1. Going Mobile with
WordPress
Shelley Keith
Manager of Web Communications & Marketing
Southern Arkansas University

2. Me. Shelley. @sk140
● about.me/shelleykeith
● Teaching faculty to use email since 1994.
● Since 2005 only Web staff on campus of
~3600 students & 400 faculty/staff.
● Sixth year on the HighEdWeb conference
program committee; chaired regional
HEWEB event last 3 yrs.
● HigherEdExperts presenter – OpenSource
CMS Fair: WordPressMU, April 2010.
● Technical reviewer for Apress book
Beginning WordPress 3.0 by Stephanie
Leary released in June, 2010.
● Launched WPMU in May 2009. Alone.

3. o.0

4. The push
2011 vs 2010
● 240% increase in mobile visits
● 237% increase in mobile pageviews
● 13% increase in average mobile time on site
● Top mobile referrers: Google, Facebook
● 40% direct traffic

5. 155 Admissions applications
completed on mobile devices

6. She came out of nowhere captain!

7. To boldly go...

8. The Project
Caveats Criteria
● no coder ● Minimal "touch"
● minimal budget ● Flexible "touch"
● WP Network ● Reuse work
● Comparable features
● Multi-platform
● Visible growth
● Responsive support
● Easy to update

9. SCIENCE!

10. Plugins

11. Some plugins are seamless & work beautifully...

12. ...others, not so much.

13. Plugins
● WPTouch*
● WP Mobile Detector
● WordPress Mobile Pack
● Wapple Architect Mobile
● WordPress Multi Site Mobile Edition
● Weever Apps
● PluginBuddy Mobile*

14. WordPress Mobile Pack
Mobile detection
Theme switcher
Analytics
Admin interface
Last updated Dec. 2010

15. WordPress Multi Site Mobile
Site-wide activation
Carrington Mobile
Link to/from mobile version
No per-blog customization
Last updated in 2010

16. Spockitty is not impressed.

17. Mobile Apps

18. Mobile Apps - Native
ShoutEm Mobile by Conduit MobileRoadie BiznessApps
Monthly Price $29.90 - $119.90 $0 - $79.95 $99 - $499 $39 + $10/each iPad,
Android, HTML5
WordPress Integration Plugin, RSS RSS RSS RSS
Targeting All users All, Geographic All, Geo, Platform, + All users
QR X X Unlockable Content Integrated Scanner
Badges/Gamification Badges X Unlockable Content, X
Badges
Reviews Yes Yelp, CitySearch
Events .ics import & internal EventBrite, Google Cal, Internal, Artistdata, Internal only
system Facebook Events SongKick
HTML5 Web App Coming Soon Yes Yes Yes
iOS iPhone, iPad coming soon iPhone iPhone, $499/mo iPad iPhone, iPad
Android Yes Yes Yes Yes
Other Windows, Blackberry, Windows, Blackberry Blackberry
Bada

19. Mobile Apps - Web
Wapple
Weever
WPTouch Pro

20. Responsive Design

21. Le sigh.

22. Responsive Design
● Frameworks
○ Genesis
○ PageLines
○ HeadWay
○ Whiteboard
○ Catalyst
○ WooFramework
● Standalone themes
○ Responsive
○ Business Lite
○ iFeature

23. the needs of the many...

24. ...become a hot mess.

25. @sk140