The Mobile WebTaking world domination to new levels …

"Mobile is the fastest and cheapest way to reach the largest number of people. There are billions of people…who still don't have access to the Internet. And we think mobile presents the biggest opportunity to get them on the Internet.“

­Chris Sacca, Head of Special Initiatives, Google

“Anyone betting against

the web right now is an idiot.”

- Daniel Appelquist, Co-Chair, W3C Mobile Web Initiative

Source: Seeking Alpha, http://seekingalpha.com/article/187212-iphone-market-share-the-rest-of-the-story?source=email

Growth: Smart Phones

According to Nielsen and Opus Research, smart phones comprised 15% of the US handset market at the end of 2009. Forrester says the figure is 15%

Nielsen also thinks that smart phones usage will grow rapidly, crossing the 50% threshold by 2011.

“In Q3 2009, historically the slowest phone quarter, more than 25% of all phones sold were smartphones. Expect Q4 to have more than 40% of new phones sold be smart devices. …Smartphones are on track to be the majority of phones in the U.S. by 2011. … We see smartphones crossing 50% of the market by the middle of 2011, roughly equal to 150 million users.

Trends: Smart Phones

Source: Seeking Alpha, http://seekingalpha.com/article/187212-iphone-market-share-the-rest-of-the-story?source=email

Growth: Smart Phones

Market Share: Brands

Source: Seeking Alpha, http://seekingalpha.com/article/187212-iphone-market-share-the-rest-of-the-story?source=email

TTM =Trailing Twelve Month

Trends: Brands

Source: Compete, Inc. 1/2010 http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/compete/41839/

Opportunities: Shopping

Opportunities: Demographics

Mobile is

The mobile web is more fragmented by competition, market churn, and proprietary turf wars among carriers, manufacturers, service providers than the Web, which has become stable since the browser wars of the late ’90s

From Pangaea to Balkanization• "The Pangaea of the Web is gone."

- Leland Rechisa UX Designer, Google

• No one mobile standard to which one develops

• Must optimize for a variety of devices, browsers, languages, carriers, countries, cultures, and contexts of mobile use

Hell is other browsers(with apologies to Sartre)

Consequence: 400 different mobile devices and 50 different mobile browsers

Contextual Web Difference also comes from the way

people use mobile devices.

The way someone interacts with the web has to do with the context: where she is, who she’s with, what she’s trying to do, etc.

Context• who are your users• what do you know about them• what can you predict about behavior based on

their needs and goals• what are the circumstances of use• what’s happening around/near the user• when & where are they using mobile devices• why is mobile valuable to them• how do they use the device

Design for Context • develop and design for many contexts• create solutions based on user goals• account for constraints of technology• consider physical context as well as

culture, ideational, and motivational context

Users: now now now According to research from Google,

mobile users are always in the ‘now”. They are:– repetitive now– bored now– urgent now

Which one are you?

Repetitive Now • these users do the same thing over and over,

checking facebook, twitter, ebay, stock news• design: keep clickness low• dev: use accesskeys and tabindex• Q: how can our sites meet the context

and needs of these users?

Bored Now • these users have a few minutes to spare• potentially lucrative audience: time to kill,

money to /willing to spend• design: enhance site stickiness• Q: how can our sites meet the context

and needs of these users?

Urgent Now • have a problem or crisis & want answers

immediately• design: keep clickness low; findable, easy

to read• development: use accesskeys & tabindex• Q: how can our sites reach these

users?

Poka Yoke

Reduce!

Reduce some more! • reduce complexity; • minimize chances for user error• eliminate tent-pole design• minimize links• simplify navigation• lighten information architecture• OK to target narrow audience• fewer images, less text, smaller page weight,

lightweight scripting

Mobile Complexity • It’s a challenge for develop-

ment, but not insurmountable• create solutions based on user goals• account for constraints of technology• consider physical context as well as

culture, ideational, and motivational context

Solutions: Standards • Clean, semantic markup• Standards, standards, standards• Validate, validate, validate• Limit targeted browsers and devices• Use progressive enhancement and content

based workflow• Constantly test, from the beginning• Prototype, test, iterate

warms my competitive little heart!

Solutions: Planning • Spend solid time planning in

order to build solid foundationupon which to build out sister sites

• Mapped out microformats for implementation

• Pared down SEO strategy

Solutions: Security • To keep the pages lightweight

and usable, but also protect our leads, used two anti-spam techniques. This was also important because we believe the mobile web will be a vector for attack.

•

1. MD5 hash• 2. Reverse captcha• 3. Use of captcha on pages accessed with

desktop browsers

Solutions: Urgent Now • We implemented a beautiful solution for

mapping dealers with Google Maps’ API• With first time use, the user is given the option

of using the map in the browser OR using the Google Maps API (except iPhones)

• Mapping meets the needs of our ‘urgent now’ customers

Solutions: SEO • Most mobile sites don’t use SEO • Implemented pared down SEO approach: title and

description• Optimized content, alts, and title tags for variety

of keywords• Semantic markup and microformats are a solid

SEO foundation for future mobile development• Mobile sitemaps are crucial

Solutions: Metrics • The most important part of web

development, especially mobile web development, is short development iterations followed by testing.

• Solution: Omniture analytics and our database tracking as a check