Scsi's Mobile WebKISS™ Guide #11: TOTAL ACCESS ... So what?

Here's the big question for you to ponder: Is a "World Class Level" Mobile Web Site and Ubiquitous Web Access in your Company's Design Plans?

Even if your answer is an emphatic "No! So What?", Scsi encourages you to take the time to read this entire document very carefully. Here is why. The ultimate goal of this specific document is to convince you and your business associates of this fact: Adoption, implementation, and adherence to any one or more of Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices will always prove to be a win-win situation -- both productivity-wise and financially -- for your company's personnel and your Mobile Web site's visitors, prospects, customers, and users.

Among the major points covered in this document are the following:

• Purpose of Scsi's Mobile WebKISS™ Guide #11
• Scsi's Definition and Implementation of TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design
• Scsi's Multi-faceted Answer to the Fundamental Question regarding Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design: So What?
• How might other companies proceed to achieve TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design for their Mobile Web sites?

NOTE: Relevant hyperlinks are included within the associated paragraphs to make your browsing session productive and all the more enjoyable.

Purpose of Scsi's Mobile WebKISS™ Guide #11

The purpose of Scsi's Mobile WebKISS™ Guide #11: TOTAL ACCESS ... So what? is three-fold, namely:

1. To define the term TOTAL ACCESS and summarize the associated win-win benefits that are all exemplified throughout Scsi's Mobile Productivity and Knowledge Transfer Mobile Web Site
2. To answer the basic question, "So What?" by indicating how Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design and implementation serves as a workable means for seamlessly supporting present and forthcoming devices and technologies to maximize the productivity of Web-based user experiences
3. To outline how companies might proceed toward implementing the underlying best practices that comprise Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design

Scsi's Definition and Implementation of TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design

Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design's Objective

Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design aims toward achieving a first-pass solution for Ubiquitous Web Access.

The actual implementation of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design throughout Scsi's P&KT Mobile Web site is intended to serve as an exemplary working model that will both clearly and convincingly demonstrate to everyone the numerous win-win benefits that will result from such diligent and conscientious pursuit of what "The Ubiquitous Web Domain" has described conceptually as a goal for all Web sites to strive to achieve.

Scsi's Definition for TOTAL ACCESS

The term TOTAL ACCESS is defined below in terms of World Class Level Mobile Web design objectives that are exemplified everywhere throughout Scsi's Mobile Productivity and Knowledge Transfer Mobile Web Site, namely:

Anyone, anywhere, using any Internet-enabled device, any operating system, and any (Web- or text mode-based) browser should be enabled -- by the Mobile Web site personnel's adherence to judicious design principles and Best Practices -- to accomplish basic tasks, including the following:

• Readily access any Mobile Web page within the Mobile Web site's domain
• Easily navigate (regardless of the navigation tool chosen, e.g., keyboard, mouse, or other pointing device) within and among its Web pages
• Display any Mobile Web page's contents without imposing any restrictions on the user as to screen resolution or viewing window size

Down-to-Earth Characteristics of Scsi's Implementation of TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design

Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design reflects a pragmatic approach to problem solving that:

• is available here and now
• is based on existing mature technologies
• employs a from-the-ground-up Mobile Web standards-based design architecture and relevant methodologies
• is a cost-effective, productivity-focused solution that contains no proprietary elements or restrictions on its use, and
• retains an emphasis on simplicity over complexity at all times.

Explicit Win-Win Benefits of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design Implementation

Listed below are the principal categories of win-win benefits associated with Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design Implementation:

1. Enhance the User/Prospect/Customer experience -- regardless of the particular task at hand
2. Automatically and seamlessly support device- and technology-independent functionality
3. Enhance Findability, Visibility, and Prominence among Mobile Search Engines' Rankings
4. Attain extended Web Accessibility
5. Attain extended Web Usability
6. Maximize your company's return on investment (ROI)

All of these benefits are manifested throughout the always-and-ever productivity-focused sonoffconsulting.mobi domain.

Scsi's Multi-faceted Answer to the Fundamental Question regarding Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design: So What?

To answer any specific "So What?" question necessitates knowing first and foremost what issue or issues are being brought into question. To determine what the particulars are that must be addressed, Scsi will first present a big picture perspective and then focus on details associated with any one or more of the specific facets that collectively comprise Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design implementation.

TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design: Seeing the Big Picture of Scsi's Design

Scsi's question to you is this: "How many of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design facets does your Mobile Web site's design successfully address?"

To see the overall picture of what is stated above, launch the Scsi TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design diagram -- or the thumbnail graphic immediately below if present -- to view or download a full-page Adobe PDF diagram that incorporates hyperlinks to the respective details associated with each of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facets.

TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design: Examining each and every Design Facet

A major part of the effort toward achieving an acceptable solution for any problem, let alone a Web site design, is to be sure to ask the right questions. Given even that accomplishment, you must subsequently establish the set of appropriate answers to each of those questions and then properly implement those well-thought-out answers as part of your Mobile Web site's design. With this approach in mind, let's now look at each of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facets in more detail.

Examining the above big picture of Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design in terms of the indicated ten facets allows Scsi the opportunity to cite many of the considerations that companies should weigh very carefully before drawing the conclusion that their personnel have or will be likely to have achieved anything even close to a World Class Level Mobile Web site implementation.

Any time

A Web site must, of course, be maintained and kept available on a round-the-clock (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) basis. This facet must be handled by the associated servers and network elements on which the Mobile Web site's files reside. In today's day and age this would be a given condition of being able to do business effectively and productively.

Anywhere

By the very nature of being a Web site, this requirement is another given -- provided that some means of access to the Mobile Web site's URL address is available at the actual point of attempted access. In short, this facet is a network connectivity issue that for most companies is coordinated with a third party as the supplier.

Any (Internet access-enabled) device

Here is where things get more involved. Consider just some of the possible devices that can be and are used for accessing the Internet: Microsoft Operating Systems-based desktop personal computers, laptops, Smart phones/Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Enterprise Digital Assistants (EDAs), Web-enabled cell phones, Apple/MacIntosh Operating Systems-based computers, Unix-, Linux-, and various proprietary operating systems-based computers, and so on.

With the burgeoning of all of the "Virtual Workplace" mobility-driven devices that are being announced nearly every day, this facet of TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design will only continue to grow and will do so at an exponentially growing rate. How can this trend be best addressed? Only through Web site personnel's adherence to judicious design principles and Best Practices will addressing of this particular facet be realized.

Any technology

A fundamentally sound Mobile Web site design must not be tied to any specific technology if it is to have any chance of achieving ubiquitous Web access operational capability. Instead, the design must essentially be transparent to and independent of technological issues and hardware.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices #2, #4, #6, #7, and #10 are among the essential elements involved.

Any browser

Imagine visiting Mobile Web sites that display admittedly Web browser-restrictive statements, such as "This page works best with Microsoft's Internet Explorer." or "Please Update Your Browser. You are using a web browser that is not fully compatible with (product name). (Product name) works best with the most recent version of web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer."

Obviously, all such Mobile Web sites whose designs depend (knowingly or otherwise) upon the use of a specific vendor's Web browser will inherently be limited to serving reliably only that particular segment of the overall Web browser universe. That's a poor way to conduct business and such shortsighted designs are and will effectively remain frozen in time to an "as is, where is" mode of performance -- something which is wholly unacceptable in today's (and tomorrow's) "I want it all, I want it now, and I want it delivered on the system I am using for accessing your Mobile Web site's pages" marketplace.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Scsi's Best Practice #2.

Any Operating System

In the "dot com" Web marketplace, Scsi has heard from many individuals that they have attempted to access Web pages on a number of Web sites using Apple computers with their non-Microsoft Windows Operating Systems and find that they are not able to display the Web pages on their computers. Certainly, such operating-system-dependent Web page display situations should never surface when and if a robust Mobile Web site design is established in the first place.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices #2, #4, #6, #7, and #10 are among the essential elements involved.

Any screen size

This design facet is perhaps the most obvious one to strive to meet. After all, who can say whether a Mobile Web page is to be viewed using a 70-inch WebTV-based access or a cell phone with a nominal less-than-two-inches wide and high display screen? Yet, many companies simply work on the basis of assumptions that the user will be satisfied with whatever fixed layout design is provided by the Mobile Web site's design personnel. This is not the best approach to take, and when users find that other Mobile Web sites, such as Scsi's P&KT Mobile Web site demonstrate a "can do and here it is for you to enjoy" solution, then don't you think you'll eventually be forced to accommodate this now-expected design facet in your own Mobile Web site(s)?

