Mobile site development practice

    In the early autumn of this year, we conducted a survey with colleagues from CMS Magazine, in which we participated and shared our experience and opinions of more than 500 web studios and agencies, for which many thanks to them.
    We publish some of the results here, hoping that many of you will be interested in this data and leave your comments or use them as necessary in reports / meetings and so on.
    And yes, attention: under the cut a lot of pictures!


    Supply and demand

    For the year (from mid-2011 to mid-2012), each company developed an average of 25 sites. At the same time, only 16% of the released sites were adapted for mobile devices (that is, they had an adaptive layout or a mobile version). And only half of the mobile sites had any advanced functionality (personal account, online ordering, etc.).

    “How many sites have your company developed over the past year?”
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    The main reason for this situation is the lack of demand for mobile device support among customers: only 15% of agencies feel this demand.

    “Is there a demand for website adaptation for mobile devices?”
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    It is interesting that Moscow and St. Petersburg customers ignore mobile devices in the same way as in the regions: only 17% of agencies feel demand.

    In turn, the reason for the lack of demand is that customers do not expect tangible traffic from mobile devices, and also do not want to increase the budget for the development of the site. A quarter of developers do not even offer customers such a service.

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    Meanwhile, according to Liveinternet.ru, in Runet more than 20% of the traffic falls on the mobile operating systems Android, iOS and Symbian. Obviously, so many potential visitors cannot be ignored. Therefore, the skepticism of customers regarding the relevance of the mobile presentation of the site is partly inertial.

    As indicated above, only 16% of sites created over the year were adapted for mobile devices. Heads of agencies themselves believe that this number should be much larger: 37% of respondents believe that almost all websites produced by their agency should be adapted for mobile devices; another 36% - which is approximately every second. With certain assumptions, this data can be considered an expert opinion of the community of web developers.

    “How many of the sites you developed over the past year objectively needed to be equipped with a mobile version or made responsive?”
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    Feasibility of supporting mobile devices

    Obviously, the appropriateness of supporting mobile devices varies depending on the type (model) of the site: for web services (social networks, email, schedules), the mobile version is more important than for corporate "business card sites." It is interesting that, according to professional developers, of the site models that are most often developed by web agencies to order, only online stores certainly need to be adapted for mobile devices. And the feasibility for corporate sites is already significantly lower.

    “For what types of sites is it generally advisable to create fully functional mobile versions?”
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    The answer to the question “Do I need to adapt the site for mobile devices” should be based on the scenarios of consumption of site content. In general, people use the mobile web in order to “clarify information / contacts”, “quickly order”, “find out the schedule”, “see the news”, that is, situationally. For a detailed study of information (including the product range), mobile devices, especially telephones, are not so convenient. Based on the scenarios of using the site, you can determine whether it is necessary to support mobile devices, to what extent present mobile content, what functionality to provide a mobile site.

    Speaking about the functionality of site management systems (CMS) in the context of mobile sites, it is obvious that CMS should support the basic functions of working with mobile sites:

    • structure and content management;
    • support for different templates for displaying information on different types of sites;
    • automatic detection of the type of user device;
    • automatic or manual transition to a similar page on a mobile site from the main one and vice versa;
    • the ability to broadcast content from the main site to mobile (to avoid duplication of work on content management).


    Below is a list of additional features that web developers consider the most popular for mobile sites.

    “Which of the following modules / functionalities are most in demand on mobile sites?”
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    Practical issues

    There are two ways to adapt a site for mobile devices: creating a mobile site “next to” the main one, and creating a single site for all types of devices (website with adaptive layout). The third method (a single site for all types of devices; the design template varies depending on the type of device) we did not consider due to the lack of versatility, because it is suitable for a small number of site models, for example, media, blogs.

    The choice of method depends on many factors (site model, the paradigm of using the site from mobile devices), including from the cost. The diagram below shows how the cost of an average website project will change if:

    • provide the main site with a mobile version
    • develop an adaptive website (working correctly under any type of device)


    “How will the cost of your average project increase if you put a mobile version in it or make the site responsive?”
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    In general, an adaptive site is cheaper to develop than a pair of “main and mobile sites”.

    Another important issue that arises when developing a mobile site is design. In Russia, custom web development uses comparatively little ready-made design templates (for example, templatemonster.com): as a rule, an individual template is developed for each new "full-format" site. Mobile sites, in view of the small workspace (screen), give the designer and designer much less opportunity to decorate and decorate, display large menus, advertising banners, widgets. In addition, there is an opinion that the interface of a mobile site should resemble the interface of the telephone operating system rather than the corporate identity of the company that owns the site. Therefore, web agencies are more tolerant of standard design layouts:

    “Do you (and your customers) think that the mobile version of the site should have a unique design designed specifically for the customer?”
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    It must be borne in mind that adaptive sites appeared as a trend in development only last year, while most major information projects acquired mobile versions of sites many years ago, before the boom of smartphones and mobile Internet. However, this time was enough for the developers to appreciate the idea and imbued it.

    And now, more than half of the developers believe that the future lies precisely with responsive sites.

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    Final conclusions

    • Currently, the demand among customers for the adaptation of sites for mobile devices is extremely small, despite the tangible share of mobile traffic in Runet.
    • Demand indicators are approximately equal in both capitals and in Russia as a whole.
    • Website developers do not support this skepticism of customers, but they only rarely manage to overcome it.
    • A significant percentage of developers consider it important to adapt to mobile devices for information and service projects, as well as for online stores; other, more common site models (corporate, personal, promotional sites) are much less common.
    • The most important functional modules for a mobile site (apart from those taken for granted): the basic features of an online store, search, integration with social networks, communication tools, a personal account.
    • Adaptation of the site for mobile devices will most likely increase the project budget by 20-50%, while responsive sites will likely be cheaper than creating a mobile version.
    • Most developers allow the use of standard mobile site design templates.
    • According to the professional community, the future of the web lies with responsive sites.

    The full version of the study with comments by NetCat and CMS Magazine, as well as the source data, which can even be used to create your own charts, can be found here .

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