I ran across a great article Designing a Website for 2014 that made me think about information delivery in this mobile age. He was targeting public websites, but I am thinking from a reporting and BI point of view. Here is a synopsis of the techniques Steve Cooper mentions:
- Optimize content for smaller screens and mobile devices.
- Larger Fonts.
- Buttons large enough to push with fingertip.
- Flat Design (no gradients or 3-d illusion) – new look, better performance.
- Continuous Scrolling – give up paging of articles, it was a holdover from paper-based format.
- Use Content Management System to identify target endpoint, don’t maintain two separate websites with one for mobile.
- Parallax Scrolling – multiple layers on a page.
I know I am not alone in my experience of being out somewhere, trying to look something up on my phone mobile browser, only to find miniscule type and unusable buttons because of the form factor. Browsing on the tablet is slightly better, but there are many sites I will not return to because it is just too hard to navigate. We have been talking about this mobile trend since 2011, now is the time to take it seriously and incorporate these design techniques into our information delivery. I am teaching Reporting Services again (LT140) in Ottawa Canada next week, and I plan to have a robust discussion with my trainees about this. What do you think? What have you seen that looks good and improves usability? Post a comment and let me know. Until next time, keep thinking good BI thoughts!
Tricia Wilcox Almas 