I grew up with Internet technology. I was a kid on dial-up, using Prodigy on the family computer, signing off when my Mom needed to use the phone. By the time I was a teenager, people were migrating from AOL as a one-stop shop. The Internet then was a blinking, busy, confusing, colorful mess—all information and links but no logic. In college, we picked music to play automatically for visitors to our MySpace pages. In grad school, I lugged around a Dell and texted with T9.

Then, suddenly, the introduction of the iPhone. A new paradigm in people’s interaction with information and the Internet. Simple, small, focused.

There we were, all growed up.

The iPhone revealed that our interactions with desktop technology have essentially been the same since the first version of Microsoft Windows. We use menu-based navigation, keyboards, and mice. We have to learn a system’s logic, then apply that logic to use the system. Many processes are checklist-like: File, New, Create; Edit, Copy, Paste; Format, Paragraph, Spacing. That’s why it’s a big deal to move from PC to Mac, and vice-versa, and it’s why my grandparents had a hard time using their computer.

The same could almost be said of the Web and the way we interact with it on a desktop. Yes, things have gotten prettier, and design has evolved beyond incessant bird GIFs and neon everything. But the platform doesn't inherently force anything; it’s Web designers who force design forward. Desktops have a tremendous amount of pixels, so businesses don’t have to make difficult decisions with their Web layouts. They can relegate less-pertinent information to rails, menus, and dropdowns. They can sell as much area as someone will buy. They can, and do, cram all kinds of junk on a page.

But then there's mobile! Mobile comes with constraints and realities that force focused, engaging decisions. Mobile devices are minuscule compared to desktops, and they use touch and gesture navigation. These qualities force good mobile designers to consider information organically, and from a user perspective. As such, well-made apps and mobile Web sites are functional and useable immediately. A child can use an iPhone, and a grandparent too.

It also enables power users. When I use my Android, I want to take the fastest route from Point A (My Need) to Point B (My Resolution). My home screen is home base, and each app is a tunnel heading off into a different direction. But based on my current Need, there’s a great chance I know exactly which tunnel to take to find a satisfying Resolution.

Good mobile design focuses on connecting user Needs and Resolutions. It even eases the process for the user, whether by speeding him or her from Point A to Point B, or perhaps making that journey more enjoyable. Great mobile apps and layouts are specialized, yes, but they're also designed to be very informed, insightful, convenient, and/or beautiful tunnels. (Imagine one tunnel as a garden, another with a moving walkway, and another with art on the walls–all different in their own way.) This is due to a simple fact: apps earn their placement on mobile home screens because of the functions and experiences they provide to their users.

A lot of businesses can’t quite figure out mobile development for a very simple reason: Focus. In essence, this reminds me of an exercise my writing teachers used. They asked us to rewrite our long fictional stories in a single sentence. Mobile design asks businesses to do something similar:

Put this business on a file card.

As you can gather, the task is more difficult than it seems. A good answer requires understanding of purpose, direction, and users, which a lot of businesses can’t handle. A lot of businesses don’t want to choose (or face) what they are and what they offer. Up until very recently, such businesses have been able to succeed by portraying themselves as all-in-one services—portals to all kinds of information. They could pad their primary offering with secondary and tertiary services; they could present their broadness of scope as evidence of their overall value.

Today, in the mobile landscape, your device and its OS are your portal to the Internet. You, the user, can choose your favorite app for connecting with friends, for keeping ideas, for taking pictures, or for watching videos. And you can move freely between those apps. At this stage, any single app that attempts multiple purposes is doomed to failure. Even the almighty Google designs apps by function.

Apps and Web site layouts are not the only reason mobile is exciting. Mobile design also presents an exciting frame of mind that businesses can use to their own benefit. Thinking mobile first is smart not only because desktops are dying out, but also because it requires choosing a direction. To create a solid mobile design, a business has to aim for a light at the end of the tunnel. Then, it has to build the tunnel. In that way, the tunnel almost becomes a sight, a crosshairs aimed at a future vision.

The Internet’s promise is in how information is indexed and connected. As such, the Internet is a very big and complicated place. But it's not unlike the rest of the world and how we understand it. We need storytellers, hand holders, and a way in.

Image Credits.

Wikimedia: Animalibri.gif, by Piolinfax; Tunnel Cat, by Takashi Tososhima; Pedestrian Tunnel, by Leandro Neumann Ciuffo.

Flickr: Schwelmer Tunnel - Schwelm, by MedEvac71