I’m following the progress of Zurb’s Foundation For Apps. They have published some ideas related to erasing the difference between native mobile apps and web apps on a mobile device. As I plan the interface for OnReMe I’m interested in using native browser tools to create the building blocks of an app that can be reused, content and API back-end independent. Much of what I have experienced in the first jQuery, then iOS and currently AngulerJS development cycles is that creating your UI depends on the data. I can make all the pretty mock ups I want. But, until I have fungible data to kick around in the app I don’t really know what I don’t know. This means that pretty design ideas, while important if the API isn’t ready yet, must remain flexible and evolve dynamically as the understanding of the service that access to the data provides. Because I don’t know things like implementation specific business rules that affect view structure, I need a general app framework that stays flexible as I put different things into it. Motion, Animation and smooth transitions are a big part of the boilerplate things that need to be used effectively to make an app feel native int the device browser. Here is a quick sketch of some ideas I have collected and am curating on one of my trello boards:
