The Web is dead, long live the mobile Web!

At 16 Interactive, we live and breathe websites, so when a change as big as this sits on the horizon, we get quite excited. The next twelve months will see some epic changes for the online world, with gesture and voice controlled browsing already available to consumers.

2012 is not only the end of the Mayan calendar, but more importantly for us, it’s the year when more people worldwide will access the web via a mobile device than a PC.

According to research by Gartner; “By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide”.

With the new 4G mobile network currently being trialled in the UK, and rollout commencing as soon as 2013, mobile internet speeds are expected to be faster than the current average UK broadband connection, and up to six times faster than the current 3G service, according to a Financial Times press release from Everything Everywhere (Orange and T Mobile).

What does this mean?

This means that if your business targets consumers, a mobile website should be top of your agenda for 2012, and to get on-board with the mobile revolution, there are a few different scenarios to consider.

At the moment, there are three main types of website in this context:

1. Standard, fixed-width websites (like the one you are reading this post on)
2. Responsive, adaptive, “fluid” websites (like this one)
3. Dedicated mobile websites like this one (our mobile site)

Below, we explain in some more detail why these different types of website are so important, and how things are shifting…

Fixed-width websites

As you read these words, look to the left or right of the screen – is there a large empty white space at each side?

If the answer is yes, then you are in the majority and fortunate enough to have a modern, high resolution screen. However the issue is that rather than looking at a website which shows you everything you need to see in one place, this wasted space means that you need to scroll. What would be better is a site that stretches-out and adapts to fill the screen that you have, so that everything is displayed above the fold and there is no need to scroll.

A fixed-width website

Why not just make the site bigger if most people have larger screens? For the time being, there are still a considerable number of people who use smaller screens, who would then need to scroll left and right to view the content. Plus, with lots of new mobile devices such as iPods, tablets, and smartphones on the market now (and selling like hot cakes) using various smaller screen sizes, we can’t reduce usability for what is a growing sector of the market.

Fixed width websites are fast becoming obsolete, because they don't pander to all of the different screen sizes and devices now in use, and instead provide a layout that is limited by them.

Fluid websites

We have been researching these for over a year now and have built a few in the meantime. The Loire Valley Uncorked site does something rather clever (well two things actually):

A fluid website layout

First, it stretches and morphs itself, and the content within it, to completely fill whatever screen size you have, so that you don’t need to scroll unless you are looking at a large page of content such as a blog.

Second, it also realises when you are looking at the site from a mobile device and then reduces the file sizes of the images used on the site (handy for slower mobile data speeds), substitutes the main navigation for finger-friendly buttons, and stacks the content to make it very easy for viewing on a phone or tablet.

You can test this for yourself now by looking at the Loire Valley Uncorked site, resizing your browser window into a thin column, and then pressing F5.

Dedicated mobile sites

Using a technique called browser sniffing, a website can detect what device you are using to access it, and then serve up a specific type of website depending on the requirements of that device.

If you access this website on your PC or Mac, you’ll see the version you’re looking at now. However, if you view it from your smartphone, you’ll be redirected to a mobile optimised version of the site, which has been enhanced for viewing on a mobile with:

1. Click to call – a handy feature allowing you to touch the phone number and let your phone call us with a single touch.
2. Finger-friendly navigation – large, finger-sized buttons make it easy (even for those afflicted with sausage-fingers) to navigate through the site.
3. Google Maps – with most smartphones pre-installed with Google Maps (or equivalent) this allows people to see us on a map, and get directions to find their way to our offices within a single click

While our mobile site is around a year old now (so somewhat out of date), it does give you a basic idea of what a mobile site can do, and there is a new one in the pipeline for Q1 this year.

There is more to consider than just navigation though – the majority of mobile operating systems do not support Flash, and will struggle with high-res images and multimedia, so having a lightweight mobile-optimised site is currently important.

However, with increasingly powerful mobile devices, and mobile data speeds soon to out-pace current broadband, it’s inevitable that desktop multimedia capability is coming to handsets and tablets very soon.

More information

If you’d like to find out more, just give us a call, and we can discuss the best options for you. It’s not a one-size-fits-all scenario and sometimes you might not (yet) see a return on the investment by upgrading your site to this level of tech, depending on your website, content and target market.

Most people will, but we’re not going to sell you a white elephant either – we want to help your business so you stick with us well into the future, so we aren’t going to sell you something you don’t need, just for the sake of it.

To leave you with some inspiration, and give you an idea of just what a mobile site or web app can currently offer; check out the Financial Times’ website on your smartphone.