Origin Perspectives
Hi Frank,
Thanks for the comment!
If done well, an optimized site can provide an equal experience to a hybrid if you are not taking advantage of any of the neat features of the phone such as GPS, integrated maps, and animation which are only available within an app. There is also nothing stopping you from doing an optimized site AND a hybrid that basically just points to that site and allows you to do the marketing blitz for having an app so you get the best of both worlds.
I will say though, that handset detection is not a cut and dried solution. It is also not something that you can do just once and leave it alone as it must be constantly updated to accommodate newer handsets. There are outsourcing options for this, however, but you still need to design your site to 'degrade gracefully' for less capable handsets.
Have you successfully launched an optimized site before? If so, how was the overall feedback from your users?
Thanks,
Forest
Posted May 21st, 2010 by Forest
Hello John - perhaps you remember us from our MOFILM involvement last year.
What an excellent post. A topic I've been interested to discuss and get more feedback on for a while now.
I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion entirely. Would you not say that an optimised site - if done properly - can give visitors the same great experience as a hyprid? (Minus the marketing opportunities to say 'Hey - look we have an app?!')
In our view developers should move towards standards and clear conversion design, which ultimately brings the gap between web and mobile closer together.
If detection is done well - and importantly only used where needed - videos will not present too much of a problem?
Again - great post.
Frank Staiger
vcommunications.com
Posted May 21st, 2010 by Frank (VCommunications)