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Both of these conditions can be accommodated by a liquid layout design as exemplified by Scsi's Best Practice #7.

Any window size

This design facet is in effect an extension of the any screen size design facet, but it is nonetheless an important one that should be addressed if only because of the two extremes of content display that might occur: 1) a text display width so wide on a large screen that would exceed a convenient field-of-view eyespan -- but which can be easily accommodated by reducing the width of the window, and 2) a text display that might have a horizontal scroll bar present -- but which can be eliminated simply by increasing the width of the window from its current width.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Both of these conditions can be accommodated by a liquid layout design as exemplified by Scsi's Best Practice #7.

Any connection speed

If a Mobile Web site's design is to please all of its users from a performance perspective, it must certainly display the contents of its Mobile Web pages in a reasonably short period of time. Of that, there can be little dispute. Disparities, however, begin to surface when Mobile Web site developers and testers make gross assumptions such as connectivity will be at broadband or higher rates for their graphics-laden or multi-page textual content Web pages.

But what about taking into account the handling of lower-speed-of-access situations that obviously do occur? For example, imagine the dissatisfaction that arises when a user just so happens to be restricted to a dialup connection or happens to be making use of an Internet access-enabled device that simply does not have such high-speed connectivity capabilities? Result: Each such accessed Web page may take a very, very long time to load before it reaches a point where sufficient content is actually displayed to enable the user to read and/or to process that information further.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Scsi's Best Practice #1.

Any platform

So many companies seem to adopt an "isolate and conquer" approach to providing Web site content for various platforms. Some Web site designs make use of Web browser user agents that force upon the user the associated Web site URL that they have created for serving that particular category of device. So, if you happen to be using a cell phone, you might be redirected to a "wireless" Web site with its attendant highly-simplified series of hyperlinks to select from -- a Web site that is essentially totally different from the one you would view if you were to have accessed the same URL address using a desktop or laptop device. Amazing, isn't it, that you are thrust into a "You can't get there (when accessing the Mobile Web site with your mobile device) from here!" mode of operation, and you can't do anything about it.

Conversely, Scsi believes in a "unify and conquer" approach such that the user always remains in control. That way, you always get to where you want to go (URL-wise in this case) regardless of the means of access you choose to employ to get to a given Mobile Web site's pages. In short, there should be no surprises or disparities when it comes to providing users with what they want -- and expect to get -- upon accessing (assuming that if logging in is required, that has already been completed) successfully for any given Mobile Web site.

What is Scsi's solution for this TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design facet? Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices #2, #4, #6, #7, and #10 are among the essential elements involved.

How might other companies proceed to achieve TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web design for their Mobile Web sites?

Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design approach is outlined throughout the Scsi P&KT Mobile Web site's pages. There are no magic formulas, no tricks of the trade or otherwise, and no shortcuts to doing one's homework to bring to fruition a Web site that offers a first-pass solution (read: Scsi's TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design) for Ubiquitous Web access.

Any company that is serious about following in Scsi's footsteps to realize TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design for its Web site(s) should take three basic steps to get there:

1. Pore over the contents of Scsi's P&KT Mobile Web site and put everything to the test to prove to yourself the validity of each of Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices
2. Formulate a plan focused on implementing as many of Scsi's Mobile Web Best Practices as possible.
3. Contact Scsi should you or others within your company realize that professional assistance and expertise is called for.

Take the necessary steps and you will be well on your way toward achieving TOTAL ACCESS Mobile Web Design for each of your Mobile Web sites. Good luck.

Mobile Web Page Validation and Contact Information

Validate this Scsi's Mobile WebKISS™ Guide #11: TOTAL ACCESS ... So what? Page to assure full conformance to W3C's XHTML 1.0 Basic, cascading style sheet (CSS), and WCAG Accessibility recommendations.

Contact Information: Raymond Sonoff, President of Sonoff Consulting Services, Inc., 271 Saxony Drive, Crestview Hills, KY 41017-2294 USA: Telephone: (859) 261-5908.