Latest thinking

Yearly boost from @media

Published: 16 June 2006

TagsTags: , ,

By: Nick Tatt

@Media 2006 is the UK web industry’s yearly shot in the arm providing two days of engaging presentations from some of the web’s leading lights.

This year’s conference has not failed to deliver. The usual mix of great thought leadership, from the likes of Jeffery Veen on Web 2.0, and practical advice on how to manage a raft of web-related issues has sometimes raised more questions than provide answers. A great sign of healthy advice and debate.

One area it seems stills needs to mature is how we design and develop content for the mobile web. Cameron Moll’s presentation provided some great background on what the current pitfalls are to extend a site’s reach to ensure it is easily accessible on a mobile phone or PDA. Ths vast range of browsing devices makes it very difficult to successfully deliver a consist user experience. The current state of play in the mobile field is very similar to the problems experienced prior to the web standards initiative for browsers. Prior to the notion of web standards, the browser manufacturers essentially did what they felt was needed to gain a competitive advantage. With so few guidelines or standards it seems the situation is the same amongst mobile phones. Clearly there is still some work to be done by designers and developers to get to grips with this platform.

Jeffrey Veen of Adaptive Path and, more recently, of Google made a enthusiastic presentation aimed at cutting through the Web 2.0 jargon. The overwhelming impression was that whilst a lot of web apps have been described as ‘Web 2.0’ they are simply a result of several technologies maturing and providing an enhanced user experience.

With two days of discussions and two seperate tracks of presentations it’s impossible to attend every session but it is easy to come away from the conference with a real sense that there is a great deal of buzz around the industry.

Roll on @media 2007.

Have your say

Add your comment to 'Yearly boost from @media'.

Textile is enabled in the comment field and HTML will be stripped out. Your email address is required but don't worry it doesn't get displayed and we won't share it with others.

Textile Help