[thelist] responsiveness from "the coffee shop"

[Barney Carroll]

I don't agree with the notion that there is now a de facto tacit agreement with the client that whatever web solution they ask for will be provided as a mobile-optimised web site.

A few questions for those who believe this is the case:
• Was this always the case, only we're just now realising it; or has it recently become inevitable due to smartphone saturation?
• How do you qualify (or even quantify) this? My favourite coffee shop in town has a diabolical connection and I struggle to get mail off it.

I do not assume that my client wants something which behaves equally well on a 120-px-wide WAP device in a low-signal area as on a souped-up desktop running the latest Chrome with a reliable gigabit connection, and everything in between. If they did, responsive issues in connection with resource management and connectivity would be one of umpteen issues to factor into the design and dev process, and I would be charging exorbitant rates.

Mobile web app development is no joke, and it's not a given in any web dev project either.

Sent from my iPod

On 24 Oct 2010, at 16:02, Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 23, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Will <willthemoor at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Certainly true but, and I think this was implied in the original question, optimization isn't free.
> 
> True enough, but if "customer satisfaction" == "optimization", then it's
> not really optional, either  :-)
> 
> And I think there's frequently low-hanging fruit -- adding an index on
> a db field for a common query, caching a relatively static result set --
> that can appear to be a big improvement from the user perspective.
> 
>> I think load times at a random coffee shop is a perfectly valid endpoint
>> but the client can't expect it to load quickly there for free.
> 
> "load quickly" implies specifically a network issue, where it's probably
> more useful to phrase it as "the client expects the product to be usably
> responsive" -- wherever s/he intends to use it.
> 
> But I can't see anyone saying "the client can't expect it to be usable
> there for free" -- then what are they paying for? Something that only
> works on a Gigabit Ethernet wired connection to an OC12 fiber ring
> direct to a peering facility? If that's stated in your contract, fine, but...
> 
> My original point was more "the coffee shop is the new here" as more
> and more apps *assume* mobility.  How many people regularly use
> wired connections these days? It's a totally reasonable assumption that
> apps/site will be used "from a coffee shop". And if you don't control the
> network, it's imperative to look at what you *do* control.
> 
> I'm looking forward to playing with the idea of mobile-first development
> as well as exploring other optimization techniques.
> 
> FWIW,
> -- 
> Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder at gmail.com
> twitter: @hassan
> -- 
> 
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