When I made the decision a few weeks ago to purchase a tablet I started to do some preliminary research.  To that point in time, I really hadn’t investigated what was available. Sure, I’d heard about the e-reading manufacturers branching out in to the mobile browsing market, but I wasn’t quite sure to what extent.

What I found I really surprised me. There were no fewer than 12 seemingly good options from a hardware standpoint that were available.  This got me to thinking about how we, as the web and software development industry, will deal with the explosion of available devices that should be accounted for from both a technical and strategic standpoint.

Do we test against Amazon’s Kindle Fire Browser? If so, how do we account for the upgrade that will be released mid-way through a project? I would think that they’ll be enough browser versions, hardware types, and screen sizes to make all of our heads spin.

I’m not sure that the businesses we serve have fully adapted to the explosion in HTML browser compatible smart phones yet. Now they need to be budgeting for design and testing considerations for screens ranging in size from 3 to over 10 inches in size as well? What a challenge awaits our industry, along with the marketing industry, as we go through these changes!

For the time being, I suppose that we’ll all do our best to identify key systems and audiences like we always have, we’ll just have to broaden our view of what the possible answers could be. It probably won’t be so simple as to account for iPhone, Blackberry, and Android devices any longer. You’d have to expect that budgets will be raised to account for these key users and their respective platforms. 2012 is going to be an interesting year for our industry and I am excited to see how these changes affect the way in which we approach our work.

And…for the record, I did end up going with the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I’ve had good luck with the Android platform to date, although the app selection does seem to be a little less well-developed than the iPad offerings, but I’ll save that for another post on another day.

Merry Christmas Everyone and happy Tablet-ing!

The first step in understanding the differences in strategy between the two is to understand the difference between a mobile website and a
“mobile friendly” website.

“Mobile Friendly” websites on the other hand, utilize traditional web design, but are developed in such a way that they will display accurately on a mobile device. In this way, the website will work on a mobile device, but because of the difference in the size of the display area, the user must manipulate the site to find the information they seek.

Because of this difference in display size, and the poor user experience it can create, a best practice is to account for the mobile user while design your website. This specialized mobile interface is customized to the smaller display areas of mobile devices and is automatically loaded when a user visits your site via a mobile device.

In order to make maximum the use of the smaller display area, while ensuring the smoothest user experience, you should streamline the immediately available information within the mobile design. This is probably done shortening the navigation of the site.

Another difference between a traditional website made to be ‘mobile friendly’ and a truly mobile website, is the bandwidth, and subsequent load times, of a mobile device. With this consideration in mind, you should also look to limit the size and quality of the images you select. Smaller, less high resolution images load faster and, due to the smaller overall display, look no different than their traditional (full high resolution coupled with large display area) counterparts.

Combine all three of these techniques and you’ll have a good looking, fast loading, and easy to navigate version of your website that caters to the mobile user. This leads to a positive user experience and an increased awareness of your company and your products or services.

Let’s take a quick look at Panera Bread as an example. The first photo below is of their traditional website. Large high resolution images highlight a full featured website with a full navigation system. This works splendidly in a traditional desktop environment where a high speed connection
and full display is readily available.

This second photo from Panera Bread is of their mobile website interface. As you can see, they shortened the navigation system and made use of smaller images. This causes the site to load faster, while presenting users with specific information that a mobile user might be looking for. The end result is a great case study on understanding the differences between traditional and mobile environments.

While growing up just outside of Detroit, Michigan, Gary Galvin had a close relationship with grandmother.  She also happened to suffer from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Even as a child, Gary could see the pain and suffering this brought on his grandmother. At the time, there just wasn’t much that could be done to counteract the effects this debilitating disease.

Fast forward 20 some odd years, when Gary had become a successful business owner an a outgoing member of the Indianapolis business community. It was then that Gary’s own mother was also diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. At first, this was terrible news, leaving Gary to think back to the effects the disease had on his grandmother and fearing that those same effects would now burden his mother as well.

After talking a little bit more with his mother and her doctor, however, Gary learned that advances in drugs and treatment methods over the previous 20 years had significantly reduced the footprint that Rheumatoid Arthritis took from people’s lives. This advancement, in large part, could be attributed to the work of the National Arthritis Foundation.

It was then that Gary decided to make a commitment to the Arthritis Foundation and went so far as to join the board for the Indianapolis Branch of the organization. As a member of the board, Gary was exposed to many of the fundraising events that the Arthritis Foundation put on each year. One new event in particular caught Gary’s eye. The Jingle Bell Run was scheduled for early December and was intended to be a fun filled, festive, 5k run/walk, full of the holiday spirit.

When the need arose for a website that would help the Arthritis Foundation market this new event, Gary was happy to donate the design and development of the website for the initial Jingle Bell Run. That initial commitment continues today. It has become a July tradition for the Arthritis Foundation staff to come to the Galvin offices for lunch, while noting what aspects of the site will be revised for that particular year’s event.

