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Posted by acambre on March 1, 2012

At my university, well over 50% of students appear to have smart phones, and the percentage is probably growing rapidly. Soon I’ll bet almost all students will have a mobile phone.

 

If a portal has no mobile interface, is the product even worth it?

 

If you’re developing a new portal, should you start with a mobile interface? Worry about desktop functionality later? Yes, this treats desktop users as second class citizens, but who is the portal mainly for? Office users, or our customers (students)?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Aren Cambre, '99, '03
Team Lead, Web Technologies Team
Office of Information Technology
Southern Methodist University

 

 

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

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Hi Aren -
 
I'm seeing all the same stats you are with rapid smartphone adoption, particularly with students. But I haven't seen that translate to new mobile demands on our site or portal.
 
- Our stats anyway still show about 3% mobile use for our web site. Even after building out a mobile-friendly version there wasn't an increase in the numbers.
- Our portal (based on uPortal 3.x) is still quite navigable using a smartphone with webkit-based browser on it, despite not having a unique mobile version. I haven't heard anyone complain about their mobile experience on it.
 
We're about to launch a new version of uPortal that is mobile friendly, but I wouldn't have declared it to be a critical, must-have feature at this point. I see it as an inevitable, long term strategy. In that sense, I wouldn't start with a mobile interface, I'd focus on desktop.
 
We don't have many undergrad programs so there may be a delay in student expectations that we'll see in a few years - what traditional 4 year institutions are seeing now.
 

 
 
Jameson Watkins
Director, Internet Development
University of Kansas Medical Center
http://www.kumc.edu/
913-588-7387
>>> "Cambre, Aren" <acambre@MAIL.SMU.EDU> 3/1/2012 10:18 AM >>>

At my university, well over 50% of students appear to have smart phones, and the percentage is probably growing rapidly. Soon I'll bet almost all students will have a mobile phone.

 

If a portal has no mobile interface, is the product even worth it?

 

If you're developing a new portal, should you start with a mobile interface? Worry about desktop functionality later? Yes, this treats desktop users as second class citizens, but who is the portal mainly for? Office users, or our customers (students)?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Aren Cambre, '99, '03
Team Lead, Web Technologies Team
Office of Information Technology
Southern Methodist University

 

 

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

Posted by: jwatkins on March 8, 2012
Interestingly, mobile-friendliness was recently identified as a "must have" by our Registrar. They started an aggressive project to deliver four top pieces of information to "the phone" in the near future, the first of which is Grades by the end of this term. (Currently students have to access PeopleSoft Student Center via the portal to view their grades). They approached the team that developed our mobile app (a general, publicly accessible app) and our portal team. The former would have to implement authentication and access to personalized data for the mobile app; the latter would have to implement access to the data and a mobile-friendly view. It was decided to go with the portal solution since a) the infrastructure is already in place, b) students are already accustomed to going to the portal for their personalized content, c) turning on the "mobile-friendly" portal view is on our road map for this April, and d) the functionality would be available on the desktop/laptop and not just on the phone. We are now in the midst of implementing a Grades portlet to deploy in our portal by semester end.

I documented this general strategy of how our portal can be used to address mobile access in this document if anyone is interested. https://wiki.doit.wisc.edu/confluence/x/0gjSAw.

JimH

on 3/8/12 12:30 PM Jameson Watkins said the following:
Hi Aren -
 
I'm seeing all the same stats you are with rapid smartphone adoption, particularly with students. But I haven't seen that translate to new mobile demands on our site or portal.
 
- Our stats anyway still show about 3% mobile use for our web site. Even after building out a mobile-friendly version there wasn't an increase in the numbers.
- Our portal (based on uPortal 3.x) is still quite navigable using a smartphone with webkit-based browser on it, despite not having a unique mobile version. I haven't heard anyone complain about their mobile experience on it.
 
We're about to launch a new version of uPortal that is mobile friendly, but I wouldn't have declared it to be a critical, must-have feature at this point. I see it as an inevitable, long term strategy. In that sense, I wouldn't start with a mobile interface, I'd focus on desktop.
 
We don't have many undergrad programs so there may be a delay in student expectations that we'll see in a few years - what traditional 4 year institutions are seeing now.
 

 
 
Jameson Watkins
Director, Internet Development
University of Kansas Medical Center
http://www.kumc.edu/
913-588-7387
>>> "Cambre, Aren" <acambre@MAIL.SMU.EDU> 3/1/2012 10:18 AM >>>

At my university, well over 50% of students appear to have smart phones, and the percentage is probably growing rapidly. Soon I'll bet almost all students will have a mobile phone.

