Going Mobile? Harnessing Mobile Web, Applications and SMS - Part 2
Welcome to Part 2! "Going Mobile? Harnessing mobile web applications and SMS" introduces Executives and Marketing professionals to the 4 key mobile channels and how to use them effectively. Am blogging notes from my presentation at ProductCamp 7 in 3 posts:
- Part 1 - SMS/MMS (Texting)
- Part 2 - Mobile Websites and Mobile Applications
- Part 3 - QR codes
Mobile Websites
The best mobile websites:
- Compliment rather than mirror the traditional website
- Are designed around a specific business goal
- Leverage the mobile capability to connect in-the-moment
- Provide a service or function that makes a person want to permanently bookmark your mobile landing page
Explore www.mobileawesomeness.com for ideas on what appeals to mobile users.
The image of a mobile site next to a traditional site illustrates how a traditional website is designed to display more and richer content while the mobile site should be simple and clean.
Use mobile websites to provide:
- Business hours, location and phone number
- Landing pages for QR codes
- Simple reservation or order form for restaurant or take-out
Mobile browsers and devices differ in their capabilities to handle images and the code which creates movement on the site (like javascript and HTML5). Pages can appear very different on different device platforms as shown in this example of the same mobile website as viewed on an iPhone4, HTC Evo 4G (Android) and Blackberry Curve.
The pixel dimensions for mobile screens are different:
- 640x960 for iPhone4
- 480x800 for HTC Evo
- 320x240 for Blackberry Curve 8350i
What is viewable on one platform may be awkwardly "below the fold" or off the right side on another. Android compresses vertical whitespace. A font that looks great on Android may be off-center or unreadable on the Safari browser used on iPhone. Blackberry has multiple levels of controls that limit image filesizes - images may be rendered as labels (shown) or not at all.
My advice? Keep things simple, optimize for the platform of choice, and test across all platforms that generate significant traffic to your website. Use Google Analytics to identify the mobile devices used to access your traditional website to determine which devices to optimize and support. If you do not have all the mobile devices you need to test, use a mobile emulation program like Keynote MITE to screen for issues...it's free!
Mobile Applications 
Mobile applications are downloaded from "App Stores" and have some portion of the application code residing on the mobile phone. Mobile applications are normally classified as "browser-based" or "native" but most applications are using a hybrid of both. "Native" applications take advantage of device-specific hardware like accelerometers and GPS chips. If the application clears a page by shaking the phone, for example, it is making use of a "native" accelerometer function.
The investment in creating a mobile application is often made to promote "stickiness" for a product or service, but research is indicating that the greatest percentage of downloaded applications are only used a few times. My best recommendation is to explore the app stores for ideas if you believe an application can benefit your business:
Part 3 - QR Codes (coming soon)
