Moving to the Mobile Web

Tag : mobile phone tool

Wait. Scroll. Scroll. Tap-tap. Wait. Wait. For many years, that wasthe typical experience of someone surfing the Web using a mobilephone or PDA, at least in the U.S. Although some content providersoffered stripped-down versions of their sites specially designedfor mobile users, most did not, and reading a page designed to beviewed on a PC on the small screen was about as much fun as sittingin a dark room reading a newspaper by flashlight.
Today, the mobile Web environment is in a period of rapid change,thanks in no small part to Apple's iPhone ( AAPL ). From the phone's introduction in June, 2007, through March,2008, 5.4 million iPhones have sold, and to date developers havecreated more than 17,000 sites or "Web applications"optimized for the device.
But this isn't a story about the iPhone, per se; it's a story aboutdesigning for the mobile Web. The iPhone was just a catalyst ofsorts, bringing buzz, investors, and new technology to the sector.As a result, the mobile Web design and customer experience bar hasbeen raised. Changing the Game
"Mobile Web used to be WAP," says Matt Murphy, a partnerat Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers , the venture capital firm that has started a $100 million"iFund" to develop applications for the iPhone. "Nowyou have a real browser and a real device. The iPhone is agame-changer."
"From a design experience perspective, it's changing the waypeople view the Web and the value of the mobile Web," saysKelly Goto, the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based GotoDesign.
Pre-iPhone, says Cameron Moll, principal interaction designer atLDS Church and author of the influential e-book Mobile Web Design , companies typically took one of four approaches to the mobileWeb: 1) do nothing and let mobile users scroll their way aroundsites designed for PC viewing; 2) streamline sites by removingimages and styling, making them more manageable for mobile devices;3) use stylesheets, a tool that allows developers to createdifferent versions of a Web site for different devices; or 4)create an entirely different second site, optimized for mobileusers. Less Maddening Than a Regular Site
Consider the first approach: The iPhone has greatly improved theflashlight-like experience of Web users created by the do-nothingstrategy. Its two-touch, zoomable interface makes it, if notenjoyable, then less than maddening to read a regular site.
"I can read The New York Times on my iPhone, but it involves a lot of pinching and zooming,"says Moll, who prefers to use sites optimized for the iPhone. (If asite has a mobile version, the server will automatically detectwhat type of device is being used and send the appropriate page.)
Indeed, despite the improved browsing experience the iPhone offers,the do-nothing strategy, as well as approaches two and three, stillhave a fundamental problem: They ignore the issue of context. AsNadav Savio, now a user experience designer at Google ( GOOG ), and mobile usage expert Jared Braiterman, founder of JaredResearch, wrote in a 2007 paper, "we must focus… onmobile people, not mobile devices. In other words, we are notmerely shrinking in size a Web experience, but creating an entirelynew platform for communication and interaction." Checking Your Blood Alcohol Level
This requires redesigning or rethinking some of the Web'snavigation and interaction conventions: turning the tabs oftenpresented horizontally across the top of a Web page into a verticalstack, for instance, or increasing the size of buttons or links,which will be tapped by a finger rather than clicked on by acursor.