UC San Diego Mobile: Strategies & Considerations Common Solutions Group Brett Pollak
Who am I? Campus Web Manger • Responsible for Campus Web site (ucsd.edu) • Product Manager for campus-wide CMS o Promote the use of the CMS by academic and administrative units across UC San Diego
What I'm going to talk about 1. Industry considerations 2. What's been done at UC San Diego 3. Where we are going (near term) 4. Where we'd like to go (longer term) 5. What keeps us up at night
Mobile Usability Many of the same problems we had back in the 90's with computer Web design... • Small resolution • Low bandwidth • Connectivity problems • Lack of JavaScript/Flash support • New browsers
Same Software Development Considerations • Build vs. buy • Open source vs. vendor product • Security • Release management • Web vs. app. • Target user considerations • Testing
New Considerations • Which devices will you be optimizing for? o Feature phones with a tiny screen and a numeric keypad. Currently account for the vast majority of the market o Smartphones, in a range of form factors, typically with a mid-sized screen and a full A-Z keypad. o Touch-screen phones (such as the iPhone) with a nearly device-sized screen and a true GUI driven by direct manipulation and touch gestures. •
One Web concept: o Make available the content and functionality users will find valuable vs. repurposing your existing site
•
Resources o Learning new coding parameters
UC San Diego: survey to prospective students • Surveys to prospective students about their mobile browsing behavior. o Device o Features they use o What they'd like to see optimized for mobile • Notable results (40 respondents) o 70% had smartphones 40% had iPhones o 20% visited ucsd.edu from their mobile device o What they wanted to see: Maps Student Directory Courses Calendar News • Next steps: surveys to current students
UC San Diego: what's been done • Provide functionality students want: maps, news, directory, courses, shuttles • All audiences benefit • Decided on buy vs. build (Blackboard) o cost & time to market o proven success by vendor with other universities o current support for iPhone, Blackberry and Web browser o API so custom apps can be integrated into core UCSD app
• iPhone app launched June '09 o v1.1 with additional features in September '09 o Over 7,100 downloads & app was run 61,000 times in first 3 months 75% are iPhone & 25% are iPod touch users. o Over 41,000 downloads to date • Blackberry app and m.ucsd.edu soft launched in January '10
UC San Diego: what's been done
UC San Diego Mobile
UC San Diego: what's been done Opt-in notifications for emergencies (Mir3) • Dispatcher types alert message into Web form and systems transmits message
• Provides SMS, email, and phone calls • ~13,000 individuals signed up to use the system
UC San Diego: what's been done Podcasting and video-cast of courses at the discretion of the professor (ACMS) • 27 total locations across campus • All of the 24 large lecture halls • About 20% of the courses that could be podcast, use the service • 95 courses podcast this quarter • 6 courses video podcast this quarter
UC San Diego: what's been done Podcasting and video-cast of courses at the discretion of the professor (ACMS)
podcast.ucsd.edu
UC San Diego: where we are going • Integrate Web content managed by CMS with application functionality provided by the vendor o Keep apps & m.ucsd.edu in synch with one another. • Support broader group of smartphones • Integrate "add-ons" such as Worldcat Mobile (Library catalog search)
Approach Libraries Site
TritonLink
ucsd.edu m.ucsd.edu Blackboard
GSA
Proposed Makeup: Phase 2 • • • • •
•
• •
• •
News (RSS Feed) Events (RSS Feed) Directory (TerriblyClever) Maps (TerriblyClever) Academics o Courses (TerriblyClever) o Academic Calendar (Blink content) o Majors/Minors (TL content) o Depts. & Programs (Campus-wide content) Admissions o Requirements (TL content) o Application Process (TL content) o Application Timeline (TL content) o Tuition & Fees (TL content) o Visit Us/Campus Tours (TL content) Financial Aid (TL content) Library o Maps and Directions(Libraries Site content) o Hours (Libraries Site content-- feed) Athletics (TerriblyClever) Search- optimized for mobile content (GSA with new collection and UI) o Ability to expand search to non-mobile content
UC San Diego: what we'd like to do • Determine what services are best provided through mobile form factor: o Students & Faculty Courseware (WebCT/Blackboard) Tutorials/virtual experiments Academic History Bill pay Grades o Staff Timekeeping Integrate atyourservice Re-purposing current online tools (MyTravel, FinancialLink, etc.) o Alumni Giving/donations Resources and services
Future Considerations • As more devices and "app stores" are built, at what point do you move away from the app platform and focus on the browser? o Coding for each platform is time consuming & expensive o Mobile browsers not yet sophisticated enough to accommodate desired functionality o Will always have real estate issue • Get a better understanding of what other groups are doing on campus to help integrate efforts • Industry constantly in flux