 

If a portal has no mobile interface, is the product even worth it?

 

If you're developing a new portal, should you start with a mobile interface? Worry about desktop functionality later? Yes, this treats desktop users as second class citizens, but who is the portal mainly for? Office users, or our customers (students)?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Aren Cambre, '99, '03
Team Lead, Web Technologies Team
Office of Information Technology
Southern Methodist University

 

 

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

Posted by: jimhelwig on March 8, 2012

Are you using uPortal? I’m inferring that from the link.

 

Aren

 

Posted by: acambre on March 8, 2012
Yes. Currently uPortal 3.2 and upgrading to uportal 4.0 in April. on 3/8/12 2:01 PM Cambre, Aren said the following: > Are you using uPortal? I’m inferring that from the link. > > Aren > > *
Posted by: jimhelwig on March 8, 2012

Hello Jim,

 

Thank you for sharing your documented strategy on this!  I find it extremely useful. 

 

Does your campus utilize a mobile POS (point-of-sale) system, such as using iPads for accepting credit cards?  If so, any information you could share would be greatly appreciated.  For example, what, if any, MDM (mobile device management) software, hardware devices, payment processing vendors, are you using? 

 

Thanks,

Eumi 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Eumi Sprague | Manager, Information Technology | Cal Poly Corporation
T (805) 756-5853   |   F (805) 756-5052  |    esprague@calpoly.edu

From: "Jim Helwig" <jim.helwig@DOIT.WISC.EDU>
To: PORTALS@LISTSERV.EDUCAUSE.EDU
Sent: Thursday, March 8, 2012 11:56:50 AM
Subject: Re: [PORTALS] "Mobile first" strategy?

Interestingly, mobile-friendliness was recently identified as a "must have" by our Registrar. They started an aggressive project to deliver four top pieces of information to "the phone" in the near future, the first of which is Grades by the end of this term. (Currently students have to access PeopleSoft Student Center via the portal to view their grades). They approached the team that developed our mobile app (a general, publicly accessible app) and our portal team. The former would have to implement authentication and access to personalized data for the mobile app; the latter would have to implement access to the data and a mobile-friendly view. It was decided to go with the portal solution since a) the infrastructure is already in place, b) students are already accustomed to going to the portal for their personalized content, c) turning on the "mobile-friendly" portal view is on our road map for this April, and d) the functionality would be available on the desktop/laptop and not just on the phone. We are now in the midst of implementing a Grades portlet to deploy in our portal by semester end.

I documented this general strategy of how our portal can be used to address mobile access in this document if anyone is interested. https://wiki.doit.wisc.edu/confluence/x/0gjSAw.

JimH

on 3/8/12 12:30 PM Jameson Watkins said the following:
Hi Aren -
 
I'm seeing all the same stats you are with rapid smartphone adoption, particularly with students. But I haven't seen that translate to new mobile demands on our site or portal.
 
- Our stats anyway still show about 3% mobile use for our web site. Even after building out a mobile-friendly version there wasn't an increase in the numbers.
- Our portal (based on uPortal 3.x) is still quite navigable using a smartphone with webkit-based browser on it, despite not having a unique mobile version. I haven't heard anyone complain about their mobile experience on it.
 
We're about to launch a new version of uPortal that is mobile friendly, but I wouldn't have declared it to be a critical, must-have feature at this point. I see it as an inevitable, long term strategy. In that sense, I wouldn't start with a mobile interface, I'd focus on desktop.
 
We don't have many undergrad programs so there may be a delay in student expectations that we'll see in a few years - what traditional 4 year institutions are seeing now.
 

 
 
Jameson Watkins
Director, Internet Development
University of Kansas Medical Center
http://www.kumc.edu/
913-588-7387
>>> "Cambre, Aren" <acambre@MAIL.SMU.EDU> 3/1/2012 10:18 AM >>>

At my university, well over 50% of students appear to have smart phones, and the percentage is probably growing rapidly. Soon I'll bet almost all students will have a mobile phone.

 

If a portal has no mobile interface, is the product even worth it?

 

If you're developing a new portal, should you start with a mobile interface? Worry about desktop functionality later? Yes, this treats desktop users as second class citizens, but who is the portal mainly for? Office users, or our customers (students)?

 

What are your thoughts?

 

Aren Cambre, '99, '03
Team Lead, Web Technologies Team
Office of Information Technology
Southern Methodist University

 

 

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/groups/.

Posted by: esprague on April 1, 2012
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