Design for Mobile Devices

Throughout this course I have hinted at possible scenarios and projects that would benefit from being shared on a mobile device. I feel this is an important topic to discuss as Mobile Technology is growing at a rapid pace. Design and interaction with these devices is crucial to delivering content to on-the-go users. I admit that I am new to the mobile scene. I do not own a smart phone. I do however have a couple of Apple products that include an iPod touch and an iPad. These devices are multi-media gadgets that deliver information and entertainment in ways that desktop computers and laptops simply cannot. Aside form the portability factor, these devices are fast and powerful. To simply check and respond to my email during my day, I tend to reach for either of those Apple products instead of making my way to the computer room and logging into my account on my desktop PC.

Content is delivered to these devices in the form of Apps (short for Applications). These Apps are pieces of software designed to run on portable platforms. They are cheap to buy and there are countless numbers of Apps available for almost anything you can imagine (There's an App for that)! Photo editing, games, daily planners, word processing, music, and so much more.

Graphic From: http://touchmeme.wordpress.com/2010/04/

I chose this blogger template not only for the simplicity of it's design and the ease of use it provides me, but I also noticed within the HTML and CSS code there was a mobile section which I assumed would re-create the layout on mobile devices. I tested it and found that the page does indeed display, but not in a "mobile friendly" way. Design for mobile devices tends to be different than design for typical computer displays. Mobile devices have smaller screens therefore they demand that content be presented in a streamlined fashion. Ease of use and fast downloads are a must considering people rely on their portable devices to add convenience to their lives by saving them time. The bottom line is, it is no longer acceptable to have a full website display on your mobile device. That is where "mobile friendly" design comes in.

I am capable of creating a mobile version of websites and I'm sure I could have figured out how to modify the source code of this blog (or turn the mobile features on) to allow the content I post to be presented better on an iPod touch or smart phone. I instead chose to research tools online that would basically pull in the posts as "feeds" and re-style it to better display on portable devices. One such tool I found is: http://mobstac.com/. This site offered a free basic account for blogs with some required ads and limited page views. I chose this to apply this solution as a learning tool and reference to my post as I don't have the extra cash to spend on a monthly subscription. I think readers of my blog will still get the general idea.

I was guided through the steps of signing up for the free account and I was amazed at how easy the entire process was. In moments I had entered in some information and linked my blog to their service. They even provided me with a screen-shot to show me what my blog would look like when displayed on an iPhone!

I will need to do more testing and research to verify that when a mobile device loads this blog, the mobile version of the site gets displayed. If for some reason it does not, I have included a link at the top of the right hand side column to access this content. This was also intentional to satisfy the requirement of the module to have visible examples of the tool show up in the blog.

Design and development for mobile devices is not something that can be fully summed up and understood in just one class module. However, I have been able to showcase how powerful these tools can be by simply implementing an easy mobile friendly add-on to this blog.

What is Information Design?

I've witnessed a number of changes in the Graphic Design world over the years... some of them have been minor, others are more significant. With how fast technology evolves it's obvious new definitions will come into play for previous (and as of yet undefined) theories and disciplines. In the job search arena alone, I have noticed a drastic shift from Graphic Designer positions to User Interface Designers or User Experience Designers and so on. New titles and names are being created to specify a more targeted audience.

It seems obvious that all these new terms, positions, and theories would be under the umbrella of a broader topic. This is where I think Information Design comes in. I have been thinking about this topic ever since I saw this class listed online. What exactly is Information Design? I never see a job posting for an Information Designer. The more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that it must be an all-encompassing "catch-phrase" (so to speak) for all the disciplines of organizing information (or data). So... Graphic Design, User Experience, User Interface, Information Architecture, Interaction Design... all fall under this Information Design category.

I admit it. I'm skeptical. Does it really make sense to add another level of complexity to an already complicated world? Or, is this more of an attempt to better categorize an ever growing flow of data that needs organizing? I'm hoping by the end of this course to have a better understanding of this topic. More so, I hope to learn techniques, procedures and work-flows that will help me do my job better. I hope to come away from this with new ideas and more tools in my arsenal to be more prepared to tackle new projects that come my way.