For today's web developers, start-ups and forward thinking businesses the notion of ‘web content’ and where it’s seen is changing at an incredible rate. Gone are the days of designing and producing a site suitable just for a desktop PC monitor. In 2011 web content must be developed to be viewed and interacted with across a range of screens of varying sizes, from smartphones to the widest flat-screens – and this post should help us to start considering ‘multi-screen thinking’ and its importance.

In the interest of keeping this post quite snappy I have opted to focus on just three types of web content: home pages, e-commerce pages and promotional content (such as blog posts and news articles) which should give us a range of examples. I also wanted to make the information easy to remember, so let me introduce you to:

The 3 "...ables" of multi-screen thinking when creating web content

1. Viewable

The first ‘multi-screen thinking’ question to ask ourselves when creating web content is: will this be viewable across multiple screens? Even before we have moved away from desktop monitors and laptops, it is important to bare in mind the range of browsers web users are using to arrive at your homepage. According to TopTenREVIEWS the top 3 browsers available currently are Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer and it is important to bear in mind that some sites may load slower in certain browsers than others – and if your homepage is not viewable on a certain browser within a few seconds it is likely that user may give up and head somewhere else.

Of course, beyond desktops and laptops, web content needs to be quickly viewable on smaller screens such as smartphones and tablets such as iPad – and the most important information and ‘calls to action’ should ideally be seen as soon as a homepage is loaded.

2. Usable

So if you’re happy that your web content is adequately viewable across all screens (and browsers), the second thing to consider is whether that content is usable too. This is increasingly important with mobile devices in mind. As Internet Retailing reports, 18% of online shopping at Christmas was expected to be done via mobile but only a 23% minority of retailers had sufficient navigable mobile sites or apps in place for this proportion of users.

With more people shopping on mobile, e-commerce sites need to not only ensure that product pages are displaying vital information simply, clearly and concisely – but the checkout process needs to be quick and easy (and must remain safe) for smartphone users as well as traditional internet shoppers. Of course, testing and refining the process on a variety of technologies is key here.

3. Shareable

Aside from simply being viewable and usable across multiple screens, shareability is also a big factor when it comes to web content – and especially content geared towards getting traffic to your site (such as blog posts).

There can be multi-screen issues as simple as formatting, with text size and lengths of articles – but aspects of good shareable posts which really get people "liking" on Facebook or re-tweeting on Twitter, such as data graphs, images and infographics need to transfer well to smaller screens (and across 3G and 4G networks). This is the first step to ensuring prospective sharers are seeing the kinds of things they like to pass to their friends and followers as soon as possible, and on any of their devices. Good fresh content should be seen by as many people as possible, and new tech users are really the last group you want to frustrate by not considering mobile devices when producing content to be shared.

The source code which makes up the software we develop is our most valuable asset. As such, it needs to be treated with love and care. While backing up assets like this is important, with something such as source code - which is changed by multiple developers - you also want something to analyse and manage the changes which these assets go through.

Item number one on Joel Spolsky's "Joel Test" is: "Do you use Source Control?". Any software company who do not use source control are not taking appropriate care with their own code and potentially their customer code - and that's foolhardy at best. At Go Tripod, we use the Git version control system which has gained a lot of traction over the past year or so. Subversion (SVN) used to be the cool kid in this arena, but Git has firmly placed itself at number one on the popularity contest.

Github's been key to this, because it's provided a really easy way of working with Git thanks to its excellent guides and documentation. Both myself and Jon have our own modest Github accounts, and while I've used Google Code in the past I really want to try and keep with Github as I move forward. Why? Because I think Github promotes healthy projects.

Look at any project on Github and you'll see two little icons - one to keep watch on a project, to check when there's any activity, and a second one to fork it. I believe that forking a project is the single strongest part of Github. It enables two things - firstly, for contributors to get involved without having to submit patches or anything like that - all contributions and merges can be done by the project owner by simply pulling in a contributor's changes.

Secondly, if a project goes dormant, it's trivial for someone else to fork it and essentially take it over. The most active fork of a project is likely to attract the most attention, so for valuable projects, we could see the end of stale, unmaintained work.

