Octomobi Blog

For the last 6 months, we have been carefully studying what makes a great mobile site great, how visitors like to navigate in mobile sites, how our users use Octomobi and what the future of the mobile web looks like.

We believe that HTML5 will continue to prove itself as a valuable tool for creating mobile sites for smartphones, which in turn have become more accessible in the last couple of years. This trend will continue and become even stronger in 2012 as most new handsets sold will be smartphones. The Mobile Web Congress in Barcelona last week showed the introduction of a few high end devices but also new low-end devices aimed at developing economies, and this will make it possible for millions of new people around the world to jump into the smartphone revolution.

This week we are officially launching the first of a series of upgrades in Octomobi that have the goal of making the Octomobi mobile site builder easier, faster and the mobile sites created more powerful and beautiful.

Firstly, we have introduced a new tabbed navigation system in the mobile site builder that is intended to make the navigation clearer and easier. You can switch between each tab by clicking on the tab itself or in the "Next" and "Back" buttons at the bottom of each screen.

Secondly, we have introduced new amazing layouts, that will certainly make you mobile sites stand out from the crowd!

All these fantastic layouts are fully compatible with all the features that make Octomobi mobile sites so unique: swift page transition effects (fade, pop, flip, turn, flow, slide, etc.), touch-optimized buttons and elements and pre-fetching of pages to speed up navigation are just a few examples. Existing users don't need to worry as all existing sites will continue to work as normal.

Finally, it is now possible to choose any custom color for the buttons and for the background. It's also possible to use images and textures as background, something that gives a big amount of flexibility to mobile site design.

We sincerely hope that your mobile site look and feel be only limited to your imagination and that you enjoy the new features as much as we enjoyed building them.

 

Nowadays, when most people have access to the mobile web, having your personal portfolio online and accessible from any mobile phone can help you show yourself and your work in a very effective way.

Note: if you want to see how to create a mobile presence for your business, please see How you make your business mobile friendly in 5 mins.

Octomobi offers all the tools you need to create your personal mobile portfolio. By using the latest technology such as HTML5 standard, which makes it cool to use and as good looking and responsive as any native mobile application, such as the ones you download from the app store. With Octomobi you can create a great mobile portfolio with all the features below in just a few minutes:

• Texts (to present yourself and your work)
• Photo Gallery (show your previous work)
• Videos (present a video about yourself or work you have done)
• Download (your CV)
• Social Media (links to your Twitter and Facebook accounts)

Let's go through the process of creating a mobile website (or webapp) with all of the features above in Octomobi:

 

STEP 1

Go to www.octomobi.com, click on get started and select a plan. You can start with the free plan, it will probably be enough for your needs.

On the mobile webapp builder screen, select a layout. For this exercise I am going to select the "Flexi" layout (note that you can change the default center image in the flexi layout for anything that you want).

STEP 2

Firstly, let's configure the layout. Click on "Layout Settings", change the webapp name to your name and the change the middle image for something more meaningful, such as a picture of you.

Next, configure each section by clicking on the pencil icon and filling in the required information in the popup screen that opens.

You can enter text in the "Content Page" section. For a Photo Gallery use the "Image Gallery" section. To make your CV available for download, you can use the "File Download" section, where you can upload any file and make it available in your mobile website. The social media links (Twitter and Facebook) can be included in the "Social Media Links" (note that you need to fill in your Twitter user name and Facebook page URL, or else the links don't appear).

The only item that needs some extra work is the video. The best way to have a video in your mobile website is to use Youtube. Just upload your video to Youtube and use the "External Link" section to link directly to your video. It works great, because Youtube is able to detect that your visitor is using a mobile phone, and will display the video correctly in the phone.

 

You could also use the "Contact Us" and "Intro" sections to make say something about you or your products, and make sure people can contact you directly from their phones.

 

STEP 3

Once you are happy with your mobile webapp, click next to move to the registration screen where you will be able to create an account. Make sure all your information is correct (specially your email), click next again and you are done! This is how our example looks like:

 

To test your mobile webapp, take any smartphone such as iPhones, Androids or Blackberries and type the URL of your new mobile webapp.

In the next post, we will write about QR codes, and how you can use them to boost your mobile presence even more by connecting the real world to the online mobile world. Stay tuned.

If a business wants to capture the increasing number of mobile web users, it is essential to offer a mobile friendly version of their website.

Besides making sure that the content looks good in smaller screens, it's equally important to make sure that the content is also adapted to mobile visitors. Simply having an exact copy of your website but in a mobile format just won't cut it. Mobile web users want shorter texts, objective information and a great user experience.

Here is how to create a great mobile website for your business, that uses the latest technology to mimic the native app user experience allowing visitors to instantly connect with your content:

 

STEP 1

Go to www.octomobi.com, click on "GET STARTED" and choose your plan. You can start with the Basic (Free) mobile website plan while you learn how to use the tools and then upgrade to Pro once you are ready to use all the features that Octomobi offers.

 

STEP 2

Once you are in the mobile webapp editor, start by choosing your layout (in the automatic layout selection screen that pops-up) and then set your business name (or upload your logo) by clicking on the "Layout settings" button. 

 

STEP 3

Choose the sections you want in your website and configure them by clicking in each of the pencil icons. For every section you include, you will be able to see how it is going to look like in the mobile simulator on the right hand side of the screen. This gives you a pretty good idea of how your mobile site will look like in a smartphone.

Once you are done editing your mobile site, click on "NEXT STEP"

 

STEP 4

If you selected the Basic package, now you just need to create your Octomobi account, click on "PUBLISH" and you are done! If you selected the Pro package, you will be taken through the checkout process first.

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Once your webapp is published and your account is created, make sure you login into your user dashboard where you can:

• Get a script to place in your main website to automatically redirect mobile visitors to your mobile webapp
• Create a QR code that you can place anywhere and will redirect people to your mobile webapp once scanned with a phone
• Manage and edit your webapp

Visit www.octomobi.com and create your mobile webapp today!

As some of you may know, we have been operating in stealth mode since the beginning of 2011, avoiding any big press and social media contact but listening to your feedback and implementing new features at a furious rate. At the beginning of July, we finally launched Octomobi.

You can find our press release here: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/7/prweb8625366.htm

New Features of the month

• New layouts options: We have introduced 3 new layout options for your webapp, and many customization options. Go to the webapp editor to find out more.
• QR Codes: Do you know what they are? QR Codes are similar to bar codes, but they hold much more information (like a webapp URL for example). Visitors can scan QR codes using their phones and be automatically redirected to your webapp. All Octomobi users can generate QR Codes for their webapps for free in Octomobi, just login to your user dashboard and click on "QR Code"
• Google Analytics: Pro customers can track webapp visitors using the industry leading web analytics tool from Google. You can configure your Analytics account in the webapp editor, by clicking in the "layout settings" page.

We will continue to improve the product and introduce new and exciting features. Feel free to tell us what you think and what you would like to see in Octomobi.