Mobile Web – Who’s Doing it, Who Isn’t, Who’s Owning
First off we hope that this post will encourage some of our readers to chime in on what is a completely open ended topic which can easily break off in many different directions.
Mobile Web
Okay, our experiences engaging the web via all manner of mobile devices has been around for years. Thankfully the technology and deployment of the mobile web experience has recently exploded into a truly focused enterprise. Early adopted strategies (let’s start at the first smartphones; I don’t think anyone puts much thought into the flip phone browsing experience) presented featureless static external websites. These sites were managed outside of the main ‘desktop’ website and were generally glorified business cards with some text links and contact info. Gradually, as phones gained both bandwidth and processor speed, we started to see more ‘experience’ based enhancements providing a Mobile Application feel with poppy buttons, functional forms and some deeper content. Still, there were little to no transactions occurring as the game was still to get you through the door, on the phone or submitting simple form data.
Beyond the Two Site Mobile Strategy
This dual site mobile strategy, while the best that the web had to offer at the time, was a management nightmare and a very inefficient deployment model for most site owners. Sites with endless resources could produce a high value mobile solution but this was rare as this mobile web phenomenon was still vastly misunderstood and technologies (mobile devices) still maturing. Sure, the CMS platforms were starting to adopt OOB device detection capabilities and providing interfaces and layouts for the ‘mobile site’, but we were still seeing the use of external domains (w.domain.com) and separation of CMS data creating additional layers of workflow and content creation.
Enter Responsive Design …design … design …design …
Now don’t we sound smart? Well we know now that this is the game changing development framework that we’ve been waiting for. Retire the outdated external domain, consolidate your content development and let the parent website serve up the appropriate layout and content based on a combination of device OS and aspect ratio. The deployment possibilities are only bound by the creative energy of the implementing firm, but in the meantime try resizing your browser window size after loading this site: www.hificentre.com.
So… Mobile Web; will you emerge from the virtual shadows to answer any of these questions?
- Which Web CMS is providing the best OOB Mobile Web experience?
- Which Web CMS is ‘bottling’ their OOB Mobile Web offering?
- Which Web CMS can boast “Can’t Touch This!” with their clearly, industry leading OOB Responsive Design solution?
Jade Carter
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