Home/ Questions/Q 3306032
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-17T21:14:24+00:00

The jQuery team recently launched http://jquerymobile.com/ with the intent of creating a user-interface library

  • 0

The jQuery team recently launched http://jquerymobile.com/ with the intent of creating a user-interface library for mobile devices.

Our aim is to provide tools to build
dynamic touch interfaces that will
adapt gracefully to a range of device
form factors. The system will include
both layouts (lists, detail panes,
overlays) and a rich set of form
controls and UI widgets (toggles,
sliders, tabs).

Overall, it seems support for the framework is really low because most phones ship with crappy browsers. My question, is in two parts. Is it better to support a few browsers with a richer experience or give as many users as possible a merely average experience? This is similar to the question of supporting IE because the question is how much do we care about users with worse browsers?

More importantly, how much developer time is it really worth to build a mobile version of a site that isn’t primarily for mobile user?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Well, it’s 1.0 Alpha 1, so I’d say the risks are:

    1. It’s largely untested, so you’ll probably come across unknown or unresolved bugs as you forge new ground.
    2. There is great potential for change in an early release, so you may have to update large swaths of your site, ie. when they namespace the data elements under “ui.”

    It’s also important to consider the reasoning behind those grades:

    What do the grades mean? The grades are a combination of the browser quality combined with the browser’s relevance in the larger mobile market.

    An “A” grade is an indication of the browser’s capabilities, not any current or future compatibility with jQuery Mobile.

    If you want to help develop a new piece of software, start using jQuery Mobile, and contribute feedback, bug reports, code, or all of the above. If not, the team is hoping to see a 1.0 release in January 2011, which is just around the corner.

    The theory around jQuery Mobile is providing a rich experience to rich browsers, and a functional experience to the more basic browsers. I think this is reasonable, especially considering how fast jQuery Mobile can get you up and running with a really great mobile UI.

    I’d like to know what you mean by “a site that isn’t primarily for mobile user.” There are sites that are optimized for mobile, and there are sites that aren’t yet optimized for mobile. Only some very specific niche sites don’t require a mobile experience.

    • 0