launch, referred to the iPhone as “opening the floodgates” for similar devices.
The Touch, at first blush, is very much a Windows experience on an iPhone footprint — all touchscreen, no buttons — and it seems a little inelegant in comparison (though I’ve spent very little time with an iPhone, hint, hint). It comes with a stylus, after all …
I haven’t put it through all its paces yes, so I won’t pass judgment on the device yet. The experience of surfing the Web on it wasn’t great, but I don’t think that’s entirely the device’s fault. On the 2.8-inch screen, links were often tiny enough to elude my fingers, which aren’t exactly sausage-sized but felt big and clumsy today. Yes, that’s what the stylus is for, but the iPhone has changed expectations about the smart phone experience.
Web design will have to evolve as these devices proliferate. Tiny button links will become big square icons; navigation will become a flip-through or fly-through experience like choosing media on an iPhone. Structure will become flatter rather than deeper, since people will prefer to flip through lots of options in landscape mode to drilling down through layers for a more focused selection.
One day, and it’s not far off, the majority of Web traffic will be mobile. If Web design doesn’t change, surfing will be a frustrating experience.
