At the beginning of the month we released the latest exciting development for Prism 3, our mobile device interface. We have made this available to you, our valued customers, as part of your Prism 3 subscription at no extra cost.

This development comes at a crucial time as mobile technology advances at a breathtaking rate and a recent study by Ofcom¹ found that 91% of the population now own a mobile device.

The interface works with all the main mobile device browsers including iPhone, Android, Opera Mobile/Mini, Windows Phone 7 Mango and the latest Blackberry versions. This is important considering that “Every four weeks about 2.5% of feature phone owners have shifted to smartphones since April 2010 in the UK” suggesting that “the ‘tipping point’ when smartphones make up half of all users lies about a year away, in June 2012.” ²
 

There are lots of features that will benefit your users including:

Adaptive design
Prism 3 will detect the device being used and automatically render in the mobile interface which automatically adapts to the size of the screen available.
Users don’t have to download it; it’s not a native app, and no separate URL is required meaning seamless use alongside the desktop version for your users. We have deliberately transformed the existing interface and built on existing information rather than create an unfamiliar environment.

Home screen icons
On devices where home screen icons can be created, (i.e. for apps that are downloaded) home icons can be created on the Prism Mobile Interface. Users can create as many home screen icons for Prism as required allowing users to organise their searches. For example, a different icon could be created for subjects, locations, media types, new stock – anything that the library provides – a great time-saving feature.

Touch- swipe paging and tap to reveal
Where the device permits it, the Mobile Interface has been designed to allow touch-swipe paging and tap to reveal. This means that users can operate their devices in the way that they are accustomed to and don’t have to resort to using clumsy navigational functions. For example, by ‘tapping’ on a book jacket image, more holdings information is revealed.

Focus on key tasks                                                                                                            People are generally far less tolerant of clutter on mobile devices and so the Prism Mobile Interface has been designed to only display key information and tasks. This ultimately means an improved experience for the user as they find the answers they need quicker and easier.

Faster searching
Caching pre-loaded searches and the use of the latest features of HTML5 mean that the interface is much quicker and responsive for the user. Additionally, search results are pre-loaded in the background so it feels instantaneous when you click or swipe through different pages of results.

To get this feature enabled on your catalogue, please raise a support case and to see the preview webinar that was held by our senior Prism 3 developer Matt Machell on 22nd August, click here.

¹UK Sees Highest Growth in Smartphone Users (Ofcom, 2010):  http://blog.rightmobilephone.co.uk/uk-sees-highest-growth-in-smartphone-users/

²Arthur, C. ‘Smartphones head to tipping point’, Guardian (11 July 2011): http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jul/11/ios-android-blackberry-smartphone-data