I sat in on a panel at SXSW here in Austin yesterday about designing for the mobile Web, and it got me thinking about a few things. Much of the panel, and the Q&A in particular were spent discussing different technical issues — should I use XHTML Basic or XHTML-MP? how do I deal with all the different mobile browsers that manage to render pages differently? and so on.
Sure, these issues are important, but just as important is taking a more holistic view of mobile design and considering how to create services and applications that fit the mobile lifestyle and workstyle, as opposed to just making something that looks nice on a phone. Mobilist Kelly Goto was on the panel and spoke to this, but most people in the audience seemed more concerned with technical than theoretical issues.
I’m not denying that these technical issues aren’t problematic, but their impact can be minimized by sound information design. My impression is that too many people are hung up on this idea of “the mobile Web”, and too hung up on browsers that can render standard Web pages well. There’s room for those, without a doubt, but to lay the blame for the slowly improving state of the mobile on disparate browsers or standards is a cop out.
Understanding mobile design isn’t just understanding WML and XHTML and Openwave browsers vs Access browser. It’s about understanding the types of content and information people want to access on their mobile devices, and how best to arrange and organize it. Adding in the eye candy is easy once you’ve got that down.
[tags]sxsw, mobile design, gotomobile[/tags]
Maybe your audience already have figured out the types of content and information people want, and already have a design in mind, and ARE STUCK in the technical side of things, trying to decide how to best make it happen…
CEO
That’s pretty doubtful but thanks for the insightful comment. When people are saying that it might not be worth it to develop for mobile basically because it’s hard, I doubt they’ve spent too much time thinking about it.
I agree with Carlo.
I do not think that “tech” guys really discuss about the commercial - user friendly design of Mobile Web, or mobile apps in general.
From my experience, almost all technical problems concerning Mobiles can be solved one way or another…
The problem is how to make Mobile Web appealing to the potential customer, which by the way sees something, likes it or not.
No customer cares about the Technical difficulties , browser differences etc neither cares about the time and effort put for customisation.
I think the problem is to find a good idea, not to implement it…
I know what Carlos is saying…
At the same time, let’s give some credit to the dev community. Many of them do have a very clear picture of what to bring to market.
And they truly are “kind of stuck” on the technical side of things, not because they can’t ship something out, that is the easy part, but it is about how to MAXIMIZE their development cost vs. maximizing their target audience.
In other words it is about ROI — about making money while minimizing dev costs.
I don’t have to preach the choir on this — just go and download a popular app… You will see MANY versions… why? Because of handset/platform-specific details, carrier details, fees, app signing details, walled-gardens, privacy, certifications, should they do thin vs. rich, etc. etc. etc. If you are developing REAL apps, you have to deal with all of the aforementioned details…
Yes “almost all technical problems concerning Mobiles can be solved one way or another”… Same with the design, there are many designs that can be appealing. There are MANY very, very smart people out there that can crank out very neat designs and apps… but how to maximize their effort? Again it is about ROI.
The mobile companies that have been around for a while already went through the “awe” phase, and have realized the issues mentioned above, and just have accepted the fact. The new ones to this space are going through the typical awe/”dude, this sucks” period, which is what I think most of Carlos audience was, but they will accept it how things are, and will deliver.
Yeap, it is not perfect, but it is the way it is…
Carlos Enrique Ortiz
I guess I should have been clearer that the audience here was made up primarily of web developers with little or no mobile experience, and was talking about web design, not application development. It just struck me that these are people who recognize the value (most of the time) of information design and architecture on the Web, but don’t understand that the mobile environment isn’t just a smaller screen for their existing sites and requires its own thinking about what people want when they’re accessing things from a mobile device, and how best to set it up.
Very interesting points Carlo and Enrique. I’m one of those that has seen my first mobile video app in Helsinki in 1999, since then I have been passionate about the mobile and its use and have been researching, developing and trying out a lot of mobile applications and concepts on the European continent.
I guess it takes time and a lot of application testing to find out how the mobile web works.
The device capability (memory/processor) and the speed of accesing the information are basic to enjoy a good mobile web experience.
3G/UMTS/i-Mode have all different penetrations in USA, Europe or Asia, so for example in Europe and USA not too many people actually have been able to test a lot of 3G applications and services as of now due to the closed MNO environments and non-existence of services.
Flat fees and price dropping is needed to get those developers being able to start using the services and apps created. Checked your bill lately when freewheeling the mobile web?
Don’t mention the different mobile browsers yet that create all a different viewing or accessibility experience…
What’s most important to me is the context the users needs/wants to acces the mobile web; why would I want to surf the web on my mobile and when? Just finding information or reading the news is not good enough, I will need other embedded information as click to call the restaurant I just found through a mobile search, or forward a link by sms to a friend, or find a location, etc…
These are completely different things then just surfing some web pages on a mobile, this is what developers have to understand to develop good applications and I guess it’s going to take some time still.
But the good thing is that all the discussions going on at SXSW and on various blogs now show that the mobile web is really starting to get attention and for this these discussions are so valuable for everyone developing for the mobile web now or later. Keep rolling the ball
[...] Meanwhile in Austin, Texas, there were the interesting panel discussions at SXSW where colleague Kelly Goto shared her vision and ideas on the future of the Mobile Web in Demystifying the Mobile Web and Dogma Free Design panels, which made Carlo Longino think about a couple of things in this post back at Mobhappy: “Sure, these (technical) issues are important, but just as important is taking a more holistic view of mobile design and considering how to create services and applications that fit the mobile lifestyle and workstyle, as opposed to just making something that looks nice on a phone.” [...]
[...] This is a pretty compelling solution for content providers looking to quickly and easily create their own branded application. It may not offer the same functionality as having a dedicated, native Java or smartphone app, but there are plenty of content providers that aren’t so interested in taking the time or expense to go that route. This is a development that makes the technical issues of mobile web design less of a barrier, and lets content providers focus on other conceptual — and hopefully it won’t be the last one. [...]