2. - April 3, 2010, the Apple iPad
was released for purchase.
- Increases the demand for
higher quality mobile sites.
- Forces companies to adapt
their designs to mobile rather
than only desktop.
3. A great example to a tablet predecessor to the
iPad would be the Microsoft Tablet PC.
4. Companies have begun to
create more mobile
friendly versions of their
sites to attract more
customers.
5. One example of new technology to help
improve and create mobile sites.
6. - Small font for reading on a mobile
device.
- Navigation is nearly impossible.
- The places where navigation is
possible is very difficult due to the
size of the buttons.
7. - Lacks the features that competitors
have implemented such as 3D model
viewing.
- Sacrifices utility in order to fit on a
small screen when they could do
much more.
- Does not utilize the space they do
have efficiently enough for the site to
look presentable
8. - Scrolling function serves as navigation
instead of typical button navigation.
- Font is easy to read due to being
resized.
- Images are easy to see and are fit for a
mobile screen.
- Features the ability for advertisers to
easily market their product while not
disturbing the user.
9. - Very easy to navigate and place
order
- Aesthetically pleasing layout
- Great pictures of product being
selected
11. Sources
1. 27 Superb Examples of Mobile Optimized Websites. (n.d.). Neat Designs RSS. Retrieved
May 31, 2014, from http://neatdesigns.net/27-superb-examples-of-mobile-optimized-websites/
2. Anderson, E. (2012, March 19). The 5 worst mobile websites. - iMediaConnection.com.
Retrieved May 31, 2014, from http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/
3.Wentworth, T. (2011, August 5). Why Mobile Design Should Never Be an Afterthought.
Mashable. Retrieved May 31, 2014, from http://mashable.com/2011/08/05/mobile-design-
priority/
Editor's Notes
The first iPad was released on April 3, 2010 and was a revolutionary product that increased the demand for higher quality mobile sites. With this sudden demand for better mobile sites, many companies began to gear their designs more towards mobile than the dominant desktop.
After the release of the iPad, several companies began to create their own versions of the mobile tablet. Previous to the iPad there were several tablet laptops but they never grew to be as popular as the iPad did. A great example is the Microsoft Tablet PC which has recently made a resurgence with the growing popularity of Windows 8.
With this new focus on the mobile devices, companies began to devote more resources to creating a mobile friendly version of their site. The example here is this restaurant Twenty Five Lusk where we can see that for someone using a smartphone, booking a table on the original site would be very difficult to do. In order to counter this problem, Twenty Five Lusk decided to create a mobile friendly version of their site.
Now with this sudden popularity of using mobile devices to surf the web, it would be necessary for newer and better technologies to be created in order to help meet this demand of mobile sites. One of these technologies is HTML5 which is extremely compatible with mobile sites. With the help of technology such as HTML5 companies would be able to meet the demand for better mobile sites.
Now unfortunately, even with this new technology to help companies create better mobile sites, some of them just do not turn out so great. One example is the Nokia mobile site. All irony aside, Nokia’s site does not even seem like it has been updated for mobile viewing at all. The size of the navigation buttons have not been resized, the font is extremely small, and there is no way for a mobile user to easily navigate anything on this site. Now this was taken from December of 2012 and Nokia has updated their mobile site since then, but this is a great example of a bad mobile site.
Another example of a bad mobile web site is the Jeep mobile site. Now unlike Nokia, Jeep did attempt to somewhat make their site more geared for mobile users, but unfortunately they did not live up to the other car manufacturers mobile sites which allow 3D model viewing of their vehicles. While this was a good attempt to create a more mobile usable site, Jeep sacrificed a lot of utility in order to make a site more compact where competitors such as Chevrolet did so much more with the exact same amount of space. Once again this was taken from the 2012 version of Jeep’s site who have gone through the efforts of updating their site which looks much better now.
While there are bad sites, there are always good ones. The Huffington Post has created a beautiful mobile site that allows the user to easily view the news from their mobile browser. One thing that I love about this site is it’s scroll function. It allows the user to find new stories without having to navigate to different web pages. If you look in the top right corner of the page you can see a small navigation button which still allows the user to visit other pages on the site, but it is much more mobile friendly than that of our Nokia example. Another great feature is the ability to advertise products without really disturbing the user. While the advertisement is completely visible and noticeable, it does not obstruct much of the screen.
Another great example of a mobile website would Panera Bread’s site. This restaurant has created an online site that serves as a menu, order form, and checkout and it does it beautifully. The site features the ability to customize the order and shows the price and calorie count. I don’t know many other websites with this level of mobile utility but Panera bread does a great job being at the top. This site essentially works as well as an app while being a mobile site.
In conclusion, tablets such as the iPad and the Windows Tablet PC have paved a road for future mobile devices. Without these products we would not have the plethora of both good and bad mobile sites across the internet. Thankfully all of these bad sites have the ability to improve their sites with the help of programs such as HTML5 and one day they might be as good as Panera Bread. Finally I think that even with the appearance and demand of mobile sites, desktops are just as useful and should not be easily forgotten or underestimated.
