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Interop 2022 – helping developers build even better websites

Earlier this month developers from Apple, Bocoup, Google, Igalia, Microsoft and Mozilla announced a new benchmark for cross browser collaboration. This sets new standards for interoperability, enabling underlying web technology to work in the same way on every browser.

This is a big deal for everyone, not just developers but for anyone who uses the web. For years browser vendors have been implementing their own methods and standards, often sacrificing user experience and accessibility. 

But the web was always intended to work consistently in any browser, on any computer. This can only be achieved through interoperability.

For this to work, all browser vendors have to commit to a common set of web standards and to new technology – hence Interop 2022. 

Consistent standards and experience

As a result, developers will soon be able to provide all web users with a consistent experience using the best technology available. This includes users who rely on screen readers, web-braille, and other assistive technologies. No matter how people access the internet, the experience will be consistent, with no compromises. 

Interop 2022 is more than just a buzzword. It’s an evolving metric  generated from a set of automated tests. These are aimed at evaluating support for those web standards that are most important for web developers. 

This dashboard lets you follow how browser engineers are fixing bugs and implementing new features.

Focus areas

A list of proposals for what web designers and developers want and need most, has been honed down to ten focus areas for 2022:

  1. Cascade Layers
  2. Colour Spaces and Functions
  3. Containment
  4. Dialog Element
  5. Form Fixes
  6. Scrolling
  7. Subgrid
  8. Typography and Encodings
  9. Viewport Units
  10. Web Compat

Let’s take a look at the most exciting technologies to us.

Containment

Responsive web design means one code base that responds to the size of the device. This means less code, and a more complete user experience, whether on desktop or mobile. Container Queries mean that web developers can not only adjust text sizing, layout and design on a device level, but also the size of the box holding the content. Think of Container Queries like Media Queries.  This opens up so many more design possibilities.

Dialog Element

The dialog element will enable web developers to offer robust and powerful overlays and modals, having full control of positioning, backdrop and content style.

Subgrid

CSS Grid was introduced to browser technology five years ago. The technology has only now become adopted across all browsers. As web developers we can trust the end user will receive a positive experience. It’s now in much wider use, allowing for much richer content display. Subgrid provides a way to put grandchildren of a container on that grid. This makes it possible to line up items across complex layouts without any regard for the DOM structure, making it far easier to implement a designer’s immersive, complex design.

Summary

We are excited to see these changes. They mean we can make our websites to a standard that is inclusive to all. Having an interoperable web makes it far easier to achieve this, providing a better web for everyone.

let’s work together