From Desktops to Mobile and Smart Phones – Lessons Learned
This session at Lotusphere 2012 was presented by Usman Memonand focused on lessons learned and best practices many organizations face today when moving to mobile platforms. Some of the key lessons learned are highlighted here.
Development Approaches and Considerations
Users are attempting to access your sites with mobile devices whether you have a mobile site or not
There are trade-offs: Richness of your mobile presence increases total cost of ownership
Native applications will be richest but highest cost
Hybrid mobile applications are growing in popularity since they are web based but can use device capabilities such as a GPS or camera
Cost and complexity goes up exponentially as you try to support custom interfaces for more than 1 device
Best Practices
Mobile web applications and hybrid applications are preferred
Native Applications
Rich users interfaces
Tighter integration with OS and hardware
Device market is fragmented so yo need to pick specific platforms, devices and OS
Delivery is controlled by the app store
Role based access is challenging
Development is expensive
Mobile web and hybrid
Most devices support the web kit extensions and HTML 5
Existing technology stack can often be leveraged
Much easier to find than native applications since
Must revisit existing interfaces to adapt them to mobile
Leverage automation technology for mobile solutions when possible
IBM Web Experience Factory has quite a few mobile capabilities built in
Profiling is supported in the factory to profile devices
Screen is Prime Real Estate
Screens are small so use the real estate wisely
Consider size constraints when designing UI
Optimized Navigation is very important, e.g. use accordions, light boxes, etc
Device is important, e.g. tablet vs phone
Always avoid horizontal scrolling
Minimize free form field entry
Mobile devices are error prone to typing and not optimized. Minimizing free form text entry when possible helps create a better experience.
Use drop downs or list
AJAX type ahead is important
Tab order must be considered
UI design should be interaction based instead of visual
Just because a design is aesthetically pleasing doesn’t mean it is usable
Involving interaction testing reinforces this
Mobile is not a desktop, it’s very different. e.g. hover over tool tips don’t work
Make sites orientation aware
Most devices change layouts depending on device orientation. This should be handled by the site
There are many performance considerations you must take into account.
Use orientation to dynamically adapt content depending on portrait or landscape orientation
Users expect this type of dynamic contact adaptatoin
Use hybrid applications for device specific features
Most devices change layouts depending on device orientation. This should be handled by the site
There are many performance considerations you must take into account.
Hybrid applications can access device specific capabilities such as a phone, camera or contact list
Consider the use of a 3rd party library like PhoneGap to help integrate mobile web app with native applicatoins
Performance
There are many performance considerations you must take into account.
Network access varies, bandwidth is not unlimited. Users often access over 3G connections
Reduce HTTP payload to make sure sites render faster and unnecessary things aren’t downloaded such as full dojo or jQuery libraries
Caching should be used wherever possible. This can substantially reduces the impact of network limitations
Use pagination on the server side. This not only reduces HTTP payload but reduces back end processing
Miscellaneous Considerations
A key message of the session that I could not agree more with is that when going mobile you can’t simply do a straight migration. There are quite a few considerations to deliver successful mobile solutions and the tips above are a great starting point and terrific advice.
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Portal Beauty and the User Experience
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Dr. Marci makes one quote it’s easy to agree with.
I be [read] Keywords: interface
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Gartner Keynote: Don Norman on emotion
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Gartner Portal, Content and Collaboration – Opening Session
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Salesforce: Customer Company – Chicago
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Every person at t [read] Keywords:
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Sitecore a Strong Performer in WCM according to Forrester!
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