Back in 1995/6, loads of brand managers suddenly realised that they needed to commission one of those web things. And many paid through the nose for the privilege, as the “right” price wasn’t really known.
Fast forward 10 years and many brand managers are equally suddenly realising that they need one of those mobile web things and are drawing up briefs to make it happen.
There’s a couple of ways to do this. First, you can just re-purpose your website to make it visible on a handset. Sure, this is better than nothing, but it’s the modern day equivilent sin of asking your IT department to create your website back in the day.
The right approach is really think through why people might be using their mobile handset to visit your site and try to cater for that in terms of usability. As an example, if you visit a train company or airline on the PC, the first things that hits you is the ticket booking facility as that’s exactly what the majority of people want. But on a mobile website, the chances are much more likely that you need either travel directions or the latest timetable update.
And there’s loads of other ways we need to rethink the usability experience.
Of course, I can’t give you all the answers, as much will depend on your brand. But this article (registration required), by Rich Holdsworth of site tool creators, Wapple is a great start to focus your thinking. I’ve just copied the headlines here and there’s more to drill down to in the article if you’re interested.
- It has got to be personal
- A WAP site is not a web site
- Balance form and function
- Go beyond wallpapers, ringtones and java games
- Do not expect the same results across every device
- Test Test Test
- Deliver dynamically
- Make it worthwhile as visitors won’t come back without getting value
So, if you’re thinking about a mobile website (and hint: you certainly should be if you’re not - you’ll be soooo embarrassed when your marketing director asks where it is), use this to get your brain kick started.
Some good points however i have a simple question that may throw a spanner in the works:
With the new Nokia browser able to render full scale websites perfectly and yet still be easily readable/useable how long before the rest of the bunch catch up - thus websites written specifically for mobile devices would no longer be required?
Andy: a very long time
More to the point, when will mobile sites be perceived as more important to brand owners than web sites, and therefore worthy of greater investment? I don’t think that’s too far in the horizon.
marc
Take a look at WALL (based on WURFL) as a possible free solution: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wurfl
I haven’t used it on my mobile site yet. So far I use only the most basic WAP/WML, which looks terrible (I comply with “white, black and blue”), but works on almost all phones.
Maybe you’ve noticed that new services aimed at younger people provide mobile access from day one. It’s not an option, it’s part of the base service delivery.
Every so often Russel you make me go off on a mini-rant or a longer post - which I have done in response to this post: http://www.mobile-weblog.com/50226711/10_rules_for_mobile_website_creation.php