American Chemical Society

Mobile DevelopmentChallenges and Strategies

SSP Fall Seminar – Digital Opportunities and Challenges November 11, 2009

Alex KimManager, Web Product DevelopmentWeb Strategy & InnovationACS Publications

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Overview

• Challenges

• Strategies

• What ACS is doing – JACSβ

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ChallengesChallenges

Challenge #1: Authentication

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Full Text Article

RecognizedInstitution

MobileService Provider X

Access Denied: I.P. Address not recognized

Wi-F

i on

institu

tion’s

cam

pus

Challenge #1: AuthenticationPossible Solutions?

1. Make full text free via mobile app• Need to be careful that there isn’t a way to beat the system• Will it impact institutional usage and subscriptions?

2. Create a new authentication model• Something like Shibboleth• Periodic binding of a device to an institution• Again, need to be careful that there isn’t a way to beat the system

3. Digital Rights Management

4. Hope for the best• Maybe institutions will widely adopt VPN solutions• Maybe a standard authentication methodology will emerge

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Challenge #2: Analytics

• Most mobile usage will not be connected to a known entity• Even if mobile usage is from a known identity, depending on the

approach you take and how things work on the back-end, it may be difficult to consolidate mobile usage into your existing analytics system. Can you stay COUNTER compliant?

Solutions• IT creates back-end consolidation• Base your mobile delivery on the existing web platform

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Challenge #3: Presentation/Behavior

• Tables and equations

• Multimedia– Audio/Video takes some work, but is definitely doable

– Real challenges are things like 3D crystallographic structures

• Other device constraints– Navigation scheme

– Dynamic, JavaScript-driven features won’t work on many devices

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Challenge #4: Keeping Up with Devices

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FAKE!

Android

Palm Pre/webOSKindleThe new Apple iTablet

BlackBerryiPhone/iPod Touch NookSymbian (Nokia)

Challenge #4: Keeping Up with Devices

Is the iPhone/iPod Touch really the platform to target right now?• Well over 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches sold• Not the highest market share in terms of units sold (~15% of

smartphones worldwide), but highest in terms of actual usage

Published March, 2009http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10184805-37.html

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StrategyStrategy

Three General Approaches (not mutually exclusive)

A. Target “everyone” / Do it quickly Create mobile stylesheets alone• Development Environment: Same as website• Content: HTML is unchanged• Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit mobile browser

A. Target “everyone” / Do it better Create a separate mobile site or web apps• Development Environment: Same as website• Content: HTML is changed to suit mobile screens• Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit mobile browser

A. Target specific devices / Do it best Create mobile apps• Development Environment: Different from website and different between platforms• Content: Depends on the approach• Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit the device’s user interface

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Create Mobile Stylesheets

Benefits+ Wide reach+ Speed of deployment+ Ease of deployment+ Ease of iteration+ Low cost+ Low maintenance

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Drawbacks- Limited by the HTML that’s used on the

website- May need to choose between:

• Reaching a wider audience with fewer features

• Catering to a smaller audience with more features

What is involved?• Make small edits to the metadata of your web pages• Mobile devices get recognized and are served a mobile-specific

stylesheet• HTML remains unchanged

Create a Mobile Site or Web Apps

Benefits+ Wide reach+ Better user experience than

stylesheets alone+ More flexible for different

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Drawbacks- Significant development- Higher cost- Requires some maintenance- Limiting the audience a bit

What is involved?• Create a new system or sub-system for content delivery• Significant back-end development required• Create new templates and stylesheets specific to mobile delivery• May even want to have different stylesheets and templates for

specific devices

Create Mobile Apps

Benefits+ Potentially the best possible

user experience+ Can be monetized in new

ways

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Drawbacks- May require higher cost than

mobile site creation- Limited to specific platforms- Requires proactive advertising,

unlike the website

What is involved?• Develop device-specific applications• Significant back-end development required• More complex front-end development required as well

flickr

Regular Website• View pictures/video

• Upload pictures/video

• Organize sets and collections

• Batch operations

• Comments, Tagging, Geotagging

• The list goes on...

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flickr

Mobile Website• View photos/videos• No uploads• No organizing• Commenting, but no tagging• View pictures taken nearby

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flickr

iPhone App• View photos/videos• Upload photos/videos• No organizing• Commenting, but no tagging• Can’t view pictures taken nearby• Actually a little bit harder to navigate than

the mobile website

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Know Your Customers’ Needs

• End user testing• Focus groups• Unsolicited feedback (Help Desk)

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What is JACS Beta?

• Testing ground for the ACS Publications website• A place to quickly test concepts and gain feedback from end users

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Mobilize, Don’t Miniaturize

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“Mobile users operate in a very different usage context than PC users, and providing them with an experience customized to their needs is likely to be the best service you can offer to them.”

Dominique Hazaël-Massieux“Return of the Mobile Stylesheet”

A List Apart (alistapart.com)

JACS Beta Mobile TOC

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AssumptionUsers on mobile devices have a different goal than users on “normal” computers (desktops/laptops). We believe they primarily want to browse the latest research to stay up to date and not necessarily read entire articles while on the go.

LimitationUnless users are connected via wi-fi on an institution’s campus, they are not IP-authenticated to access the full text of articles.

ApproachIn this project we provide a way for users to easily browse through content, mark articles they are interested in reading the full text of, and then save those articles to a private repository.

Live Demo of Mobile TOC Project

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http://pubs.acs.org/jacsbeta/mobile

Primarily targets the most advanced mobile browsers found on the iPhone/iPod Touch, Palm Pre, and Android phones. Also works on any phone that has the free Opera Mini browser installed, though it’s not as nice of a user experience.

Step 1: Log In• Log in with ACS ID is required in order to get

the full functionality• Allows you to attach articles to your profile via

the Favorite Articles mechanism that exists on the site

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Step 2: Browse the TOC• Scroll down the page to view all of the articles• Abstracts are hidden by default, but can be

shown by tapping on “View Abstract” link

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Step 3: Select Articles of Interest• Click the checkboxes of articles you are

interested in reading the full text of

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Step 4: Add the Articles to Your List of Favorites

• After checking all of the articles you’re interested in, navigate to the top or bottom of the TOC, and click on the big blue button that reads “Add selected articles to list of Favorites”

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Step 5: Articles Are Saved in Favorite Content List

• After clicking Save to Favorites button, you are taken to your Favorite Content list, and the beta project is complete. You are now on the normal ACS Publications website, which is not yet optimized for mobile display.

• Now you can log in on a normal computer, go to your Favorite Content list, and view the full text of the selected articles.

• Advantages of using your normal computer:– Easier to read

– IP-authenticated

– Ability to print

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American Chemical Society

Thank You

Alex KimManager, Web Product DevelopmentWeb Strategy & InnovationACS Publications

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