13/2 Why doing a mobile version ?
| Category: Miscellaneous By editor at 23:41 |
Jérôme over at Smoothplanet answers the question: Why doing a mobile version ?
I just add my five cents. Making your site mobile with a mobile CSS or using a mobile RSS reader can on first sight do the job, but you quickly get stuck when you use it daily. The UI of a cellphone "is" something completely different and you have to use it everyday to really get to know the differences - i guess most people who asked the above question don't do this that often. The screen for example is not only smaller and 90 degrees flipped, it's also much more difficult to scroll and to type. You also need to give the user constantly extended backlink possibilities. This sounds obvious and still you never will accomplish this by using the mentioned "quick and dirty" techniques.
Today we are also still stuck in the high data rate time and from a design point of view it's not that bad after all. So you really want to know before starting a download how long it takes or how much it will cost you. You also want to know if you are going on another mobilized site or if you will probably find yourself on a high data, not at all optimized old school website which will shut down your mobile altogether.
I also don't think that the transition to the "all mobile" will happen for all of us tomorrow. Still I believe that it will happen, but it will be an even more chaotic and hybrid mobile world with an eclectic variety of use cases we cannot even imagine today. And interestingly the "all mobile" will happen first at places where the desktop computer never got a hold.
In this regard, Russell's post is also interesting:
Negroponte Vs. Gates: They’re Both Right
I just add my five cents. Making your site mobile with a mobile CSS or using a mobile RSS reader can on first sight do the job, but you quickly get stuck when you use it daily. The UI of a cellphone "is" something completely different and you have to use it everyday to really get to know the differences - i guess most people who asked the above question don't do this that often. The screen for example is not only smaller and 90 degrees flipped, it's also much more difficult to scroll and to type. You also need to give the user constantly extended backlink possibilities. This sounds obvious and still you never will accomplish this by using the mentioned "quick and dirty" techniques.
Today we are also still stuck in the high data rate time and from a design point of view it's not that bad after all. So you really want to know before starting a download how long it takes or how much it will cost you. You also want to know if you are going on another mobilized site or if you will probably find yourself on a high data, not at all optimized old school website which will shut down your mobile altogether.
I also don't think that the transition to the "all mobile" will happen for all of us tomorrow. Still I believe that it will happen, but it will be an even more chaotic and hybrid mobile world with an eclectic variety of use cases we cannot even imagine today. And interestingly the "all mobile" will happen first at places where the desktop computer never got a hold.
In this regard, Russell's post is also interesting:
Negroponte Vs. Gates: They’re Both Right
