Unless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere on the moon, you know that iPhone and now the iPad have a lot of users and are effectively a market that web developers and designers have to pay attention to – you might be asked to build or design something for these popular devices some day.
To help get you going, I got my nerd brother Richard to put together an article that introduces iPad and iPhone programming – this is a view from 10 000 feet …. so even web designers might learn something as well.
A quick quote from the article to entice you:
The introduction of the iPhone by Apple a few years back caused a lot of excitement among both consumers and developers. The iPhone was arguably the first mobile device that made both mobile computing and web surfing practical. The iPad (which runs on iPhone OS) has been met with skepticism in some quarters. But so far it appears to be selling well and attracting a lot of interest from content creators.
Apple originally intended that the main source of third-party applications for the iPhone would be web applications, and there are of course many of these. But something funny happened when Apple released the iPhone SDK and an App Store to go with it – people came. Developers developed and consumers consumed.
According to recent reports, Android based smart phones are out selling iPhone in the US:
Android vs iPhone: Android takes the Lead with 28% on US Market – Apple has now found its match Android Manufacturers have proven that they can go head to head with Apple iPhone, In googles operating system Android have just supremacy over the Apple iPhone in the US market share. In the First few months of 2010 Android jumped to 28%, Apple had their 21% , while BlackBerry stood firm with 36% given their Business style.
Now Apple disputed that study with this statement:
This is a very limited report on 150,000 US consumers responding to an online survey and does not account for the more than 85 million iPhone and iPod touch customers worldwide … IDC figures show that iPhone has 16.1 percent of the smartphone market and growing, far outselling Android on a worldwide basis. We had a record quarter with iPhone sales growing by 131 percent and with our new iPhone OS 4.0 software coming this summer, we see no signs of the competition catching up anytime soon
So what does this have to do with web design and web programming?
Ah … good question young nerdling! Web professionals need to keep up to date regarding technology trends, so they (you) can position yourself (in terms of your skills) in a juicy spot, so you can land the jobs and get paid more.
Android means more freedom
Another cool thing about Android gaining ground on iPhone so quickly, is that Android supports Flash and HTML5 … I’d rather that the most popular phone out there support Flash and HTML5 than otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, I like Apple products, in fact I am blogging on my Macbook Pro now … But nonetheless, I should have the choice what software I want to run on a device I bought.
Another interesting thing about Android, is that it too (along side with iPhone OS on the iPad) will be ported to a tablet. With the growing market share of Android on smartphones and soon (I suspect) on tablets, Flash and HTML5 developers will have a great home for their apps.
… Since there are millions of Flash developers out there (many more than iPhone developers) I am waiting to see what Google will come out with (in terms of a tablet) before I even consider the iPad.
In our ongoing effort to provide top quality screencasts authored by working web designers and web programmers (that means practical training) … we just released a new set of videos on PHP CRUD.
The official summary:
This is a six part series that covers how to create a basic application that creates, reads, updates and deletes records (often called CRUD) from a MySQL database using MySQLi. MySQLi helps prevent SQL injection, a common security issue. Understanding how to use a MySQL database and work with database records is an essential skill for beginning web developers.
You can find these videos in our growing collection of video training tutorials at Killersites University. I will be releasing several free samples from this (and other series) as soon as I can find the time – busy these days watching TV.
In the last couple of years, a new type of web designer has emerged: the WordPress web designer.
What is a WordPress web designer?
In a nutshell: smart, forward thinking web designers that base most if not all of their web design work off of WordPress. That means the entire web site is built using WordPress.
Why build all your sites using WordPress?
For the very same reason you don’t go the woods to kill a turkey for Thanksgiving (you go to the grocery store) … is why WordPress web designers don’t build static HTML websites – why would you not take advantages of all the things that WordPress does for you for free!
… Some nerd details:
When basing your web site off of WordPress, you get all this functionality for free:
Advanced templating for easy site wide updates.
Built-in SEO
Automatic search and categorizing of your content.
Built-in image upload and insertion.
Built-in text editor and the ability for non-nerds to add, edit delete pages.
… And that is just scratching the surface!
The economic advantages of using WordPress
If you haven’t guessed it already, using WordPress in your day-to-day web work WILL have major economic advantages – in a nutshell, you will be able to provide a lot more for your clients for a lot less work! This will lead to you landing more web design contracts and making more cash because the extra WordPress skills will allow you to charge more for your time.
Maybe I’m beating a dead horse, or maybe I can’t overstate how important it is these days, that web designers should learn (at least) a little web programming. For me, that means Javascript and PHP.
The modern website demands a little behavior!
When you look at creating a website, you can break it down to three basic tasks:
Adding Structure – the HTML
Adding Style – the CSS
Adding Behavior – Javascript/DOM scripting
All web designers recognize #1 and #2 and so they learn HTML and CSS. But few want to admit that the third element in the trinity, is staring them right in the face.
… Boy, web designers can really fear learning Javascript or PHP! The problem is, that if they don’t learn how to program, they will find themselves at a great disadvantage.
Modern websites …
Modern websites almost always require some behavior – functionality that only web programming can provide. Think about it, how many websites these day, DON’T have some dynamic behavior, whether it be a simple contact form, the use of ‘includes’ to make updating the site easier, a shopping cart, a blog, a forum, a CMS, form validation, RSS feeds and on and on …
Does that mean that I have to become a full-fledged web-nerd programmer?
No. But you should be comfortable reading Javascript and PHP code and you should feel comfortable editing script. This way, adding pre-packaged PHP and Javascript will be relatively easy. Installing and modifying a blog, CMS or shopping cart will not be an impossible task.
