Jan 4

Written by: SolTechBlog
1/4/2012 1:05 PM 

By David Tate

Everyday more people are using their smartphones and tablets to do their daily activities.  Does your system need to adapt to your changing customer base by providing a mobile version of your current product?

About Your Website

If you have a website that provides information about your company and products / services - YES you need a mobile version of this website today.  With more users doing their web browsing on mobile devices and using social networking outlets to find new things you should provide a usable version of your site for a mobile audience.  Building a website that scales down well to mobile devices with different screen sizes is called "responsive design" and there are tools and techniques you can use to provide an improved experience through manipulation of media-specific styling and smart markup techniques.

Functionality and Constraints

So let's assume you have a mobile-friendly version of your site but your product is either a traditional web application or desktop application.  Should you build a mobile version?

The mobile device, due to its constraints, presents some challenges:

• It is hard for the user to enter data as the on-screen keyboard is slower and error-prone
• Due to slower network speeds it is harder for the user to consume large content or have to click multiple times to find the information they need
• The smaller overall form factor means that visually intense or detailed information is hard to consume

Yet mobile devices, due to their features, offer some opportunities as well:

• The accelerometer (the magic part that allows the device to tell which direct it is tilted) can be exploited to present completely new experiences
• A touch screen provides fast intuitive access

The mobile experience is different due to typical use patterns:

•  People use their mobile devices during leisure time as well as work time
•  Users are out in the world while using mobile devices so location-based data can be exploited
•  Mobile users like to try new things out more than the typical desktop user (easily searchable marketplaces and free apps help    this)
•  People have their mobile devices with them all the time so this increases the amount of advertising or usage that can happen
•  People are more likely to be interacting with other people (and new people) when they have their mobile devices instead of  sitting in a cubicle or at home

Properties of Highly-Used Mobile Apps

Pulling all this together we can conclude that your mobile strategy should only include products that can live under these constraints and take advantage of some of the mobile realities.  Let’s look at some ways popular apps work and their properties; these aren't mutually exclusive and we've presented example apps for each property:

•  The app presents a stripped-down version of a more complex web or desktop application

o   LinkedIn, Mint, Bank of America

•  The app presents a view-only version of data in large chunks

o   Google Reader, Instapaper, Kindle

•   The app allows small fast data entry for things you need to record on the go

o   Remember The Milk, Evernote, Path

•   The app uses location-based data to enhance the usefulness or provide contextual information

o   Google Maps, Nike RunKeeper, Map my Ride, Yelp

•   The app uses the accelerometer or touchscreen to provide a unique experience

o   Angry Birds, TiltShift, Pedometer, GarageBand

•   The app provides social networking features and can be used in a group

o   Words with Friends, Google+, Facebook, Twitter

Challenges in Building Mobile Applications

If your product fits these criteria what challenges can you expect to face in building your mobile product?  Mobile software development is different in the following ways from your experience with web or desktop development:

•  If you product does not yet provide a Web-accessible (“REST”) API then you  need to build one out for the subset of services  you wish to push to the phone or tablet
•  Mobile development is a specialized and not widely held skillset so staffing internally will be challenging
•  Mobile development has multiple platforms and your choice of platform can highly influence your adoption rates

o   Android, iOS [iPhone and iPad], and Windows Phone are the main choices with Android on more devices, iOS on more tablet devices by far, and Windows Phone the most easily staffed skillset

•  Pricing and advertising are very different than in the non-mobile world as your users expect to not pay much (or at all) for a  mobile version of a product they already use and public ratings and update frequency drive your popularity

With more and more people buying smartphones and using a tablet device for some of their everyday computing it is worthwhile to think through your mobile strategy.  Our basic conclusions:

•  You should absolutely have a mobile version of your website today
•  You should think through if there are any advantages to a mobile version of your core products or web features