Mobile Website Considerations

All websites and portals should be a natural online expression of your business strategy, taking into consideration the two major audiences who determine a website’s end result—consumers and stakeholders (sponsors). Mobile sites are no different in that they are natural expressions, albeit in a mobile context.

Mobile is a Context

What is context?

Context: the set of facts or circumstances that surround a situation or event; “the historical context” 

Context includes:

• The device(s) that will display the site; their abilities as well as their limitations.
• The location or circumstance in which the mobile site is used with its’ abilities and limitations
• The personas that will use the mobile device their desires and constraints

Mobile is very different from desktop/laptop

While a website is content delivered in a device, the desktop/laptop environment is very different from that of the mobile devices. The following should be considered as primary design constraints for design, architecture and look and feel.

• Size and Shape
• Context (where you are when you visit the site)
• Mobile Web Goals and the Personas that make them
  • I am …
    • In a park and my child gets ant bites all over
    • At the mall and need to get to a mammography appt., where do I park?
    • Etc. 
     
   

Context Goals

Mobile users want quick solutions (answers and key facts), not long flowing prose.

Facts and answers might include:

• Address
• Phone
• Entrance
• Events (Today)
• Support (directions, medical records, parking, etc) 

Design Constraints and Considerations

Designing the mobile website can become bogged down in committee discussion debating things that are really personal design proclivities. Since the mobile web is a relatively new media/communication paradigm and many people responsible for the decisions are afraid to make mistakes, it is important to examine things that work for others. In this you will recognize emerging design patterns. Just as print and the web have the golden triangle and above the fold /scroll, the mobile web is starting to have patterns that emerge as front runners.

Emerging Design Patterns

Many things have design patterns. Websites, buildings, phones, etc. all have design patterns. Even meals have patterns. Main Dish, side dish #1, side dish #2,etc. The mobile web is no different. Mobile Websites have emerging patterns. Look at HTC, Southwest Airlines, Marriott, King’s Daughter Medical Center, etc.

Some emerging patterns include:

• Menus are often vertical lines
• Design is minimalistic
  • brand colors, but small screen contrast is priority
  • Nothing is gratuitous
   
• Pages are clean, factual and to the point
• Marketing is not a priority here. The experience, if good, enhances alignment with your brand
• Content is minimal and targeted to the mobile context
  • access is ubiquitous
  • format is small
  • access is quick and easy
   

Information Architecture (IA), User Experience (UX) and Content Strategy Considerations

Architecting your new mobile online expression will take into consideration:

• Your mobile audience(s)
• Your business units and their…
  • Services
  • Locations
  • Unique mobile opportunities (ER, Events, directions, phone #, etc…
   
• Content structure
  • Site View
  • Page View
  • Content View
  • Flow 
   

Take a look at the following items to see if they shed more light:

• http://www.webstrategymadesimple.com/?cat=4 
• http://www.slideshare.net/dreamforce2006/creating-a-mobile-strategy 

Recommended Reading: 

Content Strategy for the Web (Voices That Matter Series)
by Kristina Halvorson

Web Application Design Patterns
by Pawan Vora

Information Architecture : Blueprints for the Web
by Christina Wodtke

Don't Make Me Think : A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability/ Edition 2
by Steve Krug