One of the most thought-provoking events I've had over the last 12 months occurred when I was first piloting mobile learning. Taking on board prototype feedback, I shaved one third off the length of the exemplar module. Quite a challenge, but the end result proved that by stripping out superfluous elements and identifying and concentrating on the absolute core concepts, you could deliver a piece of learning that was both effective and efficient.
My latest - and surprisingly successful - project of delivering short burst of learning to mobile devices in PDF format has again made me question whether we need to rethink everything we've done over the last decade or so. With today's fast-paced business environment and the major change in how we consume information and knowledge today, outside of the workplace, I'm starting to think that short, sharp and to the point will the mantra for future development. Maybe controversially, I wonder whether our future learners will have the time and appetite to always learn through traditional instructional design approaches. Is it time to through away all those e-learning design books I've got? In our attempts to replicate the best of the classroom in our on-line learning, are we now out of step with the modern learning scene?
So, when I spotted Mobile First, I was interested to see what its author had to say, given his view that web developers should now start with the mobile version of their site, before building its bigger brother. His views seem to reflect mine. Start with the mobile version, cut out all that extra "stuff" that sometimes gets in the way and really hone in on what the customer needs.
This is an easy-to-read book, packed full of colour examples that illustrate the points being made. Although part of a series aimed at web developers, it's not a technical book. Aside from one or two references to specific coding, for which the author apologises, this is a great book for the lay person (me included) to really get to grips with the key issues that matter when designing a mobile website. [It's important to stress that this book is not about mobile app development.]
Mobile First explores the many constraints that developing for mobiles impose, such as the screen size, overall performance and the influences of time and place on the user experience. It then goes onto look at the sometimes unique capabilities that mobiles offer developers such as rotating browser views, location services and touch screens.
The chapter on Organisation explores the important requirement to re-think what a mobile website is all about and has only served to provoke me into examining the whole business of e-learning design. I think the breakdown of interaction types into Lookup/Find, Explore/Play, Check In/Status and Edit/Create offers a great model for mobile learning. And this gives a powerful example of how easy it is to forget the "consumer" of our information. This chapter also covers navigation and keeping the focus clear.
The next chapter looks at how the user interacts with the site in terms of user controls, by touch screen and via other means, with the following section exploring how to make entering information into the website (i.e. inputs) as straightforward as possible.
The final chapter concentrates on the subject of layout and how some now-standard coding can help to create the best user experience on all manner of device types.
I mentioned that this book is easy to read. But if you want more detail, then there are 67 shortened URLs (later stated in full in an appendix) that will take you to more detailed research into - or examples of - each point being made. Very valuable.
If you're involved with mobile learning, I'd recommend this book. Although that wasn't its intention, it's helped me to refine my thinking as to the shape of learning to come.
*** PLEASE NOTE *** The edition of this book on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com is the French language version. It would appear you can only order the English version direct from the publisher, but delivery from the US was relatively inexpensive and very quick.
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