Jay Watson Photography

Finally! Mobile users, if you are viewing this post using one of those thin Apple products that connects to the internet, enables users to type letters with their thumbs, and allows you to hold this invention to your face to speak with or hear others with similar devices, click here to view a small mobile version of my portfolio. Notice how it redirects you to an iphone version of the site? Desktop users can preview the mobile version by clicking here.

iPhone tip: To take a screen capture from your iphone, press the home key and the sleep/wake key at the same time. The screen will quickly flash and the image will be saved in the “camera roll” album found in Photos. Works on both the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Why Have A Mobile Version Of Your Website?
Dozens of companies are targeting artists and photographers with website templates that are viewable on iPhones. It is a big marketing selling point. I was never worried about this. Who would ever choose to look at a photographer’s site on a 3″ screen? However, who would have predicted websites would slowly replace printed portfolios (cough newspapers)? Who keeps a printed address book anymore? Names, phone numbers, and urls are stored electronically in our pants. Who knows why and when someone will be looking at your work.

Another reason for a mobile site…. Twitter. Your website is HIGHLY visible in the upper right corner of your Twitter account. Since this network was designed with mobile users in mind, many are using their cell phones to stay updated. If your site is flash based, they won’t see your work. Even if Apple and Adobe open up the iPhone for Flash (any day now guys!), will your site still be palatable for the 3″ screen?

Strategy
Call it an experiment, but I built the mobile version of my site as the Twitter equivalent of a full portfolio. It is narrowed down to only 14 images. Both the About and Contact page jump right to the point. Of course this is not how I prefer people to see my work! But I will let them decide for themselves. If they choose to visit on a cell phone, why not give them something to see?

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update: From Apple’s WWDC 6/08/09: “iPhone makes up of 65% of all mobile web usage.”

Tags: Apple, iphone, mobile, portfolios, Twitter, websites

This entry was posted on Friday, June 5th, 2009 at 4:07 pm and is filed under Industry, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.