Web Design for Mobile

[John Maeda]

Like many of you, I've really moved over to surfing the Web on my iPhone as a comfortable habit as compared with sitting in front of a computer. The Web during its rise wasn't designed for tiny screens like mobile devices, and I have begun to wonder how the trend will be over the next few years. Today you need to design a website with two completely separate designs: 1/ for the computer screen and 2/ for a mobile device. Seems really expensive to maintain both. Any thoughts? How many of you now surf the Web from your phone? Or at least how many are definitely doing it more than they did last year?

[jport]

I have been on the web more using my phone, but unfortunately I am still stuck in Blackberry world. It isn't as inviting to surf the web on compared to the iPhone. I do find myself on mobile versions of sites that seem to still get the job done. I do think in the future that most major sites will have to offer mobile versions. I see it comparable to back in the day when frames were a common feature, and offering a non-frames version was almost mandatory and part of good web practice.

[Owen Johnson]

The cost of maintaining the two can be lowered by viewing one's site/application as a window into one's services/data. For example, an iPhone app is not just another version of a website, but a standalone application that accesses the same(or a subset of) the data that the website would use. That app does not have to provide all of the same functionality of the website, and in fact may provide a parallel set of functionality that takes advantage of information not available to the website - e.g. knowing the user's location and movement patterns. Selecting the proper subset of functionality/new functionality is key to limiting cost and maximizing the affect of the phone/other app.

For some businesses the overhead of creating an entirely separate application to access the users in a specific medium makes complete sense. In many other businesses, it makes more sense not to build an entirely new application, but to piggy-back on a platform like Twitter, which can reach the same users of the mobile medium, albeit in a limited fashion.

The finances of the specific business model will dictate the proper solution for the situation.

[Nick DeCesare]

I am often on the web with my phone, but only for quick info bits. If I need in-depth information I don't even bother with my phone. Part of the reason is the formatting of the site, but mostly, it's because everything is so small !! Guess I should look into new glasses.
Maybe the future is expandable screens or even built-in projectors on the phone? Pull up a site and project the image on a wall... or even the back of the person jogging in front of you...

[Andreas J Gaetz]

I use my iPhone more than four times a day to hook on the internet – just to look for some news, to check out my e-mails and all this stuff.. The reason is simple – I just don’t want for a quick view to start any PC , sign on to the internet and by doing this – loosing time compare with the time it takes to consume the information. To access 1nformation has to be easy – avoiding to say - just simple. Thinking in a more business way we as a mail order company found out that more and more mobile devices as mobile safari browsers are accessing our web pages. So currently we are thinking about giving our customers a possibility to use their mobile devices to spend their money with us. You or we as a company have to break down the barriers in order to make it more simple to contact us. To administrate a 2nd or 3rd landing page is more a matter of “intelligent” programming than a matter of costs.

[heyufei]

I think it will be very popular during young people in China , especially those sites about information exchange service.

[Allan Tear]

Hi John,

I'm on the board of a local startup, Mofuse, which is tackling this exact issue for content publishers. Today this is a challenge of usability, since surfing through a phone screen is like looking through a keyhole. The iPhone makes this experience 10X better, but I found once I acclimated to it's new level, navigating complex pages is still a cumbersome eye- and finger-dexterity test. Still, I exhaust my battery from surfing every day !

The presentation problem isn't that hard to solve...in the short term, platforms like Mofuse will autoconvert dynamic content into the right presentation for your device, and in the long term, projection onto glasses or walls will break the "screen" out of the phone.

I think the more interesting challenge is how to design web content for a mobile environment that is matched to the new behavior set of mobile web users. We will consume and interact with the web differently on a mobile device - frequency, duration, intent, interaction patterns are already changing. Location-aware services like Yelp or Gypsii are our first indication that something different than just rehashing the desktop web is happening, but most web page owners who've designed themselves for the desktop web aren't thinking past how to represent their content on a smaller screen.

[Andrew Losowsky]

I just can't get used to Safari on my iPhone - it seems counter-intuitive and fiddly, especially compared to the iPhone-specific apps.

It seems to me that the best way to make the most of mobile web content is to break down a mobile website into its constituent elements, and view them that way. So perhaps the design of a New York Times page will be split into:

- menus
- words for reading - articles, etc.
- pictures for viewing (slideshow etc)
- a homepage image

When you visit the mobile webpage, it "takes over" your phone for a short time and offers you all the options using the best applications, that you use most frequently, for their display. iPhoto for the images, iPod for the audio, etc. That, or plugin apps for the browser to isolate each element for proper display.*

Right now, the single browser with all the elements combined just doesn't seem to work well on a pocket-sized screen.



* Until we get unrollable e-paper touchscreens, anyway. Where's my jetpack?

[Stephen Cronin]

John, I use my phone for the latest sports scores or checking in on the news during the day. Most of my web interface is through my desk top. One of the things were working on at Mercury is to present more functionality through our web site, e.g. job status, web-t-print, etc. Customers and our reps can check on the status of any project in our system. Web to print has been well received by customers and prospects. I'm counting on Owen and Allan and Tom to create more functionality with our site.
I've also created a high school history text, hard copy as well as residing on the Mercury site. I'll be teaching the class at Hope again. It will be interesting to see if any of my students complete assignments through their phones. I'll need Tom and Owen's feedback on this one. I am also reaching out to Tino for ideas on the text presentation to make it more appealing to my Hope kids. Any and all ideas from the group is always appreciated.
Steve