Recently I came across the Webdagene conference in Oslo and watched some of the talks online. Three of them I found very inspiring as they sharpened my approach to mobile design and pointed out the importance of content strategy.
Jeremy Keith: Responsive Enhancement
Jeremy Keith talks about the nature of the web as a inherently flexible medium. This flexibility should be treated as a feature, not as a bug:
“We had this consensual hallucination that the web was a certain size, ran at a certain speed, had certain java script abilities. We did this because we wanted control. But the truth is that all these things are unknown.”
He talks about starting form the content, the worst capability and lowest resolution. Then you should enhance your design step by step. This is much more fun than to break down a desktop layout for mobile. The goal is that your website will be supported on a variety of devices (and there is a difference between support and optimization).
Video on vimeo and slides on Slideshare
Josh Clark: Seven Deadly Mobile Myths
Josh Clark presents seven deadly mobile myths. He starts with the biggest everyone of you certainly has heard: Mobile users are rushed and distracted:
“It’s not the only way that we use these devices. We use them on the couch, in the kitchen, during that three hour layover in the airport. All that different times where we have attention to spare.”
A big problem is that many designers often make a lite version for the mobile website and take away content or features that make the website unique or interesting.
“We do anything on our phones now. Anytime you say someone is not going to want this on their phone you’re wrong.”
Video on vimeo and slides on Slideshare.
Karen McGrane: How to Do Content Strategy
Karen McGrane points out that as web designers it’s not our responsibility to make great content. But it’s our job to tell our clients that it’s an important issue and they should plan for it.
“Great content is the reason people are coming to your website. Gerat content is not just going to happen. […] If you’re ever on a project were people start telling you: ‘We can think about the content later.’, ‘The content is gonna be somone else’s problem.’, ‘We don’t have to plan for that right now because we’re just gonna focus on the design.’ You are personally empowered to tell them that’s dumb.”
Video on webdagene.dk and slide on Slideshare
Maybe it’s a little uncool to say, but this is my first blog post in english. I didn’t want this article to be for german speaking designers only. So I certainly might have made some mistakes. If you come across one or another I’d apreciate a short email. Thank you!
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