10 Elements - How Mobile Sites Differ from Desktop Sites

Based on research, which looked at a number of mobile sites from various industries, there are 10 fundamental ways in which mobile sites differ from desktop web sites:

1. In comparison to desktop Web sites, which usually contain a wide range of content and information, mobile sites usually include only the most crucial and time- and location-specific functions and features.
2. On desktop Web sites, horizontal navigation at the top of a page is a widely accepted way of structuring and presenting a site’s content. However, vertical navigation replaces horizontal navigation on more than 90% of the mobile sites we analyzed.
3. Hypertext is the signature component of the Internet and the Web. However, on mobile sites, there are few or no hypertexts on pages.
4. On desktop Web sites, designers use graphics for many different purposes, including promoting, marketing, and navigating. Mobile sites avoid using promotional and marketing graphics and use minimal graphics for navigation.
5. Various types of navigation are available on desktop Web sites. Some are global, so are consistent across a site, while others are contextual and change depending on where users are on a site. In contrast, while most mobile sites have global navigation, contextual navigation is rare on mobile sites.
6. On desktop Web sites, footers typically provide either links to content users might expect to see on a site’s home page or quick links that are available across a site to provide access to content users often need. Mobile sites employ a minimal form of the first type of footer, but they do not use footers containing quick links.
7. On desktop Web sites, breadcrumbs reassure users that they are on the right page and let them backtrack on their navigational path. Breadcrumbs are rare on mobiles sites and really aren’t necessary, because of the relatively flat structure of mobile sites.
8. Process funnels on desktop Web sites frequently use a progress indicator at the top of each page to guide users through the process. Such progress indicators do not appear on mobile sites.
9. Mobile sites offer better integration with phone functions—and present marketing opportunities such as facilitating direct orders by phone or sending promotional text messages.
10. Mobile sites can take advantage of technology that automatically detects where users are to present local search results. When users set up their preferences or profile, personalized search results become even more relevant and valuable to them.

JIM DENEVAN -The Sandman

ART Inspiration

Jim Denevan is an American artist from Santa Cruz, California famed for his inspiring temporary land art.

Jim Denevan is an American artist from Santa Cruz, California famed for his inspiring temporary land art.

He makes temporary drawings on Sand, Earth & Ice that are eventually erased by waves and weather.

"There's a freedom and an ability to go anywhere when I'm marking the surface." - Jim Denevan.
The photographs of his work have been exhibited at PS1, part of New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Incidentally, Jim also happens to be an accomplished chef starting his career at age 17 and moving on to be the executive chef at Gabriella Cafe, a 4-Star eatery in downtown Santa Cruz.

To know more about Jim Denevan, you can visit his website at www.jimdenevan.com

Fruit Juice Packaging by Naoto Fukasawa

DESIGN Inspiration

Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa has created a series of creative fruit juice packages that have the look and feel of the fruit they contain.

 

“I imagined that if the surface of the package imitated the colour and texture of the fruit skin, then the object would reproduce the feeling of the real skin.”  Along with banana Naoto Fukasawa also offers, strawberry and kiwi fruit  “juice skins”.

Automobile Maker Volvo Turns Auto Into 3D Graffiti

BRAND Inspiration

Volvo in Switzerland invited 10 "street artists" to paint, spray and design a white Volvo S60 against a white background. A high-end camera snapped an image every ten seconds for the timelapse video above. The event kicked off on February 9th, with each artist given a half-day session as part of a public work-in-progress art event that was held in the grand hall of Zurich's main train station.

Japan Ribbon

LIFE Inspiration

The Ribbon for Japan is conceived to support the disaster relief effort. An electronic version of the design is available to download, for attachment to websites and emails. Donations of any amount can be made online at https://american.redcross.org

'The Joy of Living'

 

ART Inspiration

 

'Graphology' takes its form from a recent chair design by its a anonymous creator

By Malaika Byng 

Author and design commentator Max Fraser has reached into his bulging contacts book for a good cause, charging the likes of Tom Dixon, Barber Osgerby and Max Lamb to create a work of art that expresses the 'Joy of Living' in aid of Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres. From a donut-like sculpture inspired by a chair design to a hand-stitched piece based on the Ishihara Plate test for colour-blindness, the resulting designs - which all started with a simple piece of graph paper - are now on sale at London's Somerset House.




See more of the 'Joy of Living' artworks
Each signed artwork is priced at $500 but the name of the designer is not revealed until the item is purchased. Other contributing designers include Martino Gamper, Troika, Tomoko Azumi and John Pawson.

Fraser, who was introduced to Maggie's soon after his mother died from the disease, chose the graph paper because it 'seems to trigger a certain nostalgia for designers, reminding them of the early days of drafting before computers took over.' The brief to the designers came from the mantra of Maggie’s co-founder Maggie Keswick Jencks, who said that what matters above all, when facing cancer, is to ‘not to lose the joy of living in the fear of dying’.