Taking your mobile strategy to the next level: HTML5 is key

That’s the word from Jason Taylor of  Usablenet, the leading mobile platform for the Fortune 1000, in an excellent post entitled, ‘Five Reasons You Should Build Your Mobile Site With HTML5.’

Mobile customers are demanding the ability to do everything they’re used to doing on a desktop from the palm of their hands. To accomplish this, brands should turn to HTML5 — the latest HTML coding language that allows you to deliver a richer and more intuitive user experience within the mobile browser.

What is HTML5?

HTML5 allows mobile developers to create more dynamic and engaging web content for different use cases and user experiences. Optimizing HTML5 features for mobile interfaces, enables brands to keep pages light and focus on functionality that takes advantage of the smaller screen size of mobile devices. While most new mobile browsers support HTML5, some older browsers still don’t. Therefore, when building a mobile site it is very important to make sure that you support HTML5 functionality for the newer browsers and also output another version of the site that supports the same core functionality, without the new HTML5 enabled UI/UX, for older browsers.

If you’ve been reading my blog and following my Tweets of late, you know I am a growing fan of HTML5 for legal publishers and law firms. Here’s four reasons cited by Taylor for why publishers and firms should use HTML5.

• Creates an app-like experience, including local storage and finger control, in the browser environment that doesn’t require users to actively seek out and download an app. While downloading an app is behavior typically exhibited by brand loyalists, legal publishers and law firms do not have such brand loyalty.
• The ability to serve high-resolution images, something law firms may want for lawyer bios.
• Streamlined mobile site navigation simplify the user experience by integrating expand and collapse menus and pop-up windows on the homepage and category pages — features not previously available that are made possible with HTML5.
• The number of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. surpassed the 100-million mark in January, up 13% since October, and mobile Internet usage is continuing to increase at a rapid rate.