Tyler Sticka

Why HTML5 and proprietary platforms are both here to stay

Flash or HTML5? Choose your side.

That’s the tone seemingly set by much of the web community following the aftermath of Steve Jobs’ controversial Thoughts on Flash, exacerbated today by a thoughtful (yet apparently blasphemous) thread of Twitter commentary from influential Facebook developer Joe Hewitt.

These conversations have re-ignited a debate already intensified by the ever-increasing prominence of HTML5. While it may seem natural to regard this as a quarrel between proprietary technology and open standards, this is a gross oversimplification. Our feelings are merely the growing pains of a maturing Web.

The source of much of this tension is the difference of approach between the World Wide Web Consortium and companies like Adobe. The W3C is an important group tasked with an inherently sluggish goal: To corral, distill and encapsulate the opinions of a zillion developers and vendors  in order to produce hard-to-read documents detailing how the Web should be. While I’m sure more attentive observers may offer solutions for streamlining the W3C’s process, the result will never be analogous to that of a corporation. Great ideas (and profitable products) cannot wait for bureaucracy’s blessing.

Visionaries will always develop a means to forge ahead. That’s why Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Internet Explorer 9 all implement portions of an unfinished HTML5 specification. It’s also why platforms like Flash, Silverlight and the iPhone SDK have such a perceptible impact on the Web. Collectively, they are a crystal ball within which we may glimpse activities we’ll eventually take for granted. Remember how novel YouTube felt before embeddable Flash video became so pedestrian?

Not unlike the story of the tortoise and the hare, specifications eventually catch up. Like CSS and JavaScript before them, canonical experiences will “graduate” to full-fledged features of—or companions to—HTML. (Any Argo SSP or Netscape LiveScript loyalists out there?) Why? It’s all about accessibility.

The more accessible your experience, the larger your potential audience. HTML can be parsed fairly reliably by the majority of web-connected devices. But with each subsequent layer of complexity, your user’s device and/or browser must be sophisticated enough to interpret the additional technical requirements. It’s our job as designers and developers to weigh the benefits of each layer’s capabilities against the hurdle it may represent for the consumer. Many of us employ progressive enhancement to capitalize on the latest technology while leaving as little of their users behind as possible. Time/budget permitting, why wouldn’t you want to pursue a greater breadth of device compatibility?

Plugins must innovate in order to survive. If Flash stagnates, if it fails to shine a guiding light on the future of our industry, it will join its sibling Shockwave in an ever-growing graveyard of antiquated technologies, succeeded not only by HTML5 but by more innovative competitors (Silverlight) or a whole new paradigm (device-specific SDKs).

The Web needs these technologies. I believe (and wholeheartedly hope) that standards will continue to define the most prevalent form of the Web experience, but not without the guidance, foresight and bullheadedness of those who refuse to slow down.

Some Welcome Variation In Our Increasingly Mobile World

The iPhone may be my favorite device of the last ten years. No other gizmo since the PC has so fundamentally altered the way I interact with the web and my social circle.

But the iPhone’s ubiquity in the mobile space scares the living daylights out of me.

It frightens me the same way I’m frightened by the deceptive feeling of serenity that blankets me as I continue to surrender more and more of my data to Google (current buddy, future megalomaniac). The thought leaders at Apple have crafted an experience so warm and fuzzy it’s nearly impossible to escape its allure, even as it wallops all of its competitors.

I simultaneously sing the praises of the Semantic Web (often at the expense of rich media plugins such as Flash and Silverlight) while gleefully supporting dozens of apps delivered via the iPhone’s closed, draconian marketplace. The irony (hypocrisy?) therein is not lost on me.

It seems pretentious to avoid these products solely on insular, geeky principal, so I continue to champion competitors in hopes that a superior device will emerge or, at the very least, keep Apple under enough pressure and scrutiny to maintain their innovation and avoid sinking into mediocrity (remember?).

I had extremely high hopes for Palm’s WebOS, but a still-floundering app ecosystem coupled with some truly strange hardware choices appear to have sabotaged its chances. While I have much more confidence in the Android OS as a powerful and capable mobile device standard (especially in the long-term), the platform seems troubled by a lack-of-consistency between devices and the same snore-inducing, incremental release cycle that eventually tempered my excitement for ambitious open source projects like Ubuntu.

It could just be my ignorance of the platform, but as the iPhone becomes increasingly capable at performing business tasks I begin to look upon Blackberry users as I did AOL users ten years ago—with a feeling of solicitude generally reserved for endangered species.

