Desiging for iPhones

At my last job, for quite some time the place was abuzz with the word "mobile." Mobile apps, mobile this, mobile that. Every client wanted to have some sort of mobile aspect to their sites, and they threw the word out often with little regard for how mobile would be used and whether their visitors even had any need or desire for it.

Somewhat oddly, this seemed to have largely been triggered by the launch of the iPhone, which doesn't actually require any special "mobile" version -- it can access sites just as any computer can. Some folks internally thought that, as things continued moving in a "computer in the palm of your hand" direction, the distinction between mobile and desktop versions of sites would become a moot point.

But a year after the iPhone launched I think it's clear that you can't just plan for the iPhone version of the site to be the same. I don't own an iPhone myself, but I remember using a friend's iPhone last summer to check my Gmail. The process was clunky, and although Google tends to have fairly lightweight sites, it still was rather slow, probably due to the AJAX going on. Recently I borrowed a friend's iPhone and realized that Google had created an iPhone-specific version of Gmail, which showed a marked improvement. I've seen other sites create iPhone versions with far less success -- Fandango tries to get it right, but their decision to spread showtimes for a single movie theater over multiple pages, rather than just keeping them on one scrollable page, was a serious misstep ("scroll fear" really needs to be ditched completely) -- it made me have to memorize showtimes from one page to the next if I wanted to compare multiple movies, and slowed things down by requiring the iPhone to load multiple pages.

All this got me wondering about what sites are worth making iPhone versions available? What sites are users most likely to visit when a regular computer is not available? A few things come to mind -- email, maps, movie times, cafes and restaurants -- the sorts of things where you might want to get a little information about a place while you are out and about.

I don't have any statistics to back those things up -- they are based on guesses and about the kinds of things I think people might want to find when not near a computer. But I think it's important that whenever a company is looking at their own website that they think strategically about what their iPhone users might need. Do they really need an alternate version of the site? Can you design your site in such a way so that it works without needing separate versions for the iPhone? Are there particular tools that iPhone users may be more apt to use (i.e., a Starbucks.com iPhone visitor may need a store locator but not care at all about company info)? And since, to my knowledge, iPhones still do not support Flash, are you making sure to have your site available in a non-Flash version?

I'll be curious to see how sites evolve as the iPhone age soldiers on, and if the upcoming 3G iPhone will have any design ramifications. It is key, however, to remember to view any new web aspect -- whether it is iPhones or social networking or RSS feeds -- in light of your particular company's needs. A poorly executed (or unnecessary) implementation of features often do far more harm than leaving those features out and waiting until there is a clear need for them.