developing a mobile strategy alex richards & rachel wetherall 1 st november 2011
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Developing a Mobile Strategy Alex Richards & Rachel Wetherall 1 st November 2011. Why mobile?. Learners and staff are increasingly making use of Smartphones For the foreseeable future, we anticipate our internal web-based systems will be the primary route to interact with our data. However… - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Developing a Mobile StrategyAlex Richards & Rachel Wetherall1st November 2011
Why mobile?
Learners and staff are increasingly making use of Smartphones
For the foreseeable future, we anticipate our internal web-based systems will be the primary route to interact with our data. However…
Analytics show us that, during the last three months, 4.8% of visits to our public website (which has no mobile version) were from Smartphones
Part of the anytime-anywhere learning culture
Why mobile?
Lots of users are coming via iPad, but our existing sites work acceptably there (but in the future we hope to enhance where possible)
For staff, smartphones will have very specific uses that will supplement our full websites. e.g. trips and residentials, attendance capture, employer-site assessors
For students, smartphones will have broader uses that should encourage engagement, interaction and ultimately support learning
Our plan
December 2011: Launch pilot mobile ‘Columbus’ site for staff
Summer 2012: Launch pilot mobile site for students
September 2012: Launch full mobile site for staff
Autumn 2012: Develop mobile attendance capture
Apps vs Mobile Websites
Apps:
Arguably provide a better user interface.
Require multiple versions for iOS, Blackberry, Android etc.
Mobile websites:
Less polished user interface, BUT improvements likely around HTML 5
Significantly less work to support multiple types of device
Pilot Project
Using Information Interface Web Client
Hosted on an internal IIS server, using a reverse proxy to make it available to the outside world
Initial testing on iOS and Android devices
Basic Columbus-like functionality
Initial Design Mock-up
Creating the site
Using II Web Edition to build individual pages
A combination of reportlistviews (core reports), Reporting Services reports, buttons and panels
Creating the site
Test on multiple devices
Test with real users and on real tasks
Lessons learnt
Still early days, but:
Navigation and screen design is vital
Once you know what’s possible with the tools, revisit the design/structure to make sure you make the most of the technology
Needs gestures support and full screen mode to begin to feel app-like
The future
Gestures support for swiping between navigation sections will make a big difference to usability
More use of Reporting Services (performance implications)
Considering social media integration
Exploring the use of advanced smartphone hardware, e.g. GPS, audio, camera etc.
The future
Starting to consider how we develop beyond our Columbus system (which was fully written in-house) which is starting to show its age. Possibility for an IIWE based future?
Questions…