What we need is a platform with a distinctive and decidedly un-iPhone-like user experience (an iPhone killer killer), produced by a company with experience facilitating ecosystems yet still capable of supporting a wide range of hardware and service providers.

Did you just say Windows?

That’s right, Microsoft showed off Windows Phone 7 Series this week, and it looks great. The minds responsible for the well-reviewed Zune HD have re-designed the mobile operating system from scratch. Designers like myself who admire the HD’s interface are thrilled, but considering the Zune’s marketshare could be very generously described as having a “lack of ubiquity,” it’s a brave (and admirable) move to hand them the keys to Microsoft’s mobile future.

Instead of forcing the user into disparate applications specific to function (iPhone) or allowing the user to multi-task until their poor little phone grinds to a halt (Android), Windows 7 Phones establish contextual hubs of interest. If you want to see what your cousin has been up to this week, you don’t have to check email, Facebook, Twitter and chat in separate apps; simply tap “People,” then select your cousin’s profile. This style of traversing your media and social circle is extremely thoughtful and appears to be well-executed. I know it won’t please everyone, but I’m certain a percentage of the population will instantly prefer it.

The interface itself looks completely unique, at least if you’ve never used a Zune. Subtleties like highlights, shadows, soft corners and texture are completely absent, allowing only color, typography and your content to show through. While occasionally abrasive (especially in the calendar application), it’s a striking choice that’s extremely memorable and looks beautiful in motion.

It isn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. The browser is still Internet Explorer, albeit the improved (but sluggish) version found in the Zune HD. Until Mobile IE supports the same sort of HTML5 features that have enabled web app developers to deliver rich mobile experiences to the iPhone and Android devices, Windows Phones will still be an obstacle in the evolution of the mobile web. Perhaps most depressingly, hardware actually supporting this OS probably won’t debut until Christmas, and who knows what may have changed by then.

Aside from the platform itself, what excites me most about this announcement is that another Apple competitor has finally shown they’re awake. Watching Apple merrily stomp ahead with Android slowly gaining ground and Palm off in the distance is becoming tiresome.

But an Apple/Google/Microsoft/Palm slugfest? I’d pay to see that.

My Media Picks of the Decade

The inaugural decade of the new millennium proved to be as tumultuous, but no one can argue that it came and went without introducing gobs of fantastic media and entertainment. While by no means a definitive list, here are my personal favorites.

Favorite Web Site

Twitter (2006)

No online service has changed the way I communicate more radically. Twitter trained me to expect immediacy in my communication tools, and opened my mind to the possibility of manipulating public data on the web. While lacking the ubiquity of Facebook, it’s influence is felt far more perceptibly in nearly all competitors.

Hopefully 2010 will bring enough UI improvements to make me consider using the actual site instead of apps like TweetDeck.

Honorable mentions: Hulu (2007), Wikipedia (2001)

Favorite Gadget

iPhone 3G (2008)

I resisted the temptation of this device for quite some time, until a horrific experience with Verizon customer service pushed me into switching to AT&T. In hindsight, I should really thank that terrible service rep (with bad tattoos and a fake tan) for giving me the opportunity to experience one of the best devices ever. The iPhone almost single-handedly pushed the mobile web out of the dark ages (or at least got the ball rolling) into a period of relative optimism.

While devices like the Motorola Droid and Palm Pre may soften the novelty of the iPhone’s interface, we can’t overestimate how influential it continues to be, due in no small part to a bustling app store economy that pushes it’s capabilities on a weekly basis. The next decade will almost certainly belong to the mobile web, and few can argue that the iPhone wasn’t a catalyst for that progression.

Plus, Doodle Jump is wicked addictive.

Honorable mentions: Dell Studio Hybrid (My HTPC), Wii (2006)

Favorite Comic

Bone (1991 – 2004)

Although Jeff Smith’s tale of the lost Bone cousins exploring a vast and mysterious valley started in the 1990s, it wasn’t completed until 2004. While the gorgeous color editions consistently top children’s best seller lists, I’m partial to the black-and-white collection for preserving the prominence of Smith’s incredible brushwork. Few cartoonists alive can match this level of believable acting and effortless storytelling. Superb.

Honorable mentions: Scott Pilgrim (2004 – Present), Blankets (2003)

Favorite Game

Super Mario Galaxy (2007)

Leave it to Mario to remind me of why I love video games in the first place. Galaxy transported me to a fantastic, whimsical and positively surreal universe with exactly the right balance of fun and challenging gameplay. This game transcends mere entertainment and tiptoes into the realm of wondrous art and superb craftsmanship. No other title ate up more of my time this decade.

