Splash Web Effects

I was looking at my iPhone the other day when I was in a particularly bad dead zone, and thought to myself “Wow, I don’t have much to do that’s not Internet-required”. Other than a few games and stanza, it appears most of my apps are simply an interface for a single website.

As I thought about the implications of this, I realized that the line separating webapps and desktop applications has blurred. I use mint.com to manage my finances, and facebook to manage my social circle. I use google docs to deal with my documents and gmail.com to manage my e-mail. All of it, since gmail can check other POP-enabled accounts.

Now, to look at it another way- there are many thousands of apps in the App Store in iTunes, but the Pre and Blackberry have disappointingly low figures. Of course, the iPhone has been around longer than the Pre, and it has a larger, more technically-capable cult of followers than the business-centric Blackberry, but the real reason is that developers simply haven’t had enough time to learn an entirely new SDK, and why would they want to?

The simple solution is to develop an application that is cross-device compatible- a webapp. Something they have only to fire up their browsers to get to, it increases the user base of your application to anyone with a portable connection. The roadblock? Session Management.

The biggest problem with the iPhone, Pre and Blackberry (less so with android phones, but a problem nonetheless) is that it can’t carry data past more than a few webpages. The choice to use a webapp is simple when you don’t have to login- you can store everything in the URL variable scope. When users have to access personal information, or verify their identity (for purchasing things perhaps?) the choice to use cookies, or session variables is one that is difficult to make. When you want your users to spend time using your site- increasing their exposure to your brand and maximizing revenue potential- you need to bite the bullet and write a device-specific application. When you only need to provide data in short bursts (like twitter, or meetways) you can afford to make a smaller, data-optimized version of your website.

So I’ve been meaning to learn to develop on the iPhone. I don’t really have an idea yet (or the drive to do it) so I haven’t resorted to such depths- but I will one day. A request however: Can we stop at 4 Smartphone brands? Nokia- don’t release an SDK. Motorola? Just use Android. The rest of you, please just leave it to the big four, CrackBerry, iPwned, Andy and now Palm’s bastard son- the new PalmOS**t.

Seriously, if there is anything I hate in this economic climate, it’s highly specialized resume fillers that don’t actually help anyone anywhere.

I could work on a Palm OS application for 6 month and get it out the door. I could make some cash or my company could give me a raise but when it’s time to move on(as us development types rarely get promoted, we just move on) I am stuck with this tidbit on my resume that not only no one wants, no one wants to pay me to have that skill. So I could leave it off the ol’ resume but then what if someone wants to pay me to do it?

Essentially, it’s a huge time-waster for a lot of developers- neat to say we did but honestly not worth the time and experience we could have gotten in something else.

That said- I would totally love to make smartphone web apps. Now if we can just get session management down- THOSE are the wave of the future.

With the release of so many smartphones on the market today that actually encourage web-surfing on the phone or PDA, a viable marketing strategy has emerged.

Launching a website that is not only touch-phone friendly but UI-specific can make your organization stand out as a large, professional, agile institution.

Remember, a globalized marketing strategy is greatly in the details and you are embarking on a venture that is inherently global. (This leads to a whole lot of minimalist design schemes…) Globalization is not only expressed as either segmenting your experience to locals, or creating an effective human-centered global strategy that transcends culture; it is a process that is open to the highest of critique and the biggest problems. You have to take into account taboo in hundreds of locations while continuing to maintain context-neutral messages.

But you back yourself into a corner here. Most people do not have the manpower to maintain either an intracate marketing strategy that maintains the power of globalization or the power to create individual web portals to deal with the entire world. Especially when you are not present in many of the markets you are advertising to(but don’t want to damage them as you hope to expand there one day).

The answer: Cross Device platforming, while maintaining static content. In many markets, your website is to be viewed on a device the size of the user’s hand. Many non-standard browser sizes and device limitations will neuter your ablity to speak to the individuals that may not even have a home computer to view your website on, or simply do not have time to pull up their laptop when they need to find someone nearby with your services.

The time is now, optimise your HTML and server-side languages to use multiple CSS sheets, then condition them to the browser, device type and size appropriate. This creates a manageable website where certain content can be hidden with things like display:none in some devices/locales and can be shown in others.

When designing such an interface: rememeber what your users are trying to do most of the time on mobile devices. They are looking for directions, to buy something and pick it up on the way, they are looking for relavant times or reviews of your services. They aren’t looking to load a lot of copy or any high-definition pictures, remember to K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple, Stupid.