With the 2010 event raising just over $50,000 for the research and development of treatments for arthritis, the Indy Jingle Bell Run has continued to grow over the last 4 years and is now one of the largest Indianapolis Arthritis Foundation events of the year, as well as, one of the top Jingle Bell Run events for the National Arthritis Foundation. Even today, the Indy Jingle Bell Run website is the only dedicated marketing website that any regional Arthritis Foundation has and is the envy of Jingle Bell Run event coordinators nationwide.

Galvin Technologies’ commitment to the Arthritis Foundation has also continued to grow. In 2009 my own father was diagnosed with RA. I, much like Gary, hated to see a loved one be limited in the things that they enjoyed doing. As a result, my wife and I joined the event planning committee as the Logistics and Planning Coordinators for the 2010 event.

I can tell you firsthand that event is growing and the magic of the holiday season really makes it something special. There is nothing quite like hearing Christmas carols echo off the downtown Indianapolis skyline just before as the race starts, only to have them be drowned out by the ring of complimentary jingle bells that the 4,000 participants each tie to their shoes. It is that moment that makes all of the time and effort that we put towards the event so very worth it.

For more information on the Jingle Bell Run, please visit www.indyjinglebellrun.com . You can register for the event here. For more information on the Jingle Bell Run or on Galvin’s continuing efforts to enhance the Indianapolis Community, please give us a call.

Now, what does this really mean to someone who does not necessarily manage projects every day? In short, a deliverable is any officially documented information that is critical to the end product of the project. For example, consider the screenshots of a potential new homepage design or the list of things that your organization knows that the new mobile application needs to have. A deliverable is these types of information that contain documented traits that are crucial to the end product.

Now that we’ve highlighted what a deliverable is, it’s important to understand exactly how many deliverables are available for a given project. Sometimes this can be tricky as the types of deliverables critical to a project is dependent upon the industry you are working within. Take that space shuttle that is one day bound for Mars for example, that project is so large that it’s likely to be broken down into many smaller projects…each of which might have 1000′s of deliverables.

As you might guess, producing deliverables takes time and we all understand that time is money. If you connect all of the dots, you’ll start to understand why NASA spends an average of $450 million dollars per mission….it all comes back to the number of deliverables (tangible documents that are critical to the end product) that are required to complete a project.

Luckily, it’s not likely that a web site or web application project will require 1000′s of deliverables or a 450 million dollar budget, but the analogy still works. Identifying which deliverables are crucial to your end product and, conversely which are not crucial to achieving project success within the most cost effective budget structure possible.

The process of indentifying which deliverables are included and excluded is called “tailoring” and relies heavily on experience within managing similar projects successfully. Galvin has successfully completed all kinds of projects, from complex Insurance Rating Software Packages to the simplest of websites. This helps to ensure that the deliverables produced are the right ones for your project, ultimately delivering a superior product at the lowest cost.

For more information on the concept and types of deliverables or on how to better select which ones are the right ones for your project, please give us a call. We’d love to chat more.

The article discussed the influence that frivolous design can have in a time where people are cutting back on many things they once thought were a necessity.  Expensive furnishings, extravagant tech-toys, and limited editions are still respected, but omitted by the consumer… and designers’ responsibilities will now focus on client goals rather then their own.

A reader from the aforementioned article commented about his friend’s job designing dashboard instruments for General Motors. His friend had designed a speedometer that worked great at night, but was practically unusable in bright daylight.  He had said to his friend, “a great deal of time and effort has been expended to develop instruments which can be read easily and accurately under all conditions. Why don’t you put one of those in the new cars?” And his friend replied, “if we put the best possible speedometer in the cars today, what are we going to do for next year?”

I wasn’t surprised with this reply. Yes, businesses walk a fine line between providing the latest and greatest products, while at the same time withholding certain advancements to maintain a long term product line-up. Companies will always have their priorities, but designers should have theirs as well. Designers need to make sure the client knows what they are investing in will make their brand strong for years to come.

I believe the future of web design can be this bright. Ms. Arieff stated in her article that designers should aim for longer use and fewer materials. In my opinion, in this economy it also holds true for web development. While we might not build with raw materials, we do however build with ideas that shape what the end result will be. The product needs to be strategically planned for the long run; a website that exudes the brand, is communicating the goal and is easily updated.

BuyAMeter

Smart design has now become a priority because it’s quick and to the point; allowing the user to have their experience and move on with their day. BuyAMeter.org is one example in the article which I believe she used to show design has its purpose no-matter what state the economy is in, and purhaps even more critical in its current state. This site has one goal; awareness. The goal is reached by the design and functionality working together. The newspaper visually represents the information and also is a cue on how to navigate the site. The content provides an interesting point-of-view and informs the user within seconds. This site is not functionally expensive, it has no chrome, but does its job; leaving a lasting impression on the user.

Not every site is able to be as conceptually engaging, especially with consumer-based sites. No matter what the final soultion is or what the goals are, the process is the same. Web design isn’t a question of form over function; it is a question of using form to propel the function. As graphic designers our “purposeful pursuits” will be to produce something that is built to last.