Honorable mentions: Shenmue II (2001), Shadow of the Colossus (2005)

Favorite Album

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

The band’s fourth LP has become nothing short of legendary, thanks in part to the drama played out between Wilco and Reprise Records (thoughtfully immortalized in an excellent documentary). While some of the album’s backstory has been unnecessarily mythologized, the attention it receives is beyond deserving. What songwriter Jeff Tweedy describes as “holes” in the songs can be truly challenging, but are never without reward. Perfect.

Honorable mentions: Radiohead – Kid A (2000), LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)

Favorite Film

The Incredibles (2004)

While I have a tremendous amount of respect and admiration for Pixar, I was not prepared for how much I would enjoy Brad Bird’s debut film at the studio. The Incredibles reaffirmed my belief in the power of cartoony, expressive character design by crafting believable human characters in spite of their abstract structures (a fact that must have been truly embarrassing for the dismal yet purportedly “realistic” Polar Express film which debuted the same month).

While it certainly didn’t hurt that the story combined my love for superheroes with a healthy dose of pure Pixar warmth, what really struck me was the underlying anti-mediocrity subtext.

“Everybody’s special, Dash,” Helen says to her son, who replies “…which is another way of saying no one is.”

Honorable mentions: The Dark Knight (2008), Thank You For Smoking (2006)

Why 10/GUI is brilliant and will probably never work

10/GUI is a multitouch interface designed to push the typical desktop experience forward with the  “interaction bandwidth” afforded through the use of all ten fingers. It’s smart, inventive and really inspiring.

While Microsoft’s Courier concept is fascinating for its application of touch to a decidedly alternative computing experience, 10/GUI seeks to redefine our desktop interactions. I was pleased to see its creator, R. Clayton Miller, thoughtfully address the issue of arm and neck fatigue (a problem cartoonists like myself know all too well). His solution also counters the challenges of the user’s fingers obscuring the point of interaction, something today’s mobile devices sidestep with clumsy fly-up keypress confirmations.

I think 10/GUI is wonderful, and I sincerely hope Miller (or those industrious enough to seek him out) will explore it further and give us some real products to play with. That being said, I remain unconvinced that this type of interface would work in mainstream application.

While listening to 10/GUI’s daunting list of touch gestures required to accomplish basic operating system tasks, I was reminded of industrial designer Dennis Boyle’s account of Palm’s experience selling users on Graffiti text entry over a traditional keyboard. From Bill Moggridge’s Designing Interactions:

I remember that Handspring decided to put the Treo out with both a keyboard and Graffiti, because they didn’t know which one people would choose; they decided to let them vote. The result was quite clear; a large majority went for the small keyboard. [...] [The] little QWERTY keyboard, bad as it is, is such a standard that it requires no guesswork, and that attracts more users.

Despite the fact that Graffiti was a faster and more efficient method of “typing” on a mobile device, these rewards came only if the user invested enough time to overcome the obstacle of learning the standard. While I find it to be really neat, I can’t imagine gaining enough speed from 10/GUI to overcome the time and pain it would take to learn those gestures.

I’ve experienced this with my MacBook Pro’s multitouch trackpad. While simple gestures like scrolling are easy to learn, more complex maneuvers are bothersome and often unwittingly triggered as my hand brushes past while typing. While some of these features ease the frustration of not having a mouse, they are a poor substitute when used in conjunction with the keyboard, occasionally even to the detriment of my workflow.

I’m not saying we necessarily need to coddle our users, gimping innovation for the sake of complacency. What I am suggesting is that immediacy may be the greatest asset of touch computing. It is natural to select an object by touching it. I love the Courier prototype because it evolves tasks which inherently benefit from touch interaction. 10/GUI appears to require memorization prior to use, more like a musical instrument than a user interface. Put simply, I’m afraid 10/GUI will create more problems for me than it will solve.

But I really hope I’m proven wrong.

Make Email Suck Less (Why wait for Google Wave?)

Like so many geeks on Twitter, I’ve been shamelessly begging for a Google Wave invitation. I’ve heard numerous tales of the product’s rampant bugginess, but email feels so broken in the wake of the initial demo that I can’t help but pine for its modern, collaborative goodness.

In spite of this, I realize my wait will not end with Wave’s arrival. The service will likely taking many years to establish itself as the ubiquitous standard it aspires to be. I can’t just ditch email and twiddle my thumbs until that happens.

Here’s how I attempt to thwart email’s crappiness and continue to maintain that Merlin Mann nirvana that is Inbox Zero.

Step 1: Gmail

The setup begins with Gmail which, despite the handicap of our dilapidated email standard, still manages to rock 90% of the time.

