This document summarizes Shelley Keith's efforts to make a WordPress site mobile-friendly with limited resources. Some key points: 1) Mobile traffic to the site had increased significantly from 2010 to 2011, demonstrating a need for a mobile solution. 2) The project criteria included creating a mobile version with minimal coding, budget, and need for ongoing maintenance. 3) A number of WordPress plugins were tested but most did not meet the criteria well. Responsive design was also considered but faced challenges. 4) In the end, no single solution met all the needs, so a combination of approaches was used including plugins, themes, and responsive design principles.

1. Going Mobile with
WordPress
Shelley Keith
Manager of Web Communications & Marketing
Southern Arkansas University

2. Me. Shelley. @sk140
● about.me/shelleykeith
● Teaching faculty to use email since 1994.
● Since 2005 only Web staff on campus of
~3600 students & 400 faculty/staff.
● Sixth year on the HighEdWeb conference
program committee; chaired regional
HEWEB event last 3 yrs.
● HigherEdExperts presenter – OpenSource
CMS Fair: WordPressMU, April 2010.
● Technical reviewer for Apress book
Beginning WordPress 3.0 by Stephanie
Leary released in June, 2010.
● Launched WPMU in May 2009. Alone.

3. o.0

4. The push
2011 vs 2010
● 240% increase in mobile visits
● 237% increase in mobile pageviews
● 13% increase in average mobile time on site
● Top mobile referrers: Google, Facebook
● 40% direct traffic

5. 155 Admissions applications
completed on mobile devices

6. She came out of nowhere captain!

7. To boldly go...

8. The Project
Caveats Criteria
● no coder ● Minimal "touch"
● minimal budget ● Flexible "touch"
● WP Network ● Reuse work
● Comparable features
● Multi-platform
● Visible growth
● Responsive support
● Easy to update

9. SCIENCE!

10. Plugins

11. Some plugins are seamless & work beautifully...

12. ...others, not so much.

13. Plugins
● WPTouch*
● WP Mobile Detector
● WordPress Mobile Pack
● Wapple Architect Mobile
● WordPress Multi Site Mobile Edition
● Weever Apps
● PluginBuddy Mobile*

14. WordPress Mobile Pack
Mobile detection
Theme switcher
Analytics
Admin interface
Last updated Dec. 2010

15. WordPress Multi Site Mobile
Site-wide activation
Carrington Mobile
Link to/from mobile version
No per-blog customization
Last updated in 2010

16. Spockitty is not impressed.

17. Mobile Apps

18. Mobile Apps - Native
ShoutEm Mobile by Conduit MobileRoadie BiznessApps
Monthly Price $29.90 - $119.90 $0 - $79.95 $99 - $499 $39 + $10/each iPad,
Android, HTML5
WordPress Integration Plugin, RSS RSS RSS RSS
Targeting All users All, Geographic All, Geo, Platform, + All users
QR X X Unlockable Content Integrated Scanner
Badges/Gamification Badges X Unlockable Content, X
Badges
Reviews Yes Yelp, CitySearch
Events .ics import & internal EventBrite, Google Cal, Internal, Artistdata, Internal only
system Facebook Events SongKick
HTML5 Web App Coming Soon Yes Yes Yes
iOS iPhone, iPad coming soon iPhone iPhone, $499/mo iPad iPhone, iPad
Android Yes Yes Yes Yes
Other Windows, Blackberry, Windows, Blackberry Blackberry
Bada

19. Mobile Apps - Web
Wapple
Weever
WPTouch Pro

20. Responsive Design

21. Le sigh.

22. Responsive Design
● Frameworks
○ Genesis
○ PageLines
○ HeadWay
○ Whiteboard
○ Catalyst
○ WooFramework
● Standalone themes
○ Responsive
○ Business Lite
○ iFeature

23. the needs of the many...

24. ...become a hot mess.

25. @sk140