2. Will Russell Antony Williams
Manager: Innovation VP of Strategic Innovation
& Product Development RSC Worldwide
Royal Society of Chemistry Williamsa@rsc.org
Russellw@rsc.org
@Chemconnector
@ChemPub
3. Coming Up
RSC’s Involvement in Mobile & Why
5 Different Apps with Different
Development methods
3rd Party White Label Builder
Existing Service Provider
Building on Existing Development
Bespoke Hybrid Development
Combining with existing technologies
Ahead
4. Who we are
1841, The Chemical Society -a time of
great scientific progress
170 years later...
Over 47,500 members worldwide
Publishing business that spans the
globe.
Global network reach > 350,000
scientists
Over 30 journals – UK impact factor 5.4
92% of subscribers outside of UK
Worlds 2nd biggest publisher of
Chemistry books
Award winning tools like ChemSpider
Second largest supporter of Chemistry
Education - £2.5 million a year
5. Our Mobile Timeline
2010 Chemistry World mk 1
2010 Publishing Platform & ChemSpider
mobile sites
2011 RSCMobile, ChemSpider and
Chemistry World (mk 2) mobile apps
2012 ChemGoggles, RSC Mobile r2
2012 Device Independence (vision)
7. The future is multi-device
Never again will we have the same
interface to our readers for such a long time
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daquellamanera/6873640876/
8. Mobile Traffic vs non mobile
traffic
Our own Google Analytics
eBay mobile trade x3
53% American mobile users have smartphones
350 million active users of facebook mobile
12. Why Mobile - Objectives
Customers Usage
The world is multi-device – • Discoverability – no
opportunity with new channels longer just SEO
Best service to readers / authors • Print books being
At the time 32,000 views a month replaced with eBook
Readers
Mobile/tablet sales overtaking
desktop sales Innovate
Expectation • Get into the space now
– future usage
• Utilise new opportunity
A change in user behaviour – not just technology!
13. 2: RSC Mobile Apps and Sites
ChemGoggles
Chemistry World 1 & 2
ChemSpider
RSC Publishing Platform
17. ChemGoggle Development
How
Utilising OSRA (Optical Structure Recognition Algorithm) and native
camera
Why
Because it’s a great thing to do – early developments on Android
allow us to gain feedback on what the community need.
Next
Can we use curation by users to train the algorithms to better
recognize structure images?
18. 1st Mobile App – Chemistry
World 2010 (IOS)
Online builder – Sweb Apps
Why? Why not?
Cost $39 a month
Time – App 1-2 hours
(not including design)
ROI? – 2 downloads a day, discussions, mobile strategy and seeing the new
world is in reach. Investment – minimal.
19.
20. Chemistry World Mobile App 2
Why?
Getting closer to the reader
Discover new audiences
Reader Demand
Existing provider of page
turning solution
21.
22. Chemistry World as an App
rather than just a website
“I feel that apps are able to replicate this
in a way that a mobile-enhanced
website can’t. The app feels luxurious,
time-rich somehow, it makes you sit
down, relax and enjoy the experience
that is reading a good magazine. I use
websites in a completely different way:
to complete a task, to keep up to date,
etc. All job or career-related activities
so there is no time to relax!”
25. ChemSpider Mobile App
Why?
Mobility of scientist - labs, seminars, travelling -
conversations around chemicals
Put the tools in their hands
Website first but wanted way to do structures
on a device - rather than Javascript
26. Development
Alex Clark
Antony Williams and Valery Tkachenko
(ChemSpider)
Based on existing structure
Search application utilising
a web service
27.
28.
29. Result
Analytics not as important as people speaking positively
at events and saying they have used it
42. Hybrid App (Native and Web)
Challenge – one platform will not reach
everyone!
Mobile web pages in a wrapper
Connection needed for new content
Native to device functionality for offline
Ability to develop for other platforms without starting
again
Utilise same MarkLogic technology as used on
Publishing Platform
Ease of support
43. Timeline
~ 4 months development
Testing (willing volunteers!)
Android followed very quickly
44. Reaction?
“Great app! It makes it dead simple to be up-to-date with
your research areas of interest. Easy to use, very flexible
search, permits direct off-line saving of abstracts or
papers, plus sharing your results with your colleagues (via
e-mail, Facebook or Twitter) is just one-button away.
A must for any chemist!”
Martín Resano Ezcaray, University of
Zaragoza, Spain
47. Constant Review
Responsive / Progressive
New Devices
Apps / Discoverability
eBook Readers
HTML5 / ePub3 / PhoneGap
Customer needs and capabilities have to
come ahead of technologies
RSC’s wealth of information
48. APIs
Who will generate the most useful apps
with your/our content?
http://data.gov.uk/apps
49. Challenges
Authentication
New Devices / Number of Devices
Functionality set on devices
Testing on devices (availability)
Supporting Devices / Staff training
App Store approval
On going future maintenance - more
technologies than just a hosted
website
50. App Approach
Part of Digital Strategy – not separate
What does it offer over a mobile website?
Release on one platform first
Limit initial approach on delivery – wait for customer info
to prioritise
What is being asked for, what works
KPI / ROI / Analytics
Free – drive usage
Beyond CSS – consider user journey
Review best technology implementation – not a mature
strategy at this stage.
51. Separate “Mobile” websites may
not be scalable
Tablet
TV
Glasses
..
..
How many devices will we need to support?
Thinking Responsive
52. Summary Current Implementation
All website development – multi device
Platform – Hybrid App – custom
development
ChemSpider – partnering with an expert
enthusiast and trying out ideas
Chemistry World – partnering with an
organisation with bespoke dev on top of a
white label platform
Chemistry World MK 1 white label building
tool
53. Conclusions
Usage – it’s not as simple as reproducing
the website
How can you support others to build apps?
For app development consider the impact
of support
Traditional channels still serve the highest
usage
We will never have such a long period with
the same interface again – in two years we
could be talking glasses as mainstream
54.
55. Thank you! Antony Williams
Will Russell williamsa@rsc.org
Russellw@rsc.org
@ChemConnector
@ChemPub
http://about.me/russellwill
Personal Blog:
chemconnector.com
SLIDES:
www.slideshare.net/Ant