I choose Gmail for its massive (and ever-expanding) storage capacity, the ability to send email from my personal domains, the versatility gained from “tagging” messages with labels, and the freedom to access all that cool stuff via POP3, IMAP and Google Sync for free. No competitor even begins to compare at this point and, even if they did, Gmail’s the easiest to escape from should you ever wish to switch.

In accordance with Merlin’s inbox makeover article, I immediately move every email I receive out of the inbox and into an action label after a brief skim. This protects me from workflow disruptions and insures that Gmail’s inbox and archive are used faithfully (for unsorted and archives items).

I prefix my action labels with an underscore so that they’ll be at the top of Gmail’s labels and any folder view in another application. They are:

_Action

For items that require some sort of action or task on my part before I can respond.

_Hold

For items I’ll want close at hand in the next week or so (login information, URLs, attachments, etc.).

_Respond

For items requiring a short message from me without any major tasks or required research.

_Waiting

For items which will likely require action once the sender has responded.

For added goodness, use Gmail’s Multiple Inboxes (enable it in Labs) to put these front and center:

I then follow Adam Pash’s lead and organize all other labels into Contexts and Projects, abbreviated to ‘C’ and ‘P’ respectively. Contexts might be something like “Events” and “Appointments,” whereas Projects refer to things like “New Web Site,” “The Big Account,” etc.

Once all your conversations are nicely organized and you’ve got a great bird’s eye view of your actionable items, Firefox users may want to install FaviconizeTab and Gmail Favicon Alerts for at-a-glance incoming mail alerts without additional applications.

Step 2: iPhone

If you set up Gmail on your iPhone using Apple’s baked-in, shiny logo button for the service, you’re missing out on the best experience.

I highly recommend using Google Sync, which gives you push mail, calendar and contacts from Google’s services. There’s nothing quite like the warm, fuzzy feeling you get having incoming messages pushed directly to that red badge on your home screen.

If you must have full multiple label goodness on your iPhone, or if you already have an Exchange ActiveSync account associated with the device, you should definitely use Gmail through mobile Safari. It does nearly everything the desktop version does (including offline support) and trumps the default mail app in numerous ways.

Step 3: Postbox

I’m somewhat of a zealot when it comes to having a local backup of my email on a hard drive. Call me skeptical, but cloud solutions are too new for me to have complete and total confidence in their archival potential. I was a happy Thunderbird user for years, but Mozilla Messaging has moved forward at a snail’s pace.

Postbox is Thunderbird with super powers. The interface is much more polished and boasts great features like tabs, attachment aggregation and social network integration. In many ways it’s the email client I wish Thunderbird was (and hopefully will be).

Setting up Gmail in Postbox is a snap. The big “archive” buttons acts as you’d expect, conversations are threaded, and the search accepts Gmail-like arguments (such as “from:Mom”).

Unlike Thunderbird, Postbox is a commercial application that’ll set you back $39.95 for a single license after a 30-day trial. Luckily, they’re nice enough to give purchasers a discount to hand out to friends, so the first ten people who purchase using this link will get ten bucks off that price. You’re welcome.

Why are we doing this again?

Because email is a beast, a sickly mutant beast that eats at your productivity and requires specialized care no matter how you access it. This is what it takes to make me happy with it. Using this setup allows me to access the same email everywhere, maintain a local backup on my home PC, and receive new email notifications no matter where I am on my iPhone. My conversations are threaded, helpfully organized and quickly searchable from anywhere.

But I still wouldn’t mind playing with Google Wave. I’ll even trade you a Typekit invite. Anyone? Update: Thanks to Ryan Williams and Chris at Studio 625 for the invites! I’ll publish a reaction to Wave soon.

Vanity and Control (Why I pwn the iPhone)

AT&T could very well be one of the worst mobile phone carriers on Earth. The problems of delayed voice mail and lost messages detailed in a recent Techcrunch diatribe are not unique to that journalist or to any of the millions of American iPhone users otherwise happy with Apple’s innovative device.

Mind you, Apple isn’t completely in the clear. While the App Store has changed the face of mobile computer in exciting and versatile ways, the device is woefully locked down in nearly every respect. I understand the need to corral the user in order to maintain a streamlined and comprehensive user experience (arguably the best in the industry), but the leash Apple users are on is shockingly short in comparison to Android, Blackberry and Palm devices.

With those shortcomings in mind, my reasons for jailbreaking the iPhone are abundantly clear.

Vanity

As a designer, I love and hate the iPhone. I love it for how gorgeous it is; I hate it for preventing me from imparting my own tastes and aesthetics into the experience.