With the recent and obvious attack on Flash by Apple, where Flash is now blocked on both the iPhone (which accounts for 25% of the smartphone market) and the just launched iPad, you have to wonder if Flash’s days are numbered?
Apple is playing a dangerous game – pissing off programmers!
By blocking Flash and the whole Flash development environment, Apple has now slapped millions of Flash developers right in the face with first the iPhone and now the iPad. I haven’t had the pleasure, but I’m guessing those slick metallic looking bodies might hurt a little!
Ah, but the one who might REALLY get hurt is Apple … this is nothing new.
Back in the day, Apple had a habit of putting the smack-down on developers while Microsoft supported them. The result: programmers moved to Windows and that was a big part of the reason why Windows destroyed Apple … Windows users had many more programs to choose from.
… Ironically, it took an infusion of cash from Microsoft to keep Apple alive.
Flash will not die and Google Android might be a big reason.
On the other hand, Google has embraced Flash (and millions of Flash developers) in Chrome and so all those cool Flash games will have a home on Android smartphones and the rumored to be released Android tablets. So no, Flash is not dead and in fact, it could be that Apple with have to open the doors to Flash sometime in the future.
I am starting to hear that all too familiar nerd-buzz of premature excitement – this time it’s about HTML 5 and all it’s cool new capabilities.
Yes, HTML 5 does have a lot of cool things it can do, and so it’s tempting to jump in and start learning. But that would largely be a waste of time … at least for now.
What?! Isn’t HTML 5 the future?
It sure is. In fact, I’ve been telling people for years that XHTML was a pipe dream (because IE would not support it) and I advised people to stick to good old HTML … even when it was heresy to say so! Here’s the problem (now) with HTML 5 – most of the browsers being used today don’t support it AND it will take a few years before the majority of people out there will have HTML 5 equipped browsers.
… Man, reality does bite!
Hard-core nerds tend to ignore reality
A time long, long ago, in an Internet that is now far, far away … back in the mid to late 1990’s, CSS was invented and naive nerds such as myself started playing with it, investing precious time that could have been spent playing video games, only to find that most of the browsers being used did not support it … so using CSS was basically useless.
… It took several years before CSS enabled browsers had penetrated enough to use CSS in a serious way. Using CSS prior to wide adoption, only ended with wasted time and disappointment, since you could not actually use it live. The same will be true for much of HTML 5 – unless you start hacking and browser sniffing and all kinds of other nonsense.
Let me conclude by quoting Coder’s Code #36:
The wise web designer shall not waste precious time on learning cutting edge technology … if said nerd wishes to earn a living.
If you are a web designers/developer or just a geek, you’ve probably heard about the recent ongoing battle between Apple and Adobe.
The fight revolves around Adobe’s Flash and Apple’s iPhone and now the new iPad – basically Apple has blocked both these devices from running the Flash player and thus, any Flash delivered content, whether it be video or applications … can anyone say NO Flash games!
Apple says that they blocked Flash because Flash runs terribly on Mac OS. This is true. But recent events tells me that there is more to it than protecting iPhone and iPad users from the evils of the Flash player ….
“Apple Gives Adobe The Finger With Its New iPhone SDK Agreement”
This title (form a Techcrunch article) tells it all. You see, not only does Apple prevent Flash from running on iPhone and iPad, they are even blocking Flash-created programs that would then be ported to (translated into …) native iPhone-code based applications!! This is truly a poke in the teeth … from Apple to Adobe.
… Apple is blocking Flash with their new license agreement – basically, applications must be “originally written†in C/C++/Objective-C:
3.3.1 — Applications may only use Documented APIs in the manner prescribed by Apple and must not use or call any private APIs. Applications must be originally written in Objective-C, C, C++, or JavaScript as executed by the iPhone OS WebKit engine, and only code written in C, C++, and Objective-C may compile and directly link against the Documented APIs (e.g., Applications that link to Documented APIs through an intermediary translation or compatibility layer or tool are prohibited).
I don’t normally swear on my blog … but WTF!?
Bottom line for web designers and developers:
We is screwed! Especially if you are Flash developer …
😉
Ok, not really … but read on for details how to get around this mess.
Apple basically want’s to kill Flash … this is clear. They want to kill it because they want to replace it. This is nothing new for Apple, they nailed Adobe with Finalcut years ago … and Apple basically took over the video editing market … took it away from Adobe.
More evidence:
Apple just announced a new tool for creating HTML 5-based interactivity, I’m not sure of the details but it just ads more fuel to the fire. There’s going to be a battle and nerds will take sides; in the end though, everyone will loose.
So what should web designers do?
Code is code and good design and good design – continue to work on your basics:
As I have been saying for years, don’t get married to a particular language or technology. Instead, try to concentrate on the key fundamentals and become language/technology agnostic … and use what works best for the project at hand. Personally, I’ve used 8-9 languages over the years to build web applications; I would look at the project and then choose the language, rather than trying to shoehorn everything into same technological box.
If you haven’t already caught them, I am releasing FREE videos from our new course on how to properly build a page layout in Photoshop to then take it to the Web.
In this video, we learn about preparing the screen dimensions for the Web in Photoshop:
What software do you need to become a web designer?
This is actually a good question, because you’d figure with all the web design programs that you see out there, that you’d have to shell out a lot of cash to get going. Ah … it would seem grasshoppers … but do not be deceived!
… You don’t need to buy any software to build websites – that is one of the beauties of web design.
Are you sure Stef? I thought you needed to buy something like Dreamweaver or Web Expression to build websites?
No. Web design programs like Dreamweaver CAN speed up the process but so can being smart about how you build websites. In fact, my beginners course on web design teaches you how to build websites using free software that you already have.
