The biggest change in the digital world over the past five years has been the change in how the average consumer expects to be able to interact with a brand online.
In 2010, there were 12.5 billion devices connected to the Internet. Cisco IBSG predicts there will be 25 billion by 2015 and 50 billion by 20201. Five years ago it was standard to create a website to cater for your customers online needs, now we have mobile apps and tablets apps, and each has their own capabilities and benefits.
The trend is to expect a brand experience to be unabridged however I chose to interact with it.
Modern practices in web application development can be applied on the server-side and beyond. With increased flexibility and code re-use our clients can concentrate on how customers experience their brand on today’s devices and be ready to take advantage of new channels in the future.
With so much variety in the customers hands, we can use the ideas behind mash-ups to get the most out of the technology while consolidating logic that can be shared. The medium drives the solution, but each solution inherits from the brand.
The languages of the web are ready to move off-line. JavaScript can run on the server, powered by the incredible work that Google have done as part of their dedication to the Chrome browser. HTML5 is leap forward in capabilities for web-apps, Microsoft have announced that, as part of IE8, developers will be able to use HTML5 and JavaScript to write native applications2.
Modern web technologies have grown in a climate where you must be mindful of speed and size, where you often cannot be sure what the customer is able to do. A platform of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation. A platform available on every web-capable device on the planet. The Internet is at the top, but it could be all the way down.