I partially understand Apple’s distrust of theming capabilities. The fact is, most available themes are horrible. But if you can dig for the gems (like Wood Shelves, AnnMe, Teneo or Illumine) it can really offset the monotony of that cheese-grater-like dock on black.

I know it’s silly to hack your phone to manipulate simple aesthetics. But the again, it’s just as silly to write Greasemonkey scripts replacing favicons you don’t like (here, here and here). Why start denying my nature now?

Control

For a company that continually denies the usefulness and viability of true background applications, Apple sure does allow a lot of their own to eat up precious battery life and memory. If you find yourself using the iPhone to actually get things done, SBSettings is essential. With the swipe of a finger along the header bar, this app will let you kill processes, free memory, adjust brightness and toggle radios anywhere in the OS.

Other restrictions placed on the device are easily bested with a few simple applications. In short order, seemingly impossible tasks like making a Skype call over 3G or playing your favorite NES and Genesis games are easily conquered.

Jailbreaking gives you what Apple and AT&T can’t; unabashed control of your iPhone experience. I just hope some hacker out there is working on a FixAT&TNetwork app…

Update (7/26): As of today, I am un-jailbreaking my phone. In the last month I’ve experienced a greater number of inexplicably missed calls, overheating and loss of battery life than most other iPhone users I talk to. Since this device is my primary phone, I’ve decided to put my foot in my mouth for the sake of potentially more seamless communication.

I’ve invaded Squares!

If you haven’t played it yet, Squares! is a simple-yet-challenging puzzle game for your iPhone or iPod Touch that endears itself with cartoony imagery and addictive gameplay. Can you flip all the tiles without distressing the otherwise happy squares?

The app has had multiple sets of artwork for a while now, but the latest version brings with it a set designed by yours truly! You can enable it by heading into the settings and tapping the faces next to my logo.

Squares! is 99¢ and available in the app store.

Just in time for the 3GS: 33 Remarkable iPhone Apps

A lot of people picked up a shiny, new iPhone 3GS yesterday. Those folks will probably love and enjoy all the great features Apple has baked into that shiny, rounded-rectangle exterior. But soon (very soon) their eyes will wander to the wild and wooly kingdom of third-party applications.

They shouldn’t have to go it alone.

Which is why I, a happy iPhone 3G user, am happy to lead the way. Your first-party apps are lonely. Let’s give them some company, shall we?

Keep reading to see which apps are worth your download or dollar

Apple Apprehension

It is an anomaly among artists and designers to use anything but a Mac. And yet, I have somehow resisted. I own and enjoy the standard-issue iPhone and iPod, but no Apple computer has yet to gently (but forcibly) grace the contents of my wallet.

I happily work in Windows XP and Windows 7, the former augmented with a number of extensions but largely intact. It’s not that I don’t acknowledge that Mac OS X is more usable and elegant in most respects (especially in comparison to XP), it’s just that I know Windows well enough to anticipate and circumnavigate its quirks without precognition. When I’m knee-deep in my zen-like state of creative flow, designing with amazing tools like Adobe’s Creative Suite or programming in capable editors like Notepad++ or Textmate, the operating system is strangely incidental. Truth be told, application compatibility is really the only thing keeping me from ditching commercial experiences altogether and embracing Ubuntu one hundred percent.

There exists one caveat in my previous statement. While certain projects have required that I use a Mac for small stretches of time, I had never been given the opportunity to experience one as my primary machine. This changed when I started at McAfee, where each talented designer is equipped with a shiny Macbook Pro.

The emotional attachment Apple fosters between their products and consumers is fascinating. Never have I seen so many otherwise frugal individuals gratefully fork over piles of cash for what are, with the exception of the top-tier Mac and Macbook Pro, modestly powered machines. It is a testament to their brand that even after paying a hefty premium for their devices (and doubtlessly for adapters, peripherals and AppleCare plans), these consumers defend the company with a level of fervor typically reserved for political and religious discussion. Merely expressing curiosity as to the pros and cons of the Zune experience on Twitter resulted in no less than five individuals mocking the competing device without owning one themselves.

To those of us who use (and largely enjoy) Windows and Linux, this relationship appears undeniably parasitic. The only explanation is that the Apple experience is so overwhelmingly amazing, so above-and-beyond anything competitors could possibly attempt, that it manages to counterbalance the money and energy we shower it with.

While I will never understand complete and total brand zealots (especially designers, who without objectivity will predictably mimic their idols), after three months with the device I’m finally beginning to see what sets Apple apart. Simply put, my Macbook Pro is a joy to use.

Read on to find out why