Transcript North Carolina State University Libraries Mobile

Library in Your Pocket
Strategies and Techniques for Developing Successful Mobile Services
NCSU Libraries
David Woodbury, NCSU Libraries Fellow
Jason Casden, Digital Technologies Development Librarian
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About NC State University
• Largest higher education institution in the state
– 31,000 students
– 8,000 faculty members
– Large focus on science, technology, engineering &
mathematics
• History of innovation & collaboration
– Centennial campus as research hub
– Many public and private partnerships
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Our motivation
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NCSU Mobile Web (Campus Site)
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NCSU Libraries Mobile Team
• Jason Casden, Digital Technologies Development Librarian
– Developer
• David Woodbury, NCSU Libraries Fellow
– Project manager
• Markus Wust, Digital Collections and Preservation Librarian
– Developer & co-creator of MobiLIB
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Project timeline
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Campus site launch (September 3, 2009)
Planning & wireframes (September)
Programming (early October)
Beta launch (late October)
Formal launch & promotion (November)
Main website redirect (December)
Over 22,000 pages viewed (January 2010)
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Our mobile services
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Locations & Hours
Computer Availability
Catalog Search
Reference Services
News & Events
Webcam Feeds
Link to campus mobile site
http://m.lib.ncsu.edu
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Locations & Hours
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Computer Availability
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Catalog Search
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Reference Services
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What to mobilize?
• What services are currently available?
• What services are applicable on a mobile
device?
• What services translate well to the mobile
environment?
• What tools can be created easily?
• What would be fun to see?
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Don’t mobilize everything
• Nearly 100 links!
• Always can link back
to home page, if needed
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“Mobile” is not just shrinking the page
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Use only essential, relevant content
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Use only essential, relevant content
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Reduce options, simplify
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Use the mobile interface
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Provide appropriate tools for the
user’s context
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Expose hidden, useful content
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Mobile Planning Tips
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Start with the services that make mobile sense
Limit the amount of data entry
Limit the scope of the information
Link back to main site
Promote your site
Talk to students to get reality check
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When to Make a Native App
• Charging for it
• Creating a game
• Using specific
locations*
• Using cameras
• Using accelerometers
• Accessing the
filesystems
• Offline users
* Actually available to web-based applications
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The Case for Mobile Web Apps
“I believe that unless your application meets one
of these native application criteria, you should
not create a native application, but should
instead focus on building a mobile web
application.”
— Brian Fling, “Mobile Design and Development”
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Our tools
• Mobile website
– XHTML 1.0 transitional
– CSS
– non-essential JavaScript and AJAX
• MIT Mobile Web Open Source Project
• Leaned on pre-existing web services
• Targeted higher-end devices
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Best practices
• Standards and official guidelines
– Useful, but slow-moving
– Don’t get stuck
• Design Patterns
– Still emerging
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Lots of Devices
Top Level
iPhones, Android
phones, Palm Pre
Large touch
screens,
sophisticated web
capabilities
Middle Level
Blackberry, Nokia
smartphones,
Windows mobile,
etc.
May lack touch
screen and some
CSS and
JavaScript
capabilities.
Low Level
Web-enabled flip
phones
Small screens, low
web functionality
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Content Adaptation
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Separating data from presentation
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Testing
CC BY-SA 2.0: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/3929189482/
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Recommendations
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Be Agile
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Rapid Development Cycle
Think iteratively
Adjust to change quickly
Avoid paralysis
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Play
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Collaborate
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Campus efforts
External projects
Steal what you like
Improve it, so it can be stolen back
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In Summary…
• Mobile websites are becoming very
sophisticated
• Mobile web app development is web
development
– just a little different
• You can do it
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What’s popular at NCSU Libraries
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What devices are being used?
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Coming Soon!
• Study room reservation service
• Patron account information (checkouts &
renewals)
• Access to electronic reserves for classes
• Building wayfinding
• Tools for staff
• Initiative for mobile projects at NCSU Libraries
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Resources
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Ballard, Barbara. (2007). Designing the Mobile User Experience.
Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Fling, Brian. (2009). Mobile Design and Development: Practical
Concepts and Techniques for Creating Mobile Sites and Web Apps.
Sebastopol, California: O’Reilly Media.
W3C Mobile Web Best Practices: http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
W3C CSS Mobile Profile: http://www.w3.org/TR/css-mobile/
Griggs, K., Bridges, L. M., Rempel, H. G. (2009). “library/mobile: Tips
on Designing and Developing Mobile Web Sites”, The Code4Lib
Journal, Issue 8. Retrieved from:
http://journal.code4lib.org/articles/2055
MIT Mobile Web Open Source Project:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mitmobileweb/
NCSU Libraries Mobile Project Page:
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/dli/projects/librariesmobile/
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