Taking Your Library Website Mobile

Doug Baldwin

Systems Administrator

Cranbury Public Library

How many of you of YOU are using a mobile device

to access the Internet these days?

Doug Baldwin talking about mobile something or other. Can’t take my eyes off him #NJLAconf @govchristie

Wait…I thought it was still lunch time? Why have mobile website?

What is wrong with the one I have? What are my options? Mobile content Q&A

We librarians love our stats… Morgan Stanley analysts predict that the mobile web

will be bigger than desktop Internet usage by 2015

There will be 4.6 billion mobile cellular subscriptions globally by year end 2009 (International Telecommunications Union)

Web visitors using mobile devices increased 34% from 2008-09. Interestingly, the largest demographic to increase usage over that period were teens and seniors. (Nielson Media)

The number of US households using mobile devices to access news and information more than doubled (to 63.2 million) between 2008-2009” (Comscore.com)

Among those users, 35% did so on a daily basis, more than double the number from the year before

Oh yes, can’t get enough stats!!

1/3 of US residents have used a cellular or smart phone to access the Internet for emailing, IM, or information seeking

One a given day, 19% of Americans use the Internet on a mobile device. This an increase of 43% from 2007

Among those using phones to access the Internet, 46% say mobile access is very important for getting information online.

Information taken from 2009 Pew Internet and American Life study entitled,

“Wireless Internet Usage”

What is wrong with my current website “Mr. Know It

All”?Nothing!! I am sure it is fine… but,

Web users are inpatient, so size matters What is lost in the resizing of a site? We design for the hardware, but the

hardware is changing We are in the user experience business! What can I do about it, I do not code for

mobile and I do not have time?!?

How does my current site look to the “mobile” world

Instant Mobilizerhttp://instantmobilizer.com

W3C Mobile Checkerhttp://validator.w3.org/mobile/

DotMobi Emulatorhttp://mtld.mobi/emulator.php 

Mobireadyhttp://mobiready.com

User Agent Switcher for Firefoxhttps://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59

Mobilizing Current Site: Tips and Tricks Conditional style sheet (not very easy)

Use percents, not absolute values Use smaller images, link out to the larger

ones (or no images at all!) Simplify your design

One column layout Limit multi-media, widgets, and dynamic

elements (link out) Short links Make content easy to find (navigation)

Singular navigation Most used content at the top

Click to call link <a href="tel:1-888-888-8888”>1-888-888-8888</a>

Creating a mobile website… Prioritize your content

Make the tough choices Right content for the right medium Provide services that make “mobile sense”

Decide on your platform and hosting Vendor hosting vs. third party hosting Editor vs. hand coding

Test, test, test !!!! Patrons and staff

Promote, promote, promote !!! Flyers, website badge, bookmarks, social

networks Think about maintaining content and editing

Wirenode.com Very easy WYSWYG editor Low learning curve Limited customization (color, template) Integration of RSS, Twitter, one-click call,

Google maps, forms, and images Ad supported for free version Create multiple sites / “mobilize” blog Remote hosting Stat tracking

Test Drive / Live Site

Wapple.net

Remote hosted (no export available) Highly customizable (styles, content) Content is modular One size fits all (customized to multiple

mobile devices) Higher learning curve than Wirenode User statistics RSS, comments, and other dynamic

content available as modules

Test Drive / Live Site

UNC Mobile Site Generator Developed by Chad Haefele at the Univ. of

North Carolina Uses online form to create tiered navigation

for your site (a shell for the site) Gives you framework for the site, content is

provided by you in coding environment REQUIRES working knowledge of HTML Highest level of flexibility and customization Must host the site yourself V1.1 allows integration of RSS feeds (still in

testing phase though) You will want to plan you site layout B4 you

use the tool!

Test Drive / Live Site

How to we get users to our mobile site? Link on your website

Conditional CSS Redirect via user agent string

Detects whether user is on a mobile device or not and directs them to appropriate site (mobile or non-mobile)

Is there a shortcut, Yes for some.. Using Wordpress?

WPtouch WP Mobile Edition WPTap

Using Joomla? MobileBot

Using Drupal Mobile for Drupal

And if your really in a pinch…

Try Google Mobile Optimizer

http://www.google.com/gwt/n

Try Mippin

http://mippinmaker.com

Providing mobile content…

Can you think of any others???

Questions

I would have skipped my own wedding for this.. Love that Doug Baldwin #NJLAconf @govchristie

Cited Resources

http://www.itu.int/newsroom/press_release/2009/39.html

http://blog.nielson.com/nielsonwire/online_mobile/mobile-web-up-34-percent-july-09

http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2009/3/Daily_Mobile_Internet_Usage_Grows

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2009/12-Wireless-Internet-Use.aspx

http://mashable.com/2010/04/13/mobile-web-stats/

Contact InfoDoug BaldwinSystems AdministratorCranbury Public Librarybaldwin@cranburypubliclibrary.orgTwitter / @baldwind1976Facebook / http://facebook.com/cranburyplLinked In / http://www.linkedin.com/in/db1976Square 2 / http://tinyurl.com/sq2doug609-655-0555

Presentation, links, and resources can be found at:

http://tinyurl.com/mobilelib