Mobile Development Challenges and Strategies

1. Mobile DevelopmentChallenges and Strategies SSP Fall Seminar – Digital Opportunities and Challenges November 11, 2009 Alex Kim Manager, Web Product Development Web Strategy & Innovation ACS Publications pubs.acs.org

2. Overview • Challenges • Strategies • What ACS is doing – JACSβ pubs.acs.org

3. Challenges pubs.acs.org

4. Challenge #1: Authentication Recognized Institution Wi-Fi on institution’s campus X Mobile Service Provider Full Text Article Access Denied: I.P. Address not recognized pubs.acs.org

5. Challenge #1: Authentication Possible Solutions? • Make full text free via mobile app • Need to be careful that there isn’t a way to beat the system • Will it impact institutional usage and subscriptions? • Create a new authentication model • Something like Shibboleth • Periodic binding of a device to an institution • Again, need to be careful that there isn’t a way to beat the system • Digital Rights Management • Hope for the best • Maybe institutions will widely adopt VPN solutions • Maybe a standard authentication methodology will emerge pubs.acs.org

6. Challenge #2: Analytics • Most mobile usage will not be connected to a known entity • Even if mobile usage is from a known identity, depending on the approach you take and how things work on the back-end, it may be difficult to consolidate mobile usage into your existing analytics system. Can you stay COUNTER compliant? Solutions • IT creates back-end consolidation • Base your mobile delivery on the existing web platform pubs.acs.org

7. Challenge #3: Presentation/Behavior • Tables and equations • Multimedia • Audio/Video takes some work, but is definitely doable • Real challenges are things like 3D crystallographic structures • Other device constraints • Navigation scheme • Dynamic, JavaScript-driven features won’t work on many devices pubs.acs.org

8. Challenge #4: Keeping Up with Devices Android iPhone/iPod Touch BlackBerry Symbian (Nokia) Nook FAKE! Palm Pre/webOS Kindle The new Apple iTablet pubs.acs.org

9. Challenge #4: Keeping Up with Devices Is the iPhone/iPod Touch really the platform to target right now? • Well over 50 million iPhones and iPod Touches sold • Not the highest market share in terms of units sold (~15% of smartphones worldwide), but highest in terms of actual usage Published March, 2009 http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10184805-37.html

10. Strategy pubs.acs.org

11. Three General Approaches (not mutually exclusive) • Target “everyone” / Do it quickly Create mobile stylesheets alone • Development Environment: Same as website • Content: HTML is unchanged • Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit mobile browser • Target “everyone” / Do it better Create a separate mobile site or web apps • Development Environment: Same as website • Content: HTML is changed to suit mobile screens • Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit mobile browser • Target specific devices / Do it best Create mobile apps • Development Environment: Different from website and different between platforms • Content: Depends on the approach • Presentation/Behavior: Changed to fit the device’s user interface pubs.acs.org

12. Create Mobile Stylesheets Benefits • Wide reach • Speed of deployment • Ease of deployment • Ease of iteration • Low cost • Low maintenance What is involved? • Make small edits to the metadata of your web pages • Mobile devices get recognized and are served a mobile-specific stylesheet • HTML remains unchanged Drawbacks • Limited by the HTML that’s used on the website • May need to choose between: • Reaching a wider audience with fewer features • Catering to a smaller audience with more features pubs.acs.org

13. Create a Mobile Site or Web Apps Benefits • Wide reach • Better user experience than stylesheets alone • More flexible for different devices What is involved? • Create a new system or sub-system for content delivery • Significant back-end development required • Create new templates and stylesheets specific to mobile delivery • May even want to have different stylesheets and templates for specific devices Drawbacks • Significant development • Higher cost • Requires some maintenance • Limiting the audience a bit pubs.acs.org

14. Create Mobile Apps Benefits • Potentially the best possible user experience • Can be monetized in new ways What is involved? • Develop device-specific applications • Significant back-end development required • More complex front-end development required as well Drawbacks • May require higher cost than mobile site creation • Limited to specific platforms • Requires proactive advertising, unlike the website pubs.acs.org

15. flickr Regular Website • View pictures/video • Upload pictures/video • Organize sets and collections • Batch operations • Comments, Tagging, Geotagging • The list goes on... pubs.acs.org

16. flickr Mobile Website • View photos/videos • No uploads • No organizing • Commenting, but no tagging • View pictures taken nearby pubs.acs.org

17. flickr iPhone App • View photos/videos • Upload photos/videos • No organizing • Commenting, but no tagging • Can’t view pictures taken nearby • Actually a little bit harder to navigate than the mobile website pubs.acs.org

18. Know Your Customers’ Needs • End user testing • Focus groups • Unsolicited feedback (Help Desk) pubs.acs.org

19. What is JACS Beta? • Testing ground for the ACS Publications website • A place to quickly test concepts and gain feedback from end users pubs.acs.org

20. Mobilize, Don’t Miniaturize “Mobile users operate in a very different usage context than PC users, and providing them with an experience customized to their needs is likely to be the best service you can offer to them.” Dominique Hazaël-Massieux “Return of the Mobile Stylesheet” A List Apart (alistapart.com) pubs.acs.org

21. JACS Beta Mobile TOC AssumptionUsers on mobile devices have a different goal than users on “normal” computers (desktops/laptops). We believe they primarily want to browse the latest research to stay up to date and not necessarily read entire articles while on the go. Limitation Unless users are connected via wi-fi on an institution’s campus, they are not IP-authenticated to access the full text of articles. Approach In this project we provide a way for users to easily browse through content, mark articles they are interested in reading the full text of, and then save those articles to a private repository. pubs.acs.org

22. Live Demo of Mobile TOC Project http://pubs.acs.org/jacsbeta/mobile Primarily targets the most advanced mobile browsers found on the iPhone/iPod Touch, Palm Pre, and Android phones. Also works on any phone that has the free Opera Mini browser installed, though it’s not as nice of a user experience. pubs.acs.org

23. Step 1: Log In • Log in with ACS ID is required in order to get the full functionality • Allows you to attach articles to your profile via the Favorite Articles mechanism that exists on the site pubs.acs.org

24. Step 2: Browse the TOC • Scroll down the page to view all of the articles • Abstracts are hidden by default, but can be shown by tapping on “View Abstract” link pubs.acs.org

25. Step 3: Select Articles of Interest • Click the checkboxes of articles you are interested in reading the full text of pubs.acs.org

26. Step 4: Add the Articles to Your List of Favorites • After checking all of the articles you’re interested in, navigate to the top or bottom of the TOC, and click on the big blue button that reads “Add selected articles to list of Favorites” pubs.acs.org

27. Step 5: Articles Are Saved in Favorite Content List • After clicking Save to Favorites button, you are taken to your Favorite Content list, and the beta project is complete. You are now on the normal ACS Publications website, which is not yet optimized for mobile display. • Now you can log in on a normal computer, go to your Favorite Content list, and view the full text of the selected articles. • Advantages of using your normal computer: • Easier to read • IP-authenticated • Ability to print pubs.acs.org

28. Thank You Alex Kim Manager, Web Product Development Web Strategy & Innovation ACS Publications pubs.acs.org