Using the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality, one get that a function in $H^1[a,b]$ satisfies $\vert f(x)-f(y)\vert \leq \vert \vert f\vert \vert _{H^1} \sqrt {x-y}$.
Therefore, the image of the unit ball is a family of uniformly equicontinuous (in fact 1/2Hölder) functions.
In order to use Arzela-Ascoli's theorem, it remain to prove that this image is bounded.
But if $f\in H^1[a,b], \vert {1\over b-a}\int _a^bf(t) dt\vert \leq C \vert \vert f\vert \vert _{L^2} \leq C \vert \vert f\vert \vert _{H^1}\leq C$, so that the mean of $f$ is bounded.
Then as $\vert f(x)-f(x_0)\vert \leq \vert \vert f\vert \vert _{H^1} \sqrt {x-x_0}$, choosing $x_0$ so that $f(x_0$ is the mean value of $f$, we see that $\vert f(x) \vert \leq \vert \vert f\vert \vert _{H^1} \sqrt {b-a}+C$, and the result follows.