Shaping the mobile experience with Sitecore® XP and the Sitecore

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Shaping the mobile experience with Sitecore® XP and the Sitecore® Mobile SDKSeven best practices in building apps for mobile people

White paper // Shaping the mobile experience with Sitecore® XP and the Sitecore® Mobile SDK

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Contents

Introduction: Devices aren’t mobile; people are �� 2

A mobile tale: Arke puts Healio�com in doctors’ pockets �� 2

Best practice #1: Take time to build the right foundation �� 2

More power with Sitecore® Experience Platform™ 8�1 �� 3

Best practice #2: Understand how customers want to use mobile �� 4

Best practice #3: Minimize friction with app stores �� 5

Best practice #4: Use SDKs to expedite delivery �� 5

Best practice #5: Keep analytics at the forefront �� 6

Best practice #6: Conduct user experience testing �� 7

Best practice #7: Choose the right mobile partner �� 7

Beyond the device �� 7

About Sitecore �� 8

Published 3/16� © 2001-2016 Sitecore Corporation A/S� All rights reserved� Sitecore® and Own the Experience® are registered trademarks of Sitecore Corporation A/S� All other brand and product names are the property of their respective owners� This document may not, in whole or in part, be photocopied, reproduced, translated, or reduced to any electronic medium or machine readable form without prior consent, in writing, from Sitecore� Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part of Sitecore�


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Devices aren’t mobile; people areThere is no shortage of statistics confirming what a glance in any public setting reveals: that smartphones are an integral part of people’s lives, a companion in performing thousands of daily tasks� Yet when companies or brands set out to create mobile experiences, the first question IT organizations often consider is, “Should we go with a responsive/adaptive site or a mobile app?”

Certainly, device-centric design issues are important� But even more critical is an understanding of the wants, needs, and motivations of the on-the-go people who will be experiencing content on a mobile device� In other words, devices aren’t mobile; people are�

IT organizations are the stewards of the interactions their companies have with today’s mobile customers, the link between internal marketers and agency resources� Starting with an illustrative mobile development use case, this white paper provides seven best practices to help IT professionals architect mobile experiences that fulfill customer needs and meet business goals�

A mobile tale: Arke puts Healio�com in doctors’ pockets“Where are your users when they’re not in front of a laptop, and what do they need at that time?” asks Patrick Perrone, senior consultant at Sitecore Platinum Partner Arke Systems and a Sitecore MVP� “For Healio�com, it’s busy doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers, who are commuting, on vacation, or in an airport, and have 15 minutes to read an article on their iPhone or iPad�”

Healio�com, launched by Arke client The Wyanoke Group in 2012, is a medical publishing megasite where physicians and healthcare providers go to catch up on the latest developments in their specialty, register for Wyanoke’s medical conferences, and take online courses for continuing medical education credits� Wyanoke’s 12 subscription-based specialty medical journals are a main attraction for its users� In addition to the journals, Wyanoke also has nine subscription-free News Apps that pull fresh content from the site several times a day� The Sitecore® Experience Platform™ powers Healio�com as its content management system�

Working with Wyanoke, Arke determined that Healio users would be well served by mobile versions of its news articles, putting thousands of pages of content “in doctors’ pockets� We envisioned the apps as a way for busy medical professionals to download and cache up to 20 articles at a time to read, in a 10- to 15-minute window, at their leisure,” Perrone says�

Efficiently delivering 10 distinct iOS apps

Apple products (iPhone and iPad) were this audience’s mobile devices of choice, and Wyanoke engaged Arke to create individual iOS apps for each of its news publications� “We didn’t want to rewrite the app 10 different times, or submit 10 apps to Apple for App Store approval,” Perrone says� “We used a single code base and consistent visualization for each app� When the app is opened on the user’s iPhone, it pulls in appropriate content from the Healio website�”

“Once we solved the UI and code risk for the first app, we solved it for the next nine� That gave a big boost to our time-to-market�”

