The Technological “Generation Gap”

January 24, 2012 by Greg Moriarty

As a technologist at a technology company, I often feel torn between the old and the new.

On one hand, we at Healthx have to enable access to the services we provide to as many of our end users as possible. Due to the wide-ranging demographics of the people we serve (primarily those covered by a health insurance plan), this usually means supporting old technologies far beyond their prime. Unlike that of, say, a developer of office productivity software or video games, we cannot make any assumptions about the age, level of education, socioeconomic status, or connectivity of our users. While not everyone has health insurance, those that do span nearly every demographic you can come up with. Therefore, we cannot draw any conclusions on the technologies being used to access our services. Despite advances like email, text messaging, and the web, “technologies” such as the traditional telephone, fax, and even the U.S. Postal Service are still alive and widely used. (Well, I’ll have to check on that last one and get back to you.)

On the other hand, we need to constantly demonstrate that we are on the cutting edge in terms of adopting the latest trends. Do we have a smartphone app? Do we communicate via social media? Do we stay abreast of the latest trends in software development, security, database systems, and so on?

While some of our offerings (such as the Healthx Communications System) allow the end user to choose the technology they are most comfortable with (phone, fax, email, SMS, USPS), other offerings are by their nature “one size fits all”. The most obvious example is our web portals.

When dealing with a single interface (our websites) accessible by a wide range of browsers, both old and new, we must constantly be aware of the technological “generation gap”. Sadly this usually means the old trumps the new. If a certain technology will not work within the oldest browser we support, then this often means passing on the technology, no matter how much benefit it provides. Despite the fact that web technologies (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.) march forward, web developers like myself often feel like we’ll be stuck in the twentieth century forever (when browsers were invented), lest we alienate some of our users.

One of the most liberating advancements to come along in my sixteen years as a software developer is the mobile-optimized website (MOW). MOWs are sites that typically run alongside a normal website. They typically provide much, if not all, of the same content that the normal website does, but tailor that content specifically to a mobile device (rendering for a smaller screen, using touch instead of mouse clicks, etc.). MOWs have mostly been brought about by the advent of smartphones, but also by tablet computers and various other devices different from the traditional desktop computer (such as Google TV). Developing for the “mobile experience” allows developers like myself to, in many ways, be liberated from the old. To begin with, mobile devices like iPhone and Android are relatively new. When considering whether or not to use a new feature of HTML5, there is no need to worry that an old version of the iPhone from 1996 will not support the feature. Secondly, despite the cries of those who lament our modern “throw away” culture, the average lifespan of a mobile phone is only a couple of years. This ensures that the devices used to access a MOW will march forward with progress. Lastly, the three device types I mentioned, and even some modern desktop browsers, automatically update to the latest version without requiring any user action. What all of this means for us is that we can design our mobile-optimized websites (and corresponding mobile apps) with less concern about needing to appeal to the “lowest common denominator” of devices. Features such as geolocation (where you can locate an in-network healthcare provider closest to you, without having to type in your current location) would not have been possible just a couple years ago, and are still not available for the vast majority of internet users using older web browsers. Yet, we aren’t hamstrung into passing over this new technology in our MOW, because we have a reasonable expectation that it will be available to those using our MOW. (Though, we’ve still allowed you to type in your address if, for example, you have GPS turned off.) To a lesser extent, we can expect the audience to be a bit more segmented. Owners of mobile devices tend to be more comfortable with technology, for example. And certainly they have access to the internet!

While liberating within the micro world of the mobile-optimized website, we still must always continue to support the tried and true technologies. MOWs will not replace traditional websites any more than faxes replaced mail. As a result, all the services we provide through our forthcoming mobile-optimized websites are also available in our regular “desktop” website, and assumingly always will be. This just means that we’re developing, testing, documenting, and supporting yet another technology, and yet another way to access our services. But then that’s what we’re all about at Healthx.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to check to see if the mail is (still) here.

Posted in Engineering, Healthx