Beyond Mobile First: Modern Mobile Development Strategy
Article Summary
Ryan O'Neill from Square reveals why 9 out of 10 mobile shoppers think their experience could be better. His team's solution? Stop thinking mobile-first and start thinking app-first.
Square Online's engineering team tackled the mobile commerce experience gap by bringing native app interactions to the web. They built Maker, an open-source Vue.js design system, to create touch-friendly interfaces that work seamlessly across mobile and desktop.
Key Takeaways
- Action bars with large tap targets placed above Safari's 44px dead-click zone
- Modal layering system maintains feature parity across all viewport sizes
- CSS safe-area-inset-bottom dynamically adjusts for iOS navigation bar changes
- Open-source Maker component library enables app-like web experiences in Vue.js
Critical Insight
Square unified mobile and desktop e-commerce experiences by implementing native app patterns on the web, solving Safari's dead-click issue and creating stackable modals that feel natural on any screen size.
