# Markdown, pandoc -f markdown -t plain -s brief.txt | pbcopy Summary ======= Non-desktop Internet usage is on the increase and will surpass desktop use sometime in the next few years (UK). Capabilities of web connected devices have become blurred across many axis. Bandwidth, screen size, and interaction (touch, mouse) as well as the rapid release of new device features make the traditional distinction between a low 'mobile' proposition and high 'desktop' website redundant. In short 'mobile' is not a second class citizen on the web. Problem ======= BBC News has a low-end mobile website for low-end devices, a desktop site for high-end web browsers, several mobile and tablet app's, and other bespoke products for TV platforms. Each has different release cycle, a different feature set, and a different UI. We can not sustain the development and support of so many rich versions of our products across a growing number of platforms. So how do we represent our product across every device (universality) in good time (competitive) without the expense of creating many versions of everything we do (value for money) and maintaining a world class user experience (quality) ? We think investment in standards based web app's over native app's will solve these problems. Work-streams ============ The work is divided in to three streams. Responsive Design (Mobile refresh) ---------------------------------- We want to refresh the bbc.co.uk/mobile/news website and think a feature-detection based responsive design approach across three axis (interaction, bandwidth, screen size) is the most sensible way to proceed. Goals:- * Quality of experience. We have to prove the web is as usable as native app's. This includes gestures. * How does the user navigate through the core proposition - indexes & stories, live events, pictures etc. * How does the user navigate from News -> Sport -> iPlayer -> News -> Weather * Spike the GEL mobile work. What does it mean for implementation. * Evaluate video/audio playback performance and battery life of the html5 approach to serving video. * Demonstrate how we can get feature and content parity with the desktop site. * Validate the responsive design Vs other approaches (Eg. user-agent sniffing) Artefacts:- * One or more prototypes in touch phone environments - Blackberry v6, iOS and Android the works at different bandwidths and screen sizes. * This phases will primarily concern itself with feature phones, smart phones and small tablets. * Draft strategy document in collaboration with other mobile teams. Probably split in to a 6 months (delivery), 18 months plans (strategic). * Requirements for dependencies - Frameworks, CPS, GEL etc. * A proposed technical architecture * Presentation of findings Hybrid Native App / Browser --------------------------- [to be resourced by 3rd party] Native app's provide two advantages over web app's. Firstly, marketing is important and it's harder to raise awareness of pure web-based applications without a presence in the various app stores. Secondly, app's can provide access to the device capabilities (eg. camera, contacts). Although the W3C device working group is addressing this gap we think over the next two years a hybrid web/native app gives the best balance of a web-based user interface extended by native features. Taking the responsive design work we want to prototype the user experience of housing a web app in a thin native app wrapper. We also want to extend the web app with features based on the capabilities of the native device. Goals:- * Quality of experience. We have to prove this is a usable experience. * We are open to both compiled approaches (eg. phonegap) Vs bespoke SDK development but would like a clear reason why one outweighs the other. * How does the user navigate through the core proposition - indexes & stories, live events, pictures etc. * Demonstrate how native applications can extend the web app by:- * A. Building a breaking news feature in to the native app (Eg. poll a feed an alert the user to new breaking updates) * B. Building a offline reading mode feature in to the native app. (Eg. download content at 4pm every day to read offline) - offline includes stories, galleries, and videos. Artefacts:- * One or more prototypes in touchscreen environments - Blackberry v6, iOS and Android. * Write a native app shell using Blackberry, iOS and Android SDKs that can include remote web content (ie. via WebView components etc.) images, and video. * Presentation of findings. Bespoke Tablet App ------------------ We want to deliver a tailored experience to certain devices. Eg. watching the election night on your TV while your iPad is on your lap. We want to experiment with what sort of experience we can give users on these devices. Taking, say, the Live Event page as an example, what browsed based experience can we deliver to these folks? [TODO - this needs some goals before we can start work] Other Related Work ================== Specials -------- Specials are running a project to rethink about how we should build infographics and richer animated content (ie. Flash) in a multi-device world, where large screens and Flash support are not the status quo. Other Projects -------------- 2012, Sport, Weather, Homepage, iPlayer and others need to synchronize our approaches to building mobile and desktop sites. Process ======= * The project will run in weekly sprints with a half-day planning & review at the start and end of each block of work. * We require developers on-site for at least 3 days p/week, and the rest of the time be on IRC, email, telephone. * The project starts on 18th April and runs for 6 weeks. The project will be evaluated at the end of May. * External work to be costed on time and materials basis. Evaluation Criteria =================== All the prototypes will be evaluated on the following criteria, * Usability - Responsive (efficiency, slickness, performance), learnable/easy-to-use/memorable, gestural (touch, swipe), aesthetics, satisfaction * Testability - testing is the foundation of quality software. We need to evaluate the ease of integration with test frameworks, integration in to CI environment of both the web and hybrid app's. * Accessibility - We've obligation to ensure our content is universally available. * Production efficiency - Prove that web app's are quicker to build, release, improve and support than native app's.