Research
Library Mobile App
Development
Current conditions and
strategic choices
Bruce Washburn
Software Engineer
OCLC Research
TAI CHI Webinar Series
Technical Advances for Innovation in Cultural Heritage Institutions
There’s something happening here …
Pandora Radio
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Mobile Development
Overview
• “library”, “mobile”, and “app” – some definitions
• The landscape
• Native vs. Web apps
• The Hype Cycle
• Some suggestions
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Mobile Development
Defining “library”
• The library catalog
• Library services in general
• The institution providing the library
• Links from the wider world
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Mobile Development
The Library Catalog
• A scaled-down version of
the full search interface
• Search result details are
also limited
• Some indicate if titles are
available
• Some provide a way to
request an item
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Mobile Development
The Library Catalog
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Mobile Development
Library Services
• For mobile users, the
catalog is not the only
service of interest
• Library hours, reserving a
room or computer,
checking out materials,
paying fines, reading eresources
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Mobile Development
Library Services
Santa Clara County Library
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Mobile Development
The institution providing the library
• Promotion can work well for an
institution-focused app, including
library services
• A one stop shopping advantage
• Other app features provide
gravitational pull
DukeMobile
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Mobile Development
Links from the wider world
• Libraries surface in shopping apps
• A way for the library to be seen in
the flow of popular apps, without
the user having to focus first on
the institution or library
RedLaser
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Mobile Development
Links from the wider world
Pic2Shop
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CompareEverywhere
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Book Bazaar
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Mobile Development
Defining “mobile”
• A medium, a concept, devices, networks
• Blurring distinctions between feature phones and
smartphones
• The past: slow networks, constrained data entry, small
screens
• The future: fast networks, bigger screens, improved
keyboard input, voice recognition
• Maybe it means “ubiquitous”, or “always with me”
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Mobile Development
Smartphones are still outnumbered
2009 Phone Sales
Devices Sold
1000
900
800
700
Devices sold (M)
• iPhones: 25 million
• Other
Smartphones: 148
million
• All Mobile Phones:
1 billion
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
iPhones
Other SmartPhones
Other Mobile Phones
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1306513
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Mobile Development
http://blog.quantcast.com/quantcast/2010/03/mobile-os-share.html
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Mobile Development
Smartphones and web browsing
http://metrics.admob.com/2010/03/february-2010-mobile-metrics-report/
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Mobile Development
Defining “apps”
• Convenient shorthand, or horrendous jargon, depending
on your point of view
• An application
• Might be a “native” program for a specific device
• Might be a website that is designed with mobile devices
in mind
• Might be a widget, or an embedded feature in someone
else’s application
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Mobile Development
Mobile Apps for Library Services
• Some libraries have a mobile web interface
• A few libraries have developed native apps
• Many library websites are not mobile-friendly
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Mobile Development
Mobile Web Apps
• Content is served by a website
• XHTML optimized for mobile
• Widely accessible
• Optimizations vary a lot
• May not be accepted by some mobile marketplaces,
e.g., the iTunes App Store
• Some mobile device features unavailable (Geo-location,
local data storage, camera, inter-operability with other
native apps)
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Mobile Development
Library mobile web apps
New York Public Library
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Univ. of Virginia Library
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Victoria University
TAI CHI Webinar Series, 29 April 2010
Mobile Development
Mobile Native Apps
• Written for a mobile operating system, e.g., iPhone,
Android, Palm, etc.
• Significant effort to support all mobile devices
• Mobile developer communities are growing
• Device features (camera, microphone, speaker, GPS)
are all available
• HTML5 technologies may push the pendulum back to
web apps, for capable mobile browsers
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Mobile Development
Library mobile native apps
New LIS Books
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DC Public Library
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DukeMobile
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Mobile Development
Strategic Choices
• Access to a catalog or something else?
• Native or web app?
• One device or several?
• App code built, bought, or borrowed?
• How much to invest?
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Mobile Development
Native vs. Web
• Strong advocates of both
• Easy to get absorbed in the arguments
• As with most things in life, when determining which
path to choose, the choice comes down to “it depends”
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Mobile Development
Developing apps for one device
Sometimes it makes good sense:
• You require a feature that only that device supports
• The device’s market is big enough, for you
• You know all of your app users have the device
• You’re experimenting
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Mobile Development
WorldCat Mobile Pilot
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library mobile apps
TAI CHI Webinar Series, 29 April 2010
Mobile Development
The Gartner Hype Cycle
• Represents the maturity and adoption of various
technologies
• Term coined by Gartner, Inc.
