Comments on: Tip: Design Websites for Mobile…First

By: Calum’s Concise Blog Summary #7 | Calum Henderson

Calum’s Concise Blog Summary #7 | Calum Henderson — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:40:27 +0000

[...] Tip: Design Websites for Mobile…First [...]

By: NFL Vegas Odds

NFL Vegas Odds — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:17:18 +0000

This is a pretty good idea. I can think of plenty of sites that would be a lot better off if they just put the relevant content front and center.

By: techlesia » Blog Archive » De-stinkify your church Web site

techlesia » Blog Archive » De-stinkify your church Web site — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:45:36 +0000

[...] any techie geeks. Don’t just post every piece of information imaginable. Bobby Gruenewald suggests that we design our mobile site first, before we do anything else. This forces us to cut the fluff [...]

By: Antwon Davis

Antwon Davis — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:58:59 +0000

I have an iPhone and I know first-hand why it is like to visit a site and after 2 minutes of trying to navigate, promise to never visit the site via phone ever again. I think this is great insight for all web developers to consider mobile apps for their sites, especially church websites.

Interesting post.

THINK | CHANGE

By: Steven Fogg

Steven Fogg — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:54:16 +0000

Hey Bobby,

Funny thing, we were just having the same conversation yesterday!

My thoughts are: how do we make it a outreach tool rather than just another way to view the website. Is there a way to focus down on one or two objectives and do them really well.

I’ve thought about making it more of an invitation tool/calendar or events tool. One that would make it easy and more of a tool for ministry than just reading.

Another idea was to have some way of viraly spreading bite size video pieces throughout your mobile address book via SMS or MMS which would feel more personal from the invitee rather than from an institution.

Rather than putting huge investment on the front end can we just make it easy for people to connect with a great message.

By: Tommy Bowman

Tommy Bowman — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 02:35:27 +0000

Great post! Moving ahead with getting our church’s site mobile-ready. Thanks.

By: David Russell

David Russell — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:08:38 +0000

Excellent thoughts, Bobby. There are a few mobile sites that I actually prefer to use in the traditional desktop browser environment over their built-for-desktop counterpart because of the very reasons you illustrate—simplicity and efficiency.

A few that I love to use are The New York Times, CNN, BBC, ESPN, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Google Reader, YouVersion and Weather.gov.

There are very few sites that I regularly use that do not offer a version for mobile devices. It’s not that I avoid sites that don’t offer it, it’s that the sites I use understand the importance of accessibility. Every church in the world should strategically consider each visitor to their site and offer versions that are accessible beyond common browsers, operating systems and hardware.

By: Joel Adamski

Joel Adamski — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:13:29 +0000

I agree. Technology is moving in the direction of mobility. So it show be our first hurdle. It almost seems like we are moving laterally with this type of development, remember the dial-up 800*600 days. My favorite mobile sites are; http://m.youversion.com and http://wap.nfl.com.

By: Mark Martorana

Mark Martorana — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 14:16:47 +0000

Great advice. I’m currently working on putting the site I’m working on into mobile, usability is key. It definitely makes you think. The New York Times site on iphone is probably the best I’ve seen, I love it.

By: Heady

Heady — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:53:33 +0000

thanks for the pointers bobby. good stuff. as you stated, even if i didn’t design for mobile these are great questions to ask myself while considering my web design.