4th June 2009
Is mobile internet the way forward?
Mobile technology has come a long way, in a relatively short timeframe. In the not too distant past the thought of a colour screen on your mobile seemed like fantasy, now it’s the ‘norm’, along with numerous other features that are now crammed into our handsets; calendars, mp3 players, cameras and Internet browsers. So the chances are, if you have a mobile phone in your pocket then you’re inches away from Internet access at any give moment.
Nokia announced the first Internet enabled phone a little over ten years ago with the Nokia 7110, with features exceed anything that had been seen in the industry. As the mobile technology progressed, so to did the browser capabilities, with applications now able to reproduce desktop functionality on a mobile device to quite a high level.
Statistics show that there are over 1.5 billion Internet users worldwide, and even though a meagre 0.78% of those browse using a mobile device, that’s still more than 12 million. *This doesn’t include Apple’s claim of selling 17 million iPhones, all of which have internet capabilities (and in theory, free data packages).*
So what does this mean for the websites we create, and what steps should we take to achieve a good user experience? Well, there are various answers and methodologies that can be under taken.
Do nothing
This doesn’t really need that much explanation; it’s exactly how it sounds. A great number of websites can live their lives quite happily without having a mobile alternative. Whether it be due to their nature, or they’re aware of who is visiting, and by what method. (Read Gilly’s article for more information)
Do something
Doing something for mobile users will usually entail making you site more accessible to a mobile device, without necessarily creating a dedicated site purely for mobiles. This can be achieved through an additional set of styles. This is probably the best approach for static sites as only on set of code needs to be updated, but will still be viewable across most devices.
Do a lot
Doing a lot can take various paths – you can have a dedicated mobile site, or a mobile site and an iPhone site. Facebook is an example that does just that, with a highly cut down version for mobile users, and a slightly more dynamic version for those using an iPhone. Although not a rule, this type of development would be best suited to a dynamic (database driven) website. This is so the pages can update without the need for amending multiple pages in multiple versions.
Before any form of development can begin for a mobile site, certain this should be weighed up. First and foremost, does the site need a mobile format?
Mobile access is high on the agenda for sites bring information at a regular interval. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter both have a dedicated mobile site, this is because their main user base tend to visit the site on a regular basis (an average of 23 time a month), but also the move towards what’s happening in ‘real time’ means that their user base need quick access at anytime so they can continually narrate their lives.
There are then two points that generally go hand in hand. What are the capabilities (or more so the limitations) of a mobile browser, and how to design a site that will give a good user experience?
Although the technology moving quickly, there are still countless handset in the market that have two major drawbacks:
- No JavaScript support
- No Flash support
This immediately removes and kind of animation on a page.
Possibly the biggest issue facing design and development for a mobile device is space. While each handset is different, the screen size in still small, so fitting all the information from a page’s desktop counterpart will not only be hard, but quite possibly detract from the user experience. So it’s essential to not only cater for the size of screen, but also keeping content to a minimum, displaying the essential items on the page.
The BBC’s mobile site tackles this issue well by only giving the top stories, not only does it cut away the functions that won’t work on a mobile browser, it also trims the amount of content while displaying it in a design that lends itself to a narrow screen.
And here’s how YouTube serve their content on a mobile device.
This is the case for a great number of sites that you might use on the go, including the afore mentioned Twitter and Facebook, Window Live, Google and the list goes on. Each of these avoid trying to reproduce the desktop’s equivalent, but exploit the medium in it’s own right and offer a user experience geared solely towards it’s audience.
So, is the mobile internet the way forward? According to the likes of Google, Microsoft and E-Bay it is, but at this point in time the mobile web is still very much in it’s infancy, albeit ten years old.