— Patrick Perrone

This approach enabled Arke to quickly navigate code review and approval by the App Store, making all distinct apps available in a matter of weeks� Updates, too, are easily executed, since Arke refreshes only the “skin” of the apps and not the underlying Apple Xcode base�

“Once we solved the UI and code risk for the first app, we solved it for the next nine,” Perrone says� “That gave a big boost to our time-to-market�”

Best practice #1: Take time to build the right foundationAt the outset of the Healio�com project, Arke knew that it would use Sitecore for the site’s content management foundation� But at that time, Perrone says, “we had no idea we’d do a native mobile app� We knew we had a lot of data we wanted to index and make searchable and taggable� This would allow us to get at that data in a lot of different ways including, later, via mobile device�

http://www.sitecore.net/events/public-mvp-site/mvps-2016.aspx


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“Sitecore is obviously flexible, but that flexibility isn’t magic,” he continues� “You have to plan for it�” Arke worked with The Wyanoke Group to architect Healio�com’s content structure, which included 100,000-plus news articles�

Built for search

“You need to make the content highly searchable; that’s the main thing,” Perrone says� For Wyanoke, the agency consolidated a very large amount of data in Sitecore, including the more than 100,000 content items� An automated import system was then built to ingest XML files from Word into Sitecore� In doing so, Sitecore consolidates information from all of Wyanoke’s print properties into a single repository, ready to be served to readers in the right context, at the right moment, on the user’s desktop or mobile device�

Search drives the development process

The Arke team spent considerable time envisioning the types of searches Healio�com users would want to perform, the types of content Wyanoke has, and how subscribers might want to access it� Perrone describes his thought process: “Will users want to search all news stories mixed with journal articles? Or separately? What meta data is important to these kinds of searches?”

Along these lines, Arke knew that a journal article repository was important, indexed by publication name, date, and author� “The way we organized those indexes eventually supported

the native mobile apps Wyanoke launched, months afterward� The fact that we could wrap the indexes in restful web services, which the native mobile apps would then talk to, is a proof point of the soundness of our approach,” Perrone says�

More power with Sitecore® Experience Platform™ 8.1

Healio�com currently runs on Sitecore® Experience Platform™ 8� “Sitecore is a great platform because it has a strong API, and I have a high degree of control over the information architecture,” Perrone says� “It allows me to define what I mean by ‘content’ and how I want to organize it�”

He continues, “If I could start over again, now, I would build Healio�com on Sitecore 8�1� It is more scalable, and the 8�1 interface makes it easier to use the content tree� I would also have started with Sitecore® Experience Database™ (xDB), which makes analytics a lot more accessible�”

Perrone would also use Apache Solr™ as Healio�com’s search engine� He explains, “Solr has become our default recommendation for search, and search is a very big part of Healio�com� Solr was just becoming available when Healio�com was built�”

Also, Perrone says, “With Healio�com we had to account for storing more than 100,000 items in a sub-tree� We figured out how to organize that content to stay within the performance guidelines set by Sitecore; item buckets would have made that a lot easier�” Item buckets, first released in Sitecore 7�0, help with scalability in the UI by allowing millions of content items in one container, all indexed, searchable, and retrieved using filters; individual items in the content tree can be converted into item buckets that contain any number of subitems�

Mobile quick tip

Make content highly searchable:

■ What kinds of searches will users perform?

■ What kind of content is available?

■ How will users access this content?

■ What meta data is needed?


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Best practice #2: Understand how customers want to use mobileIt’s essential to discover what customers want to do on their smartphones, and how it complements the desktop� Understanding how these two modes interplay will also help determine whether a responsive/adaptive website is sufficient, or if a native mobile app is the right approach�

In his ebook, “Mobile is eating the world,” digital analyst, thought leader, and author Brian Solis writes, “[To] deliver a mobile, delightful, and productive experience, you must know [customers’] preferences, understand their behaviors and expectations, and more so, learn to engage them when, where, and how they want, in the context of the moment and their desired outcome�”1

Mapping the mobile journey

Solis prescribes a 10-step method to map the customer journey and determine key “mobile moments,” a best-practice collaborative exercise for IT and marketing groups:

Identify key mobile moments and what happens in them: Why, where, and how people search for information and how they form a new customer journey map�

Understand their goals and aspirations for doing so�

Use search insights to identify new trends or find patterns of intent that you might not be addressing�

Surface the context of the search, the moment in which it takes place, and the behaviors and expectations that define it�

Run an audit of your current content, marketing, and media efforts� Are you present in the right places with the right information in the right context?

