Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com

Now that most everyone has a smart phone or tablet, the importance of a mobile site (a layout of your website pages that is designed to work within the smaller screen) is paramount to a good user experience when accessing your web presence. There are many different ways to approach mobile site design, but to limit the amount of time it requires to build an environment that works with all mobile devices can be achieved by using a mobile framework. Here are a few that I have worked with and find useful:

jQuery Mobile, from the developers that make jQuery this is a awesome framework that has hooks for everything mechanically that needs to happen for a mobile web app.

Kendo UI, from the folks at Telerik, uses jQuery, but has its own set of methods that handle page navigation and components.

jQTouch, an open source alternative to the ones above while still using jQuery for its smarts.

Any of these are great to work with, however they do have a learning curve as you figure out how they perform actions and what works best with various platforms.

While these are all based on jQuery there are many others that utilize their own code libraries to develop against.
I prefer jQuery because of my experience with it, what do you find useful or use?

I have written blog posts before about the wonders of Frameworks, which are extensions created by the internet community to help other coders handle common tasks. There are many different types for each of the various flavors of programming languages. As far as choosing the best, its mostly a personal choice of which offers solutions to common tasks that you perform and that make sense to you. I would like to highlight one that I recently became aware of and have been some what intrigued by the development team that created it. Kendo UI, they have three sections to their framework which is an extension of jQuery, a javascript framework (standing on the backs of giants comes to mind).The three sections are Web, Mobile, and DataViz. Web is a set of useful interfaces like calendars, lists and data handlers just to name a few. Mobile is a complete set of utilities that allow you to generate mobile interfaces that appear and function like native apps. DataViz is a group of interfaces that display data in columns, grids, charts and gauges. If you aren’t familiar with this framework, take a look at it and use it in your next project. Great stuff!

What frame works do you use or have looked at that you find intriguing?

Today is the day…maybe. Tech blogger and Apple stalkers alike are waiting “calmly” for the launch of the iPad 3. Details of its new features (or at least wide-spread speculation) have been leaked across the internet for a few weeks now. High-definition zoom, the disappearance of the home button and the appearance of Siri, iPhone’s own personal assistant, are rumored to headline the new iPad. These are fairly modest upgrades if you ask me, but I’m certain they will fly off virtual and actual shelves.

So…are you going to be first in line to purchase the iPad 3 or are you going to hold out for a discounted iPad 2? Me, I sold my first generation iPad after two months of exploration. I have nothing against Apple – I’m actually a big fan. I do, however, own an iPhone and Mac Book Pro. While I do think an iPad (1, 2 or 3) would be great for watching movies when I’m traveling or assisting me in the kitchen when I’m attempting a new recipe, I can’t bring myself to own an Apple mobile device, tablet and laptop. Granted, I do miss playing Angry Birds on a larger screen.

I am fascinated with people, including certain Willow employees, who purchase anything and everything “new” Apple releases (or just tells consumers to buy). It truly is a testament to the company’s innovative core and marketing expertise. So, while I won’t be purchasing an iPad anytime soon, I will continue to enjoy my iPhone and Mac Book Pro while I enjoy watching and listening to others gawk over the iPad 3. No matter what, it will be new to someone.

Think Different, all.

If only we could count the number of times we’ve heard, “We know what our ___(insert target audience)___ wants from us.” Do you? Ever heard that expression, “When you assume, you make an a** out of u and me.”~ Oscar Wilde

Five years ago I didn’t have a facebook or twitter account, Google was not something I visited multiple times a day, and purchasing a smart phone was out of the question.  I thought a phone’s purpose was simply to allow me to chat anytime, any place and my little Samsung with its 12 keys did the job.  Today my iPhone is practically a limb. I text, tweet, mobile upload photos to facebook and occasionally still talk on my “phone”, although it is really a computer the size of a phone.  My point is, you can teach an old dog new tricks and if one were assuming my communication preferences were the same as they were five years ago, because a database indicated that I like to be called, one would be very wrong.  These are just my qualitative observations, but research shows that times are changing.

According to Nielsen, by 2011, US smartphone users will catch and surpass feature phone users. This means that around 50% of current mobile subscribers will shift to smartphones. What does that mean for marketers? It means access to multiple communication channels (text, e-mail, social media, websites, and the good old fashion phone) from one handheld device. But how do you ensure that you reach your target audience through those channels?

Step one in becoming savvier marketers is recognizing and accepting that your target audience is fickle. Their behaviors are ever changing and to remain relevant you’ll continually need to use qualitative and quantitative research to gain insight about your audience, your competitors and the marketplace that we all live in.

Step two in becoming savvier marketers is recognizing that as marketers continually saturate all these channels, consumers will become weary from their methods. For this very reason you need to continually pay attention to your target audience’s preferences, what your competitors are doing and what innovation is available in the marketplace.

Bottom line – don’t assume anything. Testing and research is key.

I have to admit, I’m not a fan of the “all online” “go paperless” “exclusively digital” revolution I’m living in. Going green is great, but I like when things are tangible. I like making a list of tasks for the day and crossing everything off – nothing beats the satisfaction of finishing that tough job, and scratching it out on the To Do list. It’s the perfect icing on the cake.

Call me old school, but I like a folder I can hold in my hand instead of lost in cyber space, a phone number dialed from memory not automatically from my contacts list, and edits written on the page in red pen (gasp!) instead of changes tracked on a Word document. A hard drive with 600 gigabytes of saved files is just begging to crash, and an average of 150 emails a day means you’re bound to accidentally delete or overlook at least one.

So I ask you, are you embracing or fighting the digital revolution? Do you have a secret app that helps you stay organized? And, most importantly, when you have that very imperative message to get out, how do you make sure it doesn’t get lost in the daily electronic shuffle?