How Much Has the Web Really Changed?

This post summarises “How Much Has The Web Really Changed?” by Vasilis van Gemert, published in Smashing Magazine on 6 May 2013. The article is worth reading in full; below is our summary of its argument and what it means for a website today.

Its central point is that responsive design is not only a layout technique. About a site’s visitors, a designer knows little more than that they are probably using a browser, so the defaults a design starts from should take as little for granted as possible.

The Assumptions That Never Really Held

Van Gemert goes through the defaults designers relied on for years and shows that most were never universally true. Phones and tablets did not create these problems; they made them impossible to ignore.

Screen Size

Fixed page widths (640, then 800, then 1024 pixels) were always arbitrary choices, and some visitors never saw the whole page. Small phone screens, and tablets that can be held either way up, ended that habit.

A Mouse

Keyboard users were always part of the audience and were often shut out. Interactions that depend on hovering fail entirely on a touch screen, and touch devices are now far too common to ignore.

Fast Connections

Average speeds did rise, but plenty of visits happen over slow or unreliable mobile data and patchy public Wi-Fi. Page weight and loading behaviour still decide whether those visitors get a usable page.

Ever-Faster Hardware

Mobile devices trade processing power for battery life and price, and people keep using old computers and phones long after designers have upgraded theirs.

Calibrated Screens

Few screens show colour accurately, and a phone used in sunlight washes out subtle gradients and low-contrast text. Contrast has to survive ordinary screens and outdoor light, not just a designer’s monitor.

What It Means for Your Website

The lesson has aged well: plan for the widest realistic range of screens, input methods, connections and devices, and test on inexpensive hardware as well as your own.

If these shifting defaults have you rethinking how your site is built, our team can help with responsive web design and web development that performs across devices. For a broader perspective on why this matters today, see Your Brand Needs a Modern, Mobile-Friendly Website.