Friday, July 02, 2010

Mobilizing Me

When I launched my new-look brand late last year, I had a list of goals that I'd wanted to accomplish. One goal at the top of my list was to create a mobile version of my site which would allow me to quickly display my work when on the go.

Even though most modern smartphone browsers can display a full-featured website without many issues, I think the user experience could be improved. The way people interact with touch-screen devices is much different than the point and click method that we've know for years. This is differnt, more intimate, more tactile (even for a digital medium).

Mobile just means smaller, right?
I'm a believer in the mobile platform and the future that it has for both creators and consumers of digital content. We're entering into a new era of user experience, and some changes are in order.

With mobile, you're dealing with a whole new way of thinking. Designing for traditional PCs (Windows, Mac, Linux, you name it) has always relied on the use of three things: a monitor, a keyboard, and a pointing device (mouse, trackball/pad, what-have-you). With the latest trend in mobile devices, these separate units have morphed into a more compact space. Devices running Android, the iPhone OS and other touch-screen reliant systems are changing the way people interact with their chosen content.

Designing a mobile site for point-and-click use won't work. Let me rephrase that, it will work but the experience isn't as great as it could be. The contact points are small and usually, there is too much content crammed into a compact space, so you're left to zoom in and out to find what you're looking for. This is what I wanted to avoid when building my mobile site.

What stays and what goes?
With many of the distractions stripped away in a mobile site, you can put your content "under the microscope" and focus heavily on it. The question is, what do you keep and what do you leave off? You don't necessarily need to transfer every bit of content from your standard site over to your mobile site, but that's up to you. It also depends on the size of your site. With the mobile sites I've done in the past, I relied heavily on the usage stats from the traditional site. What content were people consuming using mobile devices? Once I had a clear understanding of what people wanted, I began building the mobile counterparts.

This mobile site is different. For starters, I don't have a lot of content categories, so everything that's on my standard site would fit on a mobile version. Secondly, I've designed my mobile site with certain goals in mind, namely the ability to show my work, contact info, and articles quickly and at any time I choose. That settled it, I threw everything I had into this site. Literally.

Another fresh start.
Mobile Web sites are relatively new and with the wide array of devices that can view them, there are many new ways to conceptualize a site and how people can view it. I see room for experimentation in the navigation and presentation areas of a mobile layout. It takes me back to my time in college when anything was possible and the Internet had yet to be tamed. Fast forward a few years and there is even more ground to be broken in this area. This is my sandbox, and I'm bringing all of my toys. Without further introduction, I give you m.tiglu.com.

I've already started working on version two.