Map the data flow to and from the device and discover ways to meet or exceed consumer expectations through technology, content, and engagement�

Learn how information is presented in each moment and understand which content formats would be ideal (and optimized) for easy discovery and consumption on the right device at the right time, every time�

Orient a single view of the customer and all of the moments you need to guide their journey�

Empower teams to test and iterate using new approaches, engagement strategies, and also new key performance indicators (KPIs) and methodologies to win in mobile moments�

Invest in technology that commits your company to being “there” in mobile moments—comprehensively and consistently—to inform, engage, and empower people to make decisions and take actions their way�2

Mobile from Day 1

“Today, with any client, we talk about mobile on Day 1 of any strategy session,” says Eric Stoll, president of Arke Systems� “We need to have a general understanding of the client’s mobile aspirations to keep in mind as we develop customer journey and technology roadmaps�

“Certainly, ‘Should we go with a responsive/adaptive site or a mobile app?’ is a question that arises,” he says� “Apps are typically reserved for specific activities that correspond with the ‘mobile moments’ in the customer journey�” With Healio, that moment occurs when users discover compelling articles and want to read them later, where and whenever they may have a handful of spare minutes�

For example, another Arke client, a savings-plan management company, created a native mobile app for account sign-up� Research had determined that account sign-up was a critical step in the customer journey, and one that its mobile-savvy target market (adults 25–44) was highly amenable to executing on their smartphones� Thus, the mobile app focused exclusively on the five- to seven-minute account set-up process�

1 “Mobile is eating the world: Four ways to rethink customer experiences as mobile-first and mobile-only,” Brian Solis, February 2016�2 Ibid�

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http://siteco.re/Mobile-is-eating-the-world-eBook




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Best practice #3: Minimize friction with app storesThe Apple iOS App Store’s rigorous approval process is the stuff of developer legend� “You have to adhere to Apple’s conventions and play by their rules; they are the hardest app store to get accepted into, but also the biggest game in town,” Perrone says� His tips to expedite approval include:

■ Adhering faithfully to Apple’s user interface (UI) guidelines: Apps are usually denied around UI guidelines, so Perrone recommends closely following Apple’s rules in this area�3

■ Using Apple’s prescribed payment mechanisms: If an app is executing transactions, it will need to use Apple’s payments application programming interface (API) and payments system�4 Trying to work around these requirements is a recipe for denial�

A clever solution for multiple apps

Arke used a repeatable solution to significantly reduce potential friction in the approval of Wyanoke’s multiple iOS aps� “We wrote one app that knows how to ‘skin’ itself differently,” Perrone explains�

“Depending on which publication channel the subscriber uses, that same app-based code communicates to the same

services on Sitecore� The only difference is that it’s pulling slightly different content� One of the web services knows how to pull the content to ‘skin’ the app—the welcome text and splash screen change� The wireframes are the same across all 10 apps; just the images and content change�” When registered users log into one of Wyanoke’s publication-specific iOS apps, they provide their credentials, and the correct specialty-based content is served�

Perrone sums up, “We branded the app in 10 different ways� From Apple’s perspective, we submitted 10 different apps, but once we went through the approval process the first time, the next nine times were with a lot less friction� It just involved packaging the app code with slightly different content-pulling variables underneath the hood�” This approach also allows Arke to skirt future approval cycles for ongoing updates, which are executed by updating the design of the various “skins�”

Best practice #4: Use SDKs to expedite deliveryThe Sitecore Mobile Software Development Kit (SDK) and Xamