Newfangled Mobile Suite FAQs

It's been a very busy month since the launch of our new mobile suite. We've been having lots of conversations with clients about it, and now after a dozen or so web meetings under our belt, we've got a good sense of the FAQs our clients will have. Here's an overview of all these questions for anyone else out there curious about our mobile suite.

Will we have to maintain two sets of content: one for our main site, and another for our mobile site?

No. One of the greatest advantages to this mobile suite for our clients is that it's fully integrated into your main site. That means you enter content to the main site and it is reformatted into a mobile template. Once the mobile suite is installed, there's no additional work for our clients to upkeep content in the mobile environment.

How is this different from a mobile app?

While some of our clients have their sights set on building mobile apps, our mobile suite produces an optimized version of your site when someone navigates to it via a mobile browser. A mobile app tends to be an interactive application separate from the site itself.

Will I have mobile CMS access so I can edit my site on the go?

While we did create mobile access to select reports from your CMS Analytics Dashboard, we chose not to create mobile site editing capability. The likelihood of making a mistake in editing site content through a mobile device would be so high, the potential detriment would outweigh the potential benefit.

If a visitor goes to our site on an iPad, will they see the mobile version or the full site version?

By default, we're loading the mobile version for the iPad because they're designed with touchscreen interaction in mind. You will have some visitors on the iPad who prefer the full site version which is why we're including a link in the footer of any mobile site version that allows users to switch to the fill site, if they prefer.

What should we do about the flash on our site?

Flash is not supported on the iPhone or iPad and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon. Some of our clients have opted to ditch flash, even on their main site since its future is uncertain. Most of what ends up being built in flash (including video) can be easily recreated in javascript or HTML5, which will work on the iPhone/iPad. Plus, we can rebuild it in a way that ties into CMS access so you can easily edit images/text independently, which will reduce costs in the long term.

Will we go through formal prototyping and design phases for the mobile site?

As a general rule, we won't go through formal prototyping and design phases for mobile projects. There are unique constraints involved in adapting an existing site to a mobile version that make traditional prototyping less effective: the existing content from your main site, the dimensions of the mobile device interface, the connection speed/page load, the need for touch screen interactivity. We found that the best approach was to come up with a framework of requirements and objectives, and develop/design the mobile version in a more iterative process.

Will our mobile site work on Blackberry devices?

Our mobile sites are developed and designed for the Webkit platform,an open source web browser engine which has become the industry standard after it was adopted by both Apple and Google for their mobile devices. At this point, Blackberry  is not Webkit compliant, though it has been reported that the next OS release will be. Until that launch happens, we're officially supporting iPhone, iPad, Android based devices, and Google's Nexus One.

Will our monthly hosting costs increase when we add a mobile site?

No, the addition of the mobile platform will not add any monthly hosting costs for our existing clients.

How long does it take to build a mobile site?

From start to finish, mobile projects will be completed in 4-6 weeks.

Any other questions?

Please leave a comment and I'll be happy to post answers. If you're an existing or potential client interested in seeing a demo, contact us and we'll get back with you soon.