• Five Phases, from trigger to productivity
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Mobile Development
Gartner Research: Hype Cycle
http://blogs.reuters.com/commentaries/2009/08/11/twitter-backlash-foretold/
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Mobile Development
Gartner Research: Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies, July 2009
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1124212
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Mobile Development
Library Mobile App Hype Cycle – Where are we?
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Mobile Development
Expectation, then disappointment
“ … it is tempting to wish that this cycle of expectation
and disappointment could be avoided. In fact, the
cycle is an essential part of the innovation process. It
is a collective measure of our goals, and the distance
that must be traversed in order to realize them.”
Saffo, Paul. “’Revolution’ the Hype Word of Computer Industry Advances." InfoWorld 4 Feb. 1991:
60. Print.
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Mobile Development
iPhone Apps and the Long Tail
“The average iPhone or iPod Touch owner uses 5 to 10
apps regularly, according to Flurry, a research firm that
studies mobile trends. This despite the surfeit of
available apps: some 140,000 and counting.”
Hafner, Katie. "When Phones Are Just Too Smart." The New York Times. The New York Times
Company, 29 Jan. 2010. Web. 24 Feb. 2010..
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/fashion/31apps.html.
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Mobile Development
iPhone Apps and the Long Tail
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Mobile Development
What counts as success?
• More use, not just the same use on a different device
• Fewer clicks per transaction
• New uses
• Moving library services into the flow
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Mobile Development
Promotion, Use, and Buzz
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZAbB1kJ-HU
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Mobile Development
Some suggestions
• Mobile devices are reaching your content. Make that
work.
• Work with, and improve, existing library mobile
applications.
• Don’t disenfranchise users of mobile devices that tend
not to browse the web.
• Study user needs, study results of use, and refactor
accordingly.
• Report your study results to the library community.
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Mobile Development
What Makes a Great App?
Pandora Radio
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Mobile Development
Resources noted
In Print
Fenn, Jackie, and Mark Raskino. Mastering the Hype Cycle: How to Choose the Right Innovation at
the Right Time. Boston, Mass: Harvard Business Press, 2008.
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/213312226
Fling, Brian. Mobile Design and Development. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly Media, 2009.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/mobile-design-and-development/oclc/318413920
Mobile Strategy
http://m-strat.org/
Griffey, Jason. Mobile Technology and Libraries. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, 2010.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/mobile-technology-and-libraries/oclc/498135636
Mobile Usability
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html
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Mobile Development
Resources noted
Apps
Book Bazaar
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/book-bazaar/id309067586
CompareEverywhere
Visit the Android Market on an Android device
DC Public Library
http://itunes.apple.com/app/dcpl/id301077850
DukeMobile
http://itunes.apple.com/app/dukemobile/id306796270
http://m.duke.edu
iStanford
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/istanford/id292922029
Nashville Public Library
http://waldo.library.nashville.org/airpac/jsp/airpacIndex.jsp
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Mobile Development
Resources noted
Apps, continued
NCSU Libraries MobiLIB
http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/m
New LIS Books
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/new-lis-books/id352102769
New York Public Library Mobile
http://m.nypl.org/
Pandora Radio
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pandora-radio/id284035177
Pic2shop
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pic2shop/id308740640
RedLaser
http://itunes.apple.com/app/redlaser/id312720263
Santa Clara County Library
http://sccl.boopsie.com
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Mobile Development
Resources noted
Apps, continued
UNC Library Mobile
http://www.lib.unc.edu/m/
University of Virginia Library
http://m.lib.virginia.edu/
Victoria University Library Mobile
http://m.library.vu.edu.au/
WorldCat Mobile
http://www.worldcat.org/wcpa/content/mobile/
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Mobile Development
Resources noted
Development Resources
Android Developers
http://developer.android.com/index.html
DC Public Library Labs iPhone Application
http://dclibrarylabs.org/projects/iphone/
iPhone Dev Center
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/index.action
iUI iPhone web app library
http://www.joehewitt.com/blog/introducing_iui.php
MIT Mobile Web source code
http://sourceforge.net/projects/mitmobileweb/
W3C Mobile Web Best Practices
http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/
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Mobile Development
Contact
Bruce Washburn
Software Engineer, OCLC Research, San Mateo CA
bruce_washburn@oclc.org
TAI CHI Webinar Series
http://www.oclc.org/research/events/taichi.htm
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