Library in Your Pocket: Strategies for Developing Successful Mobile Services

Chad HaefeleEmerging Technologies LibrarianUNC Chapel Hill

chad.haefele@gmail.com

What I’ll be showing you

An overview of the modern mobile/smartphone landscape

A tour through our development process

The building blocks you’ll need to do it yourself, and the decisions you’ll need to make along the way

A mobile site generator, with playtime!

Schedule

1:00 – Welcome and introductions 1:15 – Overview and class survey 1:30 – The modern mobile landscape 2:15 – Designing a mobile library presence 3:00 – Break & chat 3:15 – Building a mobile library presence 3:45 – Hands-on mobile site development 4:45 - Final wrapup & questions

Quick poll

http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/MTE2Njc2MzE3MA

http://bit.ly/mobileclasspoll

Why now?

The

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The

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Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/mobile-snapshot-smartphones-now-28-of-u-s-cellphone-market/

Defining ‘mobile device’

http://bit.ly/MobileLandscape

iPhone 4

iOS devices

iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch Available only through AT&T Debuted in 2007 Apps developed in Objective C More than 250,000 apps

HTC Evo Droid X

Android

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Android_devices

Android devices

Too many to list Available on all major carriers Debuted in 2008 Apps developed in Java More than 80,000 apps

BlackBerry Torch

Blackberry devices

Too many to list Available on all major

carriers Debuted in 1996 (sort of) More modern devices: 2005 About 10000 apps

Which platform to support?

Market share – devices sold(July 2010)

Mobile web use(August 2010)

BlackBerry44%

Android19%

iPhone26%

Other11%

BlackBerry9%

Android25%

iPhone56%

Other10%

Anon. 2010. August 2010 Mobile OS Share. Quantcast Blog. September 3. http://blog.quantcast.com/quantcast/2010/09/august-2010-mobile-os-share.html.

Anon. 2010. comScore Reports July 2010 U.S. Mobile Subscriber Market Share -- RESTON, Va., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ --. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/comscore-reports-july-2010-us-mobile-subscriber-market-share-102969094.html.

Source: http://blog.quantcast.com/quantcast/2010/09/august-2010-mobile-os-share.html

Updated stats

Source: http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/12/comScore_Reports_October_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

Source: http://www.millennialmedia.com/research/mobilemix/, 11/2010

Other usage stats

Source: http://comscore.com/Press_Events/Press_Releases/2010/12/comScore_Reports_October_2010_U.S._Mobile_Subscriber_Market_Share

Other usage stats

Source: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/u-s-teen-mobile-report-calling-yesterday-texting-today-using-apps-tomorrow/

VS

?

UNC Mobile site walkthrough

+ ‘View full site link’

www.lib.unc.edu/m

www.lib.unc.edu/m/plain

UNC Mobile site walkthrough

Catalog

UNC Mobile site walkthrough

UNC Mobile site walkthrough

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gullevek/155604654/

Block #1: Survey your users

Plus 44 ‘other’ responses

Data from Spring, 2009

Sample ‘Other’ responses:

Cell phone Cheap free phone Braille Note Carrier pigeon Lame old phone :( My cheap phone that always has at least 2

bars

Block #2: Platform

Vs.

Platform: App or Webapp?

Java, Objective C

Single platform

Full hardware access(GPS, camera, etc)

Can be used offline

Tricky to get stats

HTML, CSS, Javascript

Multi-platform (maybe)

Limited hardware access (GPS only)

Requires web connection

Standard webstats

App Webapp

Webapps play well with others

Android’s App Inventor

Other app development options

Phonegap Flash Sencha Touch Appcelerator Others:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_phone_web_based_application_framework

Block #3: Framework

Jason Clark’s:

http://diginit.wordpress.com/2009/11/13/mobile-web-design-working-code-tips-best-practices/

or

http://bit.ly/cXlnlS www.lib.utc.edu/m

Block #3: Framework

iUI: code.google.com/p/iui/

Mobile site generator:www.hiddenpeanuts.com/msg

www.lib.unc.edu/m

Mobile site generator

www.hiddenpeanuts.com/msg

Device testing

iPhone/iPod Touch

Device testing

Android

Device testing Text only

Block #4: Data sources & Outside systems RSS feeds XML Other systems

Computer availabilityeResourcesHours IM / text a librarian services

Block #5: Custom code

http://dclibrarylabs.org/ iPhone app code

(app)

iUI code (webapp)http://code.google.com/p/iui/

Block #6: Catalog

Catalog optionsDo it yourself ILS vendor-provided solution3rd party product

Catalog: DIY

Priority 1: Get a clean data feedXML feeds from ILSYaz / Z39.50 (http://www.indexdata.com/yaz)Other solution – tap into DB directly somehow

Harass your vendors!

Catalog: DIY (at UNC)

Endeca makes it all possible XML + php + Syndetics + iUI

Catalog: ILS solutions Airpac, from Innovative

Catalog: 3rd party product

Library Anywhere “Works with 90% of

current OPACs.” http://www.librarything.com/

LibraryAnywhere

Links:http://www.librarything.com/blogs/thingology/2010/10/library-anywhere-is-live-2/http://www.librarything.com/blogs/thingology/2010/01/library-anywhere-prices-public/

Block #7: Promotion

Rough stats: Hits, 2010

Block #8: Evaluate & Iterate

April May June July August Sept Oct Nov0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

iPhone/iPod

Android

BlackBerry

Rough stats: Catalog info, 2010

Block #8: Evaluate & Iterate

April May June July August Sept. October November0

100

200

300

400

500

600

Mobile Catalog Searches

Mobile Records Viewed

Blocks (review)

Survey Platform Framework Data sources Custom code Catalog Promotion Evaluate & Iterate

HTML5 & more on the horizon

Access to camera, GPS, mic, accelerometer, play video

Youtube: m.youtube.com Flickr: m.flickr.com Google Reader: google.com/reader/i Geolocation: hiddenpeanuts.com/ala

This is not the end

Slides online: http://www.slideshare.net/cHaefele