However, forking on Github does have weaknesses. In the above scenario, where a fork ends up becoming the predominant development version of a project, Github doesn't have any way of transferring ownership of a repo from one person to another. This would make sense - the original developer doesn't want to maintain a project then it'd really be better to allocate it to another developer rather than that developer having to fork. And in some ways forking can dilute a project, with many users adding their own tweaks and enhancements which never then get pulled back into the master. This is a shame, though ultimately I'm not sure how much of an issue it is.

Anyway, we love Github, warts and all. Look out for some more interesting Labs projects hitting our Go Tripod Github account soon.

iPhone or iPad, Android or Windows Phone 7?  Why it’s important to have an app development strategy

Smartphone applications are a big part of our work here at Go Tripod.  We enjoy working with fresh ideas and knowing that we are contributing to one of the most current, fast advancing and exciting industries out there.  However, we also know how confusing the app market can be for those eager to branch out into this area for the first time – especially as new products and operating systems are launched, and the web becomes full of contradictory opinions on where best to focus your efforts.

Consequently, we believe it is important to outline an app development strategy at the outset of your project – and there are a number of key considerations which must be included:

Consider your goal first

Your goal, or at least an idea of what you want to achieve, should be established early – even before you start thinking of what kind of app to put into development.  With the amount of buzz around apps and new technologies, it is understandable that many businesses might see their competitors launching an iPhone app, decide to do so themselves, and then are faced with having to develop an idea which will fit into an iPhone app shaped hole.

Check out what the competition is doing, then ask yourself what you want out of an app.  This way you are more likely to work out the correct means of hitting that target – whether it’s reaching lots of people or making an app which is more complex/useful/important than any other on the market.

Consider your current audience and where they are

Are you creating this app for the target audience you already have, or are you using the app to reach a different demographic?  This is an important consideration, as any mobile ad specialist will tell you that certain smartphones appeal to certain users – just try and think of a typical Blackberry fan or iPhone user.  Understanding the audience you already have and the handsets they use will likely be a big factor in deciding what type of app to develop.

It is also important to think about where your prospective audience are.  Recent AdMob data highlights country by country differences in popularity of devices and subsequent market share of iPhone, Android and others.  In May this year, Apple’s iOS dominated the UK market with 59% share while Android was the second largest with 26% share – but judging by the US market, things are changing very quickly.

Consider the entire app market

As we know, the app market is advancing and diversifying almost before our eyes – and it goes without saying that we may all be surprised by what platforms take off and just how far-reaching/usable/fashionable each might be a month or two down the line.

The latest 2010 Q3 data from Canalys shows intriguing trends in the US market where the Android operating system has overtaken Apple’s iOS with 44% of smartphones using Android compared to 26% Apple.

This growth has no doubt been helped by Android OS being available on a number of handsets compared to Apple’s only iPhone.  And though it is still fair to say developing an Apple-centric app may be naturally high-profile and more likely to reach a market of tech-savvy super-fans, some analysts such as those at Taptu are estimating that iPhone-only apps may exclude 90% of smartphone users by the end of the year.

With this in mind, the recently launched Windows Phone 7 will also be one to watch by those looking to develop an app over the next year, as Microsoft is set to invest an incredible $500 million in TV advertising for the product alone and claims to have 13,000 registered app developers already.

Only by keeping an eye on projected user trends and emerging technologies (including handsets and tablets such as iPad) and including this research into your app development strategy, can you be certain that your app is most suitable for the local and global market it is launched into – as well as ensuring the users who want it can get it, and that the app itself works as it should.

This is a pretty straightforward one - Facebook's messaging solution matters because Facebook matters to its users. Facebook is a compelling platform - keeping in contact with your peers is undeniably important. But here's the rub - people are more likely to check Facebook than check email. So if I can send someone a Facebook message in the same way I can send them an email - I'm gonna opt for the Facebook method. If I can combine the two... that's the killer feature. I can email someone and have them receive it when they check Facebook? Yes please.

