Interview with The Next Web
I recently had the opportunity to do an interview with The Next Web, where I got to talk about WTF QR Codes (of course), but also about WTF Mobile Web and what goes into a good & bad mobile web experience.
The biggest thing that makes a mobile web experience terrible is not achieving content parity. Whether you’re presented with a message saying “Sorry, your device is not supported”, or you’re forced to download an app, or you’re redirected to the mobile site’s homepage, or you just get a fraction of the real content, you’re not getting what you asked for. That pisses you off. You’re arbitrarily being penalized for the device you happen to be browsing with.
It’s a lot of fun managing these sites and even more fun collaborating on them with Craig and Jen. And while it’s fun to harp on these bad experiences, the goal is to establish best practices by demonstrating what not to do. It takes a lot of work to make a good experience, so pointing out common pitfalls can hopefully prevent the same mistakes from happening over and over again.