I'm here today to propose a question: With the advent of mobile, the upcoming release of a tablet and in general, a switch to touch technology, does the way we design for the web need to change?

Print is dying, if not already dead. This fact is hard escape. Newspapers are desperately trying to find someway to survive on paper when their readers are clearly on the web. Well, I think the tablet might be an answer for the print industry. I'm not the only one to think so.

Most "design for mobile" is based around creating apps or mobile versions that contain only one column, do not depend much on scrolling, or depend way too much, and have a very distinct look that is apart from traditional web design. But is that limiting our creative chi?

The question is not if the print industry will switch to digital, the question is, when they do, how are the rest of us going to catch up?

Some things to consider:

1. How a device will render the page? I surf the web on my iPod and while there is a *fold*, its a lot longer or more vertical than traditional desktop/laptop browsing, (unless you flip it sideways) which is much more like newspapers.

2. How do we navigate in the brave new world of touch? Are there better ways of navigation?

3. What is more important, desktop browsing, or mobile browsing? Optimized for all?

4. Would we need new code to create this style of web browsing?

Some ideas floating around in my head:

1. What if we could literally "flip" pages to browse websites, more like an e-book than today's websites, and how cutting edge digital papers and magzines already have and will continue to develop, while links and navigation are still present to provide more traditional ways of browsing.

Things we'd need to consider while developing for tablet or vertical browsing:

1. We have more room above the fold, means more real-estate.

2. We start out at more "zoomed out" angle than close up, meaning that pictures, headlines and design will need to reflect that.

3. We can design HUGE, if the device automatically fits to the screen, which means our UI would depend upon zooming, tapping, and scrolling with a finger in all directions, rather than just 2.

4. The overall layout will have more impact as we will see more of it.

5. We may need to create something to minimize "camera shake" as I call it (when you are trying to scroll down a long page with your finger and the page gets out of control and slippery and starts to slide sideways

More to come, including Newspapers: print vs. we, and Design Ideas for a Tablet.