The document provides an introduction to mobile design for designers. It discusses key considerations for whether to build a mobile website or app, including user needs, marketability, content requirements, and costs. It also lists 11 things web designers should know before designing for mobile, such as using mobile analytics, understanding user contexts, and designing based on rules rather than pixels. The document explains that mobile is defined by being interactive, personal, and the new normal way technology is accessed. It encourages joining an online mobile design patterns community.

1. Presentations
mobile design in :20
Introduction to mobile for designers
Prepared by Steven Hoober for User Centered Design at AII
2 November 2010
Elements, unless noted, shared under Creative Commons
Mobile-Intro Saved on 2 November 2010 at 11:28 PM Brand and format ©2010 Steven Hoober Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

2. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Web or App?
...or both? Wait, or a service? Or?
Utility: Web
• To reach the broadest audience, you need a mobile website.
• Apps require maintenance, can rarely be ported well or easily.
• Runs anywhere (customize if you want, though).
• Always has to be connected (for now).
Need: • Mercy or blessing of operators.
• Repeated use, deep information is an app.
• Quick hits, rare usage is an app. • Revenue models?
• Towtruck and accident apps are stupid. What do your users really need? • Google is powerful.
Marketability: App
• Even if free, apps are functionally products. If you have customers instead of
viewers, maybe an app is the way to go. Else, you are a website. • Platform dependent.
• Apps that are just installable websites are rejected by users. Be careful. • Always works.
Content: • Hardware access.
• Apps work offline. Websites must be connected. • Mercy or blessing of stores.
• But make sure your data is fresh.
• And app engines have limits on storage. How much data do you have?
• May have limited revenue models.
• Important to keep?
Availability:
• Watch the analytics. If getting lots of web traffic, make a website. Services
• How can people discover your app? They can get desktop, and pre app-store
platforms did fine. Can your website sell your apps?
• Network related (BBM) or super-universal (SMS).
• Low learning curve.
Cost: • Minimal ability to teach or discover.
• Mobile web is much cheaper (50-80% of a desktop site), including fitting to
multiple device types. • Viral, but only viral.
• Apps are much more expensive, and that’s per platform. Very, very, very few
app providers are making money in even Apple’s store.
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3. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Being a mobile designer
Ten or eleven things .
web designers .
need to know .
before going .
mobile .
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4. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
One
Live a mobile life
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5. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Two
Believe it’s a communications device
And a computer
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6. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Three
Use mobile analytics
Desktop web tools won’t cut it
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7. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Four
Know your platform
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8. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Five
Target the devices your users have
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9. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Six
Design for contexts of use
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10. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Seven
Understand the region and culture
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11. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Eight
Learn the implications of intermediaries
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12. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Nine
Use device
repositories
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13. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Ten
Send only what is needed
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14. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
Eleven
Design with rules and patterns
Not pixels
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15. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
What is mobile?
Everything
GPS
Navigational assistants
Navigation Digital
cameras
Navigator phones
Broadcast television
Television TV phones
TV phones
Message phones
Cameraphones
Film cameras
Camera phones
Photography
2-way paging Blackberry, etc.
Feature phones
Paging Alpha paging
Paging Everything phones
PCS Music phones
Music
phones
GSM PDA Game phones
Telephony phones
AMPS Smart phones
IMTS
Radiotelephony PDAs
Day planners
Calendars Portable gamers
Portable games
Gaming MP3 players
Portable music players
Music
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
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16. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
What is mobile?
Anything
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17. A
4ourth mobile design in twenty minutes Presentations
What is mobile?
Interactive
Personal
The new normal
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18. D
4ourth Mobile Design Documentation
Operating System Documentation
Join the mobile community
mobile patterns wiki
Visit www.4ourth.com/wiki/ to contribute to the design patterns, and to
add and view other mobile design tips and tools.
Elements, unless noted, shared under Creative Commons
Mobile-Intro Saved on 2 November 2010 at 11:28 PM Brand and format ©2010 Steven Hoober Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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