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mobile web

Best Practices: Travel Websites and Mobile

by David Janes on August 29, 2009

Introduction

This guest post is about how to create a website specifically created and optimized for people using the Internet from mobile phones.

To make sure this is perfectly clear, we’ll be talking about two different sites: your “normal” website (e.g. www.example.com) and your “mobi” site (e.g. m.example.com). Your website is what one would normally see on the Internet, your mobi site is something that you’re explicitly using for mobile devices

Why am I doing a mobi site?

Because there’s a lot of travelers using smartphones, there’s going to be a lot more in the future, and they’re visiting to spend money:

  • Nearly 70 percent of frequent business travelers have a smartphone somewhere on their person (link)
  • 1 in 7 computer owners currently own a smartphone (link)
  • over 40% percent of consumers will make their next mobile phone a smartphone (link)
  • more than three quarters of smartphone owners said that they will either be planning or taking a trip in the next 6 months (link)
  • smartphone owners demographically skew wealthy (link)
  • as of January 2009, there are about 18m iPhones and about 13.6 iPod Touches in use (link)
  • iPhone and BlackBerry sales are expected to increase 25% this year (link)

What is the emphasis of your mobi site?

In-destination, the emphasis of a mobile site should not be marketing: the user is sold, they’re there. Instead, it should be to rapidly allow users to navigate to information they’re interested in consuming in the most convenient possible way.

This means:

  • allow users to quickly see navigation items in the most obvious way possible
  • present location information based on proximity (if GPS is available)
  • present event information based on date.

IMHO concepts such as “the entertainment district” may have to become de-emphasized as this is an organizational unit more suitable to the printed page than mobile devices.

Page size and features

Page load speed is as critical as possible. This is true in the web browser world too, but in mobile:

  • minimize JavaScript, as there’s probably not a lot of value in clever browser tricks or the CPU cycles to do it.
  • minimize page size, as that corresponds to time-to-download and also cost to the user. In any case, do not exceed 25K for a page (why)
  • put CSS and JS in separate files to optimize caching
  • minimize images. 0 is a good number; 1 is OK; 2 is too many. It goes without saying that any images should be small both in dimensions and bytes.

Since the traveler is likely not to be using their normal carrier, they’ll appreciate the effort.

Which devices?

Test your mobi site on a BlackBerry and on an iPhone (here’s why). If it looks decent on those, it’s probably at least tolerable on lesser devices.

The relationship between your Mobi site and your website.

When a mobile browser reaches your normal website, you have several options:

  • use CSS to make your normal website look good a mobile browser
  • automatically redirect users to your mobile site
  • prominently display a link to your mobile site

You should probably do the first option anyway, but this is not sufficient for creating a compelling mobile experience, as you really want travelers to see your mobile optimized site. Either of the other two options are good, with my preference being the “display a link” option, as users may still want to reach content that is only available on your normal website.

Detection of whether the user is reaching your site via mobile browser can be done “server side” (in the website code) or “client side” (using Javascript). My preference is the first.

If a user reaches your mobile site from a non-mobile web browser (i.e. from their computer) there’s no need to do anything special. You probably should have a link from your normal website to your mobi site somewhere anyway.

Domain Names

You have two good options for a domain name for your mobi website:

  • m.example.com
  • example.mobi

My preference is the first. Note that you should always register your .mobi name so that someone else doesn’t. You should redirect the user’s browser from the unused one to the correct one.

iPhone and BlackBerry Applications

Places with large event calendars, many properties or listings, or many visitors should consider developing custom iPhone and BlackBerry applications. This will:

  • provide a superior experience to what is achievable in a mobile web browser
  • reduce dependence on having an Internet connection in order to be able to achieve tasks
  • provide “wow” factor
  • enhance loyalty, the chances of repeat visits, and create word of mouth

I am not a neutral party in this recommendation.  My company, Discover Anywhere Mobile creates iPhone, BlackBerry and mobi websites for DMOs, CVBs, festivals, events, conferences, etc.. Our website explains our mobile web services in detail.

Conclusions

  • every travel website should strongly considering having a mobi website companion
  • that mobi website should be developed especially for the needs and limitations of mobile devices
  • the emphasis of mobi website should be user experience in-destination, not marketing
  • larger organizations should consider apps

Please feel free to leave comments below, or follow me on Twitter at @dpjanes.

This post originally appeared on the Discover Anywhere Mobile blog.

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Reflections on the Mobile Web and Travel

by Todd Lucier on August 6, 2009

Mobile Access will be on Most Handhelds

  • Forrester (July 2009) predicts that by 2013 there will be 2.2 billion Internet users in the world.
  • Cell phone users generally upgrade their phones every 18 months, and virtually all new Cell phones are Web enabled .
  • Research also shows mobile internet access is growing rapidly. 13% of Western European consumers (source: Forrester, July 2009) and 23% of American consumers (source: Pew Research, April 2009) enjoy access the internet on their mobile device.

Web access not used by all Travelers

Accessing the internet on a mobile device when abroad is still expensive. However, mobile phone operators are slowly lowering roaming fees.  The cost of accessing the Web on a phone is expected to continue to decline, just as the cost of making cell phone calls has fallen.

Adapting to Mobile

  • Use fewer images for a Handheld version of your site than the desktop/laptop version. This makes them much faster to use, and cheaper when used while roaming abroad.
  • Provide “Here and Now” focused content that the traveler may be accessing from within your community.
  • Make sure your phone number is front and center on every page of your site which makes it easier for a handheld user to contact you.
  • Link to Google Maps which works seamlessly with GPS / Google Maps-enabled phones such as Apple iPhone, or Google Android devices.
  • respond quickly to inquiries!  The average response time to inquires in the travel industry is a dismal 30+ hours.  In the era of the always connected digital traveler make efforts to respond to inquiries in a timely manner or risk giving business to your digitally savvy competitors.

What are your thoughts on adapting to Mobile?

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