Making Smart Phones Smarter

THE GOOD AND THE

BAD:

A COMPARISON OF

NONPROFIT MOBILE-

READY WEBSITES

What is “mobile-ready” and why should

we care?

Mobile ready = easy to use on mobile devices

Users aren’t looking for a lot.

- Location

- Phone number

- Hours of Operation

- An About page

Estimate: 1.82 billion phones with web browsing compared to 1.78 billion PCs by this year

The Good Website

DeKalb Public Library

Features:

- Clickable links –phone number, etc.

- Limited text on screen, readable - not too

small

- Important information front and center

The Bad Website

Decatur Area Arts Council

- Very good website on PC

Features

- A lot of text, a lot of pictures

- Entire page not visible

- Pages loading

- Not user friendly

How can you assess your mobile-

readiness?

mobiReady website – ready.mobi/

Evaluates a website’s mobile-readiness

MAKING YOUR WEBSITE

MOBILE READY

Rule #1

Q: When thinking about:

Cost

Simplicity

Answer: It’s all up to you!

Other Factors

Your current site and its platform

HTML and Coding

WordPress (has plugins available!)

Who will be using your

mobile site

Option 1: High Cost – Simple

Hire someone to do it for you!

Web developer or Coder

Freelance

Elance.com

Freelance.com

Cost?

It’s up there. In the thousands,generally.

May get cheaper!

With time/advances

Option 2: Low Cost- Not Simple

Do It Yourself

Using you or your web developer’s

skills/knowledge

Figuring out how to code and make a site mobile-

accessible for a variety of platforms

Option 3: Low Cost – Pretty Simple

Web services

Easy to use

Attractive

Fairly Cheap, if not free

Some catches

Some limitations

Some examples:

GinWiz.com

DudaMobile.com

Let’s try it: http://www.dudamobile.com/

Final Tips

Google is your friend

See if someone will volunteer their time to help

with this

From a fancy setup to simply helping use a web

service

NOT YOUR MOTHER’S

BARCODE;

QR Codes

What They Are,

QR (Quick Response) Codes

2-Dimensional Barcode

Scanned using Smartphone

cameras

Bridge between the physical

& the digital world

& Why You

Should

Care

5 Steps to QR Success;

Use QR Codes your self

Asses the needs of your

organization

Generate your own

Creatively utilize QR Codes

Provide Alternatives

Step # 1

Download

Scan

What Works?

What

Doesn’t?

Use Them

Yourself

Step # 2

Assess the Needs of you Organization

Money?

Volunteers?

Information?

Events?

QR Codes can

help!

Step # 3

Generate Your Own

QR Codes (for free)!

Step # 4

Petitions, Attractions, Donations, Information,

Volunteer Opportunities, etc…

be creative, but purposeful

Utilize QR Codes Good Examples

Step # 5

Provide Alternatives

Slightly less than half of cellphone users in the US

use smartphones, that mean’s slightly over half

don’t…

Remember to remain accessible to people all

people on the tech spectrum.

Along with QR Codes, it’s a good idea to provide

web addresses as well.

don’t be afraid to try new things!

Resource Kit

Dave

http://www.dudamobile.com/

A quick and easy site that shows any site you type in as a mobile-ready site. You

can also sign up in order to code this site into yours so that people who visit on

their phone will see the DudaMobile version. Paying a monthly fee gives more

accessibility and removes adds that are put onto the sites of the free version.

http://ginwiz.com/

Just like DudaMobile! Different pricing options and designs

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/tags/mobile-website

For WordPress users: this link will show the variety of plugins that can be used to

make your WordPress site mobile.

http://www.simplewebsitetutorials.com/981/how-to-make-a-mobile-website/

A simple go-to guide with some of the same tips as this presentation and how to

go about deciding your strategy.

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/tutorials/mobile-version-website/

This site gives a more technical how-to description of the aspects of web-building

described in the previous resource.

Resource Kit

Ryan mobiReady – website that analyzes the mobile readiness

of your website ready.mobi/

Build Mobile: Websites and Apps for Smart devices by Earle Castledine, Mylos Eftos, and Max Vheeler

DeKalb Public Library – example of good mobile-ready website www.dkpl.org

Decatur Area Arts Council - example of bad mobile-ready website www.decaturarts.org/

PremiumWebsites – Defines “mobile-ready” and gives qualities of mobile-ready sites www.premium websites.net

Resource Kit

Jody

http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

How to download and use QR Code scanners

http://qrcode.kaywa.com/dashboard/

Generate QR Codes for free

http://www.qrstuff.com/

Generate QR Codes for free

http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/10818-10-examples-of-qr-code-

madness

10 ways to NEVER use QR Codes

http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2013/01/03/top-30-qr-code-

uses/

30 examples of good QR Code use