The most forward-thinking business have known for some time that they need to have a mobile website. The most recent research is making it clear though, EVERY business needs a mobile website.
By “mobile website,” I don’t mean a website that can be viewed from a Smartphone. Most websites can. I don’t even mean a website that has been designed for better usability when viewed on a mobile device. I means a Mobi website that appears INSTEAD of your regular website when the user accesses via a mobile device.
Good designers have moved to designing sites that automatically display better on mobile devices. That means, for instance, not using Flash which doesn’t work on the iPhone. It usually means implementing critical navigation as buttons that are easily seen and clicked on a small screen. It means formatting links in text to be larger so that they are easier to click, without the user having to resize the web page on their phone. It means making the website more touch-friendly, in general, requiring less text entry.
There’s only so far you can go, though, trying to design a website that provides all the functionality laptop and desktop users want, while also being usable on a mobile devices.
So, forward-thinking companies are building mobile apps or mobile websites. As Bruce Nowjack discussed, there are important differences between the two. Perhaps the most important consideration, though, is that mobile applications have a higher barrier of entry. Consumers have to learn about the application. They then have to choose to make the effort to download it. When they need the application, they have to remember that they have the app. Then they have to choose to use it.
On the other hand, people are constantly surfing the web from their phones, moving from site to site. Consumers are used to going to your website on their computers, and it’s probably the first thing they think to do on their phones, as well.
Perhaps that’s why we are seeing studies suggesting that users prefer browsing to websites over using mobile apps, when faced with a task. Combine that with the data showing that websites are critical to consumers. Moreover, consumers highly value efficiency and see it as a key factor in their assessment of the quality of a brand’s engagement.
That’s why you HAVE TO HAVE a mobi site. A mobi site is a version of your website with the extension .mobi. If you have this version and implement the correct code, when a user accesses your URL from a mobile device, they are redirected to your mobile version.
The great news is that your mobi website can be a completely different site. It doesn’t have to have the same navigation, the same pages, or even the same look as your regular website. And it shouldn’t. Your mobile website should contain only the features or functions your mobile customers are most likely to want when using their devices. By considering the Keys to Mobile Behavior, and understanding your customers and your business goals, you can pick the right features for your mobile website. You can use smart techniques to keep users engaged across different devices and give them reasons to move up to your website. Design the mobile site to fully optimize it so that users can quickly and easily perform those key tasks .
Every business today must consider building a mobile website. By 2013, if not earlier, mobile devices will overtake PCs as the main method of accessing the web. Soon, your business won’t just be at a disadvantage if you don’t have a mobile site. You’ll likely be out of business.
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I'm going to both agree, and disagree with you. Yes, websites need to be mobile device aware, and thank goodness some of them really are starting to do just that. Like you said the mobile site can take into consideration the limitations or features available with mobile devices. Thankfully HTML5 gives the web developer a standard way to ask your device for information on what it can display, what it cant, which features it offers, and then redirect the visitor accordingly.
A separate .mobi site though might not be the best way to go. If you are using https then you're going to need two separate certificates, and depending on how you've implemented your security, you may have issues on devices when you try to forward them from one secure site to another. You'll also need to duplicate javascript code across the sites and maintain any changes across both, either that or do a little unsanctioned voodoo to call javascript functions across domains.
It can be better to keep your mobile site under your regular site. For example www_awesome_com and www_awesome_com/mobile. That makes it easier to share javascript because it's all under one domain, and you're maintaining a single certificate (which might also be a factor with a shopping cart provider). In addition, keeping it under one site makes it easier if you want to customize for multiple mobile platforms. Having awesome_com for desktop users, awesome_com/ipad for iPad users, and awesome_com/mobile for more primitive smartphones, etc. allows the web designer to arrange the display of your site to most closely match the devices that come calling.
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