From Web to Mobile: Review of a Must-See

From the site compatible with mobile phones and tablets to the site designed for these electronic media, there is a 141-page book written by two specialists in analysis and web writing, assisted by a swarm of students regularly honored for their work as worker ants.

A long-time fan of Mrs. Canivet (and a fan of her yellow bath duck), this week I read “From the Web to the Mobile” by Isabelle Canivet and Jean-Marc Hardy.

Review of the matter.

“From Web to Mobile”

100% practical and usable.

The mobile phone connected to the internet has taken its place in our daily environment, it corresponds to the lifestyle that is imposed almost everywhere: “everything, immediately, everywhere…” and on all media. »
Without breaking down open doors, this book shows us, with statistics to back it up, that the research carried out on these small devices is generally geolocated, that their owners are Rather active on social networks, big consumers of information and applications made “to kill time”.

The socio-cultural portrait of the compulsive mobile user even expects us to use a language adapted to his habits in order to better seduce them.

It is clear that as toys multiply, a large number of website owners should be busy occupying their rightful place on the mobile web and taking care to offer a useful, rich and user-friendly user experience.

However, if no one disputes this last point, very few websites that can be consulted on mobiles or tablets correctly apply the good practices, analyzed in this book which I warmly recommend reading, as you have understood.

Two sites or nothing

As you read, the book demonstrates this basic necessity very well: the best mobile version of a website is another site totally designed and written for mobile users and to which they will be directed when they surf from their iPhone, Android, Blackberry or tablet.

The book also addresses the issue of the dedicated mobile application which, in order to free itself from search engines, is not exempt from the architectural and ergonomic concerns dealt with in the first chapters.

Essential reading

JM. Hardy – I.Canivet

This book is a must-read:

• For the awareness of the elements that make a site deserve to be qualified as mobile or not.
• Before undertaking a mobile version of an existing site and knowing what you are committing to by considering this version, “Master Site Extension”.
• Before choosing between setting up a mobile site worthy of the name or designing a dedicated mobile application.

It is obviously to be put in the hands of communication managers and project managers who have to work on the problem.

Well written, really accessible, the most astute will note that the authors regularly allow themselves a few winks that were not to displease me… Providing quality teaching while maintaining a sense of humour cannot harm the overall image of the finished product:

• “Ikea should save the furniture and review its mobile site”
• “Air France’s mobile site is floundering”

They must have forgotten “the Evian site is taking on water”

However, there is one flaw: its formats, physical and electronic.

• Too big and too soft, (not practical in the metro/bus unless you fold it on itself but I hate to screw up a book). Not easy to handle, its blanket slips, it takes up too much space, it is heavy, requires two hands or escapes. Grrr, not ergonomic! The format adopted is typically the “university course book”…

Of course, we can see the reason for this choice, the book is illustrated with a large number of examples, graphs, screenshots and it gives pride of place to the titles and subtitles, to the spacing of the paragraphs… We are not in the hands of great web writing specialists for nothing…

• And then the electronic version delivered in PDF… far from being the most suitable format for tablets and even e-readers, we would have hoped for an alternative in e-advertising, adapted to small screens, tablets and my Kobo. But for this the perpetrators can still act…

What does the bottle matter, as long as you are drunk!

And drunkenness is indeed the content, the matter, the discourse, the analysis.

Awareness of the different issues

• The real current uses of the mobile web, statistics and common practices in hand

Everyone will recognize themselves in it

• The constraints of the devices, both in terms of physical dimensions and in terms of O. I or networks.
• The importance of a mobile presence now for certain industries and the expected boom of tomorrow.

The Why of Adapted, Mobile Web-Specific Content

• How to adapt texts, images, “action buttons” to mobile
• Adapt the site’s offer to the mobile user’s demand and expectations
• Rethink 100% navigation
• Review priorities and avoid the superfluous
• Write specifically for the mobile user
• Harnessing the potential of these devices

The justification of a specific ergonomics of the website

Start from your site and rethink “smart phone”

• Less space, fewer menus.
• A more adapted presentation.
• Fewer text links and more clickable buttons.
• Font size, width and number of columns, vertical and horizontal scrolling , clickable areas redesigned for tactile navigation, everything is scrutinized.
• Layout considering portrait AND landscape modes.
• Color contrasts and layout airiness
• Shape of buttons whose codes and icons are already landmarks for mobile users.

Website SEO

The fourth part is devoted to the referencing of mobile sites which, as everyone knows, is handled by Google with a dedicated algorithm.

More and more searches on smartphones, ergonomics is becoming an SEO factor (read the searchmetric study)

Here again, the codes and fundamentals are shaken up (not crushed) to slide towards the specificity of mobile devices and the visitor’s expectations.

This visitor who, more than any other, is not only in a hurry but of course expects a relevant answer in the top 3… because scrolling results on Google search on a mobile … Hello!

Overall, 9 fundamentals are described.

• Comply with the latest web standards
• Careful design
• Know and consider the limitations of current terminals
• Rethinking navigation from scratch
• Pay attention to graphics and colors
• Thinking “small screen and big fingers”
• Staying light for network capabilities
• More intuitive site than ever
• Thinking one-handed and on-the-go handling
• Geolocation and SEO adapted

32 zeuros, for the soft book or 22 for the Pdf (which become $40 or $28 from us) rather reasonable given the density of the material.

To read, I tell you!

And I’m not affiliated with sales!

Online Table of Contents