Is HTML5 the Best Choice for Responsive Website Design?

The huge popularity of smartphones, tablets and phablets has made the web landscape complex. It has become essential for each business to create responsive websites to keep the visitors engaged by delivering solid web experience. Along with being highly responsive, the website also needs to be compatible with both conventional and mobile devices.

So website designers use a variety of tools to make the website accessible on different types of devices. Many web programmers, nowadays, use HTML5 to make the websites and web applications work on multiple devices. HTML5 has further made it easier for developers to create rich and responsive internet applications without putting any extra time and effort.

Why HTML5 is the Best Choice for Responsive Website Development?

Easy to Integrate a Variety of Content: To keep the visitors engaged, a website must be designed by integrating a wide variety of content. HTML5 enables website designers to integrate different types of content by using syntactical features like <audio>, <video> and <canvas>. Likewise, the semantic value of a document can also be enhance by using tags like <article>, <section>, <nav>, and header. As the graphic and multimedia content can be integrated with the website without using any third party plug-ins, the website can be accessed by users on any device.

Elegant Forms: Most websites interact with visitors through forms. HTML5 makes it easier for website designers to enhance the user interface by using fancier forms. Further, the user input can be validated through HTML. The native form validations make the website accessible on browsers without relying on JavaScript. Also, the programmers have option to capture different types of user inputs for search and form.

Cross Browser Compatibility: The performance of a responsive website is also affected by its compatibility with widely used web browsers. At present, HTML5 is supported by some of the hugely popular web browsers including Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 9. The developers also have option to define doctype to make the tags recognizable for old browsers. However, the older versions of certain web browsers still do not recognize new HTML tags. But the web developers can simply add JavaScript shiv to make the website compatible with older browsers. The enhanced compatibility makes websites more responsive and interactive across browsers.

Efficient Option to Place Cookies: Most responsive websites use cookies to track unique user data. But the cookie data are added to the HTTP request headers. It also results in increased response time. HTML5 allows users to reduce cookie size through two storage options, i.e., sessionStorage and localStorage. Despite not being a permanent database, these storage options can be used effectively to store structured data temporarily. Thus, the website will become more responsive due to the efficient use of cookies.

Geolocation API: To become highly responsive, a website must figure out the current location of the user. The location of a user can be determined based on his wireless internet connection, IP address or the cell phone tower his mobile device is talking to. Some web browsers are even designed with dedicated GPS hardware to capture the location of the user through satellites. The web developers can use HTML5 geolocation APIs to make the HTML5-compatible browser-based application capture the current location of the users. So it becomes easier for the website to keep the user engaged by delivering the most relevant content.

Improve User Experience through Native APIs: Each responsive website needs to enable users to interact with the content, while responding to them effectively. HTML5 makes it easier for developers to build more interactive and responsive websites by using several native APIs. For instance, they can use the drawing HTML tag <canvas> to make the website more responsive. Likewise, they can further use native APIs like timed media playback, offline storage database, document editing, browser history management, and drag and drop.

However, it is also important for the web programmers to keep in mind the shortcomings of HTML5. They also need to explore ways to enhance the responsiveness of websites by addressing these features. The developer can still rely on HTML5 to optimize the accessibility and performance of websites without writing complex code. To get maximum benefits of HTML5, you may consider hiring services of a HTML5 development company.

We provide HTML5 QA and testing services. If you would like to hire HTML5 developers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Is HTML5 the Reason Behind Growth in Mobile App Development Demand?

As the fifth revision of the HTML standard, HTML5 was originally designed to optimize the language by using the latest multimedia content, while keeping the code easily readable by both humans and computing devices. But according to several reports, HTML5 has been growing consistently in the world of mobile application development. Its multi-platform functionality and cost effective nature encourages many enterprises to use HTML5 to build applications by complementing the most recent trends in mobile development. There are also a number of features that make HTML5 contribute towards the growing demand for mobile app development.

5 Reasons Why the Future of Mobile App Development Lies in HTML5

1) Robust Features

While conceptualizing mobile apps, enterprises look for a single technology that offers several features. HTML5 enables developers to build robust mobile applications within a stipulated timeframe, while not diverting from the main center of attraction. There are also several open source tools that can be used by programmers to effectuate HTML5 development without increasing the project overheads. These tools further make it easier for enterprises to migrate from their existing cross-linking user interfaces and web applications. The performance of the existing apps can also be optimized by including new features.

2) Easy Deployment

While developing native mobile apps, developers can use a variety of extensive scripts and code. But the apps need to be deployed in a specific way according to the requirements and guidelines of individual mobile application stores. On the other hand, the HTML5 mobile apps can be deployed in a much faster and smoother way. As the fractional parts to be installed during deployment can be deployed smoothly using JavaScript tools, the mobile application can be launched without any hassle. The smooth hosting makes it convenient for enterprises to make their apps popular by getting them included in hugely popular mobile app stores.

3) Less Maintenance

Along with developing mobile applications rapidly, it is also important for businesses to maintain and upgrade the apps regularly. So often businesses explore technologies that enable to reduce maintenance and upgrade the apps in a hassle-free way. As HTML5 is an open source technology, a business can maintain its apps without any hassle. Further, it can hire experienced programmers to upgrade the mobile apps within a shorter time span. The updated version of the app can be launched without resubmitting to the app stores.

4) HTML5 Mobile UI Frameworks

The developers also have option to use HTML5 Mobile User Interface Frameworks to optimize the look, feel and performance of their mobile apps without putting any extra time and effort. Normally, these libraries are written using JavaScript and CSS, and included in a single or multiple files. Some of these frameworks are also designed to work seamlessly on multiple platforms. The programmers can use Intel’s App Framework or Sencha Touch to build cross platform mobile applications within the stipulated timeframe.

5) Availability of Programmers

The availability developers always affect all types of software and mobile app development projects. So the popularity of a technology can also be attributed to the availability of skilled manpower. As a hugely popular tool for creating mobile apps, HTML5 is used by many programmers. That is why; an enterprise will not find it difficult to hire experienced HTML5 developers. Despite being skilled and experienced, HTML5 programmers can be hired at lesser remuneration that Android and iOS developers. Many enterprises even opt for HTML5 to control overall development cost.

While developing mobile apps with HTML5, developers have option to use the languages and frameworks they are familiar with. There are also several ways to curtail both development time and cost by customizing the mobile application development experience. To get maximum benefits of HTML5, you may consider hiring services of a Custom HTML5 development company.

We provide HTML5 development services. If you would like to talk to one of our expert HTML5 developers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.