What does this mean for business though? Facebook does remain a platform for people rather than professionals. Certainly some of the stuff I mention on my Facebook wall, to my trusted Facebook Friends, I wouldn't want to be exposed in a business context. But at the very least, this announcement means that Facebook users are more likely to receive your email communications, as when they check Facebook, they're checking their email at the same time. In terms of enabling timely communication, this could be crucial. Facebook's mobile platform has always been strong, so assuming that they integrate this new feature then that provides another avenue for people to check their Facebook communications from any location.

The consolidation of  various messaging types is very Google Wave-like, but that's as irrelevant as Google Wave was. The type of communication doesn't matter - just the fact that it can be seen in a timely fashion in a highly-available interface - that's the key. In fact, Apple have very slowly been driving at this - by combining MMS and standard text messages in their iPhone application - and ultimately their Facetime platform will most likely merge with this. But they've missed the trick that Facebook have understood - the medium is not important. It's all about the message.

Where is this going to fall down? GMail was a revelation because of threaded messaging and because it disregarded storage limitations. GMail's spam and phishing filters are very good indeed. So Facebook needs to heed this - organised, unlimited messages with strong filtering of malicious communications will swing this for them. Microsoft and Yahoo are still playing catch-up with GMail five years since its release - this is going to be a massive setback for them. GMail's recent performance issues indicate that they could be struggling to stay still, let alone advance, so Facebook could capitalise on that.

Ultimately though, Facebook is going to be for personal use and GMail can be happy with corporate usage - it's just a question of whether Facebook's move will push email into irrelevance in the medium-term.

The second edition of the book written by Shea Frederick, Steve "Cutter" Blades, Nigel White and myself is now available for purchase. Learning Ext JS covers version 3.2+ of the Ext JS JavaScript framework and will give developers who are new to the framework a head-start in creating high-quality rich applications.

The second edition updates the existing content for the latest Ext JS version, and adds new chapters to cover the newest components available in Ext JS 3.2. Go Tripod have been working with Ext JS to create exciting web applications for a number of enterprise customers and our Ext JS consultancy service is proving increasingly popular.

Working on Learning Ext JS was a pleasure and a privilege for me and I'd like to thank Packt, my co-authors, and the developers of Ext JS. Hopefully our customers will continue to be eager for applications in this excellent framework - I'm looking forward to continue working with it in future!

Even though the Tripods are normally beavering away with client work or one of our products, we're firm believers in taking time out to relax and have fun to break up the working day and provide an outlet for all the excess energy an office worker builds up. Campaign Monitor are one of our favourite companies and they're famed for including surfing as a big part of their company ethic.

At Go Tripod, we're lucky enough to be based in Cornwall, UK - home of some of the best surfing spots in the UK. For something a bit more relaxing, there's always a lazy afternoon of fishing on the cards.

For my part, I've been spending my evenings running around Falmouth and the surrounding area to blow off some steam and build up my stamina. This Saturday, I'm running a half marathon - the Great North Run - on behalf of the Stroke Association, and getting up to the 20k mark has been a personal challenge as well as a great way of keeping active over the summer.

Dedication to work is important - but a business without a sense of fun and relaxation is one in which the team members won't be firing on all cylinders.

The Magic Number: Why data is important three times over in our multichannel world – a #JUMPchallenge post

This guest post by Luke Richards is part of the #JUMPchallenge, a blogging competition designed to raise awareness of how to join up online and offline marketing, launched to support Econsultancy's JUMP event.

Data and tracking has become more important to web developers and digital marketers as online business has become increasingly competitive.  However, as companies start to look at their performance across multiple channels – i.e. incorporating mobile and social media, as well as search engine optimisation, onsite usability and offline techniques – intriguing developments have been made into collecting data seamlessly across channels and then using this information in the best possible way.

