The jQuery Mobile Project
“The jQuery project is really excited to announce the work that we’ve been doing to bring jQuery to mobile devices. Not only is the core jQuery library being improved to work across all of the major mobile platforms, but we’re also working to release a complete, unified, mobile UI framework.”

Interesting project, and I’m excited to see so much effort put toward enhancing the web on mobile devices. A couple quick thoughts from my gut reaction:
Don’t forget about the IE6 curse
John Resig, the creator of jQuery, has heavily emphasized the goal of jQuery Mobile to work on all mobile browsers. This seems kind of like a futile effort to me because it implies building for the lowest common denominator and working upwards. We just left the dark ages of the desktop internet where obsessive focus on IE6 compatibility stunted growth. I hope the same mistake isn’t made again when optimizing and evolving technologies and interfaces for mobile devices. Forcing support for Bada and MeeGo seems very strange to me and I hope that support doesn’t lead to a worse experience for users of modern/competent browsers like WebKit.
The Uncanny Valley
The UI libraries for jQuery mobile, which were built by Filament Group in Boston, look great. However, when you look at the full specifications released today, you see that the navigation systems, interaction paradigms, animations, controls, and layout structures are all identical to those in iOS. The only difference here is the visual styling, which is clearly designed to be derived mixture of interface elements from iOS, Android, and WebOS. I think they succeeded in creating an attractive hybrid, but it’s giving me an uncanny valley feeling.
Read: Announcing The jQuery Mobile Project
Visit: jQuery mobile.