Whether you are building a website, designing a new app or producing a marketing campaign, we believe that data is most useful today when considered over all three key stages of a project:

1. Data that helps you plan

So you’ve got a budget, an idea of what you want to achieve and some time to get things going – how are you going to go about it?  Collecting data about your competitors and your market is a logical and common way to find out what channels are being used and how your prospective customers are being engaged and behaving on and offline.  But it doesn’t stop there.  Industry and sector specialists are emerging alongside every new channel and offering reports which give further insight into trends and developments which are nearly always enlightening, and often surprising.

With the emergence of online technology came a new era of tracking user behaviour and some now well-known companies such as Econsultancy and Hitwise frequently publish great data and make it available to others.  Yet, for younger channels be sure to search out smaller lesser-known businesses.  For example, with the rise of smartphones and the mobile touch web, Taptu are a great group to follow offering quarterly reports which work to shed light on the worth of mobile-friendly sites compared to apps for iPhone and Android – as well as more general data about this quick-growing sector.

However, whilst it is all important to spend some time soaking up all the data you can at this time, whether it is by chatting with followers on Twitter or reading the latest reports, be sure to allocate a timeframe for such research and stick to it.  Don’t let data research at this stage get in the way of starting your project.

2. Data that helps you develop

‘Test!  Test!  And test again!’ is fast becoming an adage among web developers and digital marketers alike.  After all, how do you know if your PPC campaign is working, or which design makes people want to sign up to your product, if you aren’t looking at your own data after your launch and tweaking things accordingly.

Specifically, online companies now have a tendency to launch in beta and to be upfront with their customers that things may not run perfectly straight away.  This is something of a side-effect of the need to dive into our data almost as soon as a site or a marketing campaign has been launched.  Software such as Google Analytics is a simple starting point for us to see how users arrive at our sites, and what content, offer, product etc is working best to get them there.  Additionally, services such as Unbounce are making it even easier for site-owners to test landing pages and design as they are going along.

Again, at this stage it is also becoming more important for individuals and companies to bear in mind the multichannel workings of a given site, campaign or app.  Is everything integrated and are you seeing the full picture?  Or perhaps you’re jumping to the results you want to see?  After all, your site may be climbing up the search rankings and your content might be great, but if your customer then needs to use the phone to make a purchase, be sure you are seeing the necessary call tracking data to ensure that investment in all that SEO has been worthwhile.

3. Data that helps you promote

So you’ve researched before you launch (1) and you’ve looked at the data to ensure your site is tweaked and perfected as you’re moving along (2) – is there any use for all this stuff after you’ve finished a project?  Of course there is!

The truly great thing about being immersed in months of your own line graphs and spreadsheets is that this content is likely to be unique to you and of interest to others.  This data is a fantastic means for promoting yourself across case studies, blogs, PR (online and offline) or even your own pay-for  reports.  The age of protecting your trade secrets is over, and the time to be transparent with your data as a means to get your name out there is certainly upon us.

Don’t believe me?  Check out the following sites and see for yourself:

  • OkTrends – OkTrends is the official blog of online dating site OkCupid.  These guys are sure-fire geniuses when it comes to understanding their own unique data and presenting it in enthralling ways for regular web users.
  • Topspin – Topspin is platform for musicians to promote and sell their music directly to their fans across online media.  As you can see, they are proud of what they achieve and how they go about achieving it – and they make plenty of the data available for all to see.
  • Datablog – Although not the only newspaper to offer such ‘pure data’ today, The Guardian were certainly pioneering in the way they began to offer their researched facts and figures and posting them online in an attempt to make the paper ‘more open and more useful to its readers.’

For the above companies, data doesn’t lose its worth when the product is launched or if it has already been used internally time and time again.  In today’s multichannel world there is often a prospective third life cycle for data.  And it is at this time, when it must be presented to the outside world, that it can often prove even more valuable than when you first cast your eye over that emerging trend or intriguing correlation – if not necessarily for your current project, then perhaps for interest in future ventures.

Investigating Crazy Egg's heatmap and visitor tracking tool today, I found a nice bit of UI in their plans and signup process. The plans page itself looks sweet:

But the really slick part comes when you click the "Sign Up" button:

The other plans fade out and the signup form slides in - no page refresh, and an quick jump to the next step in the process. Good work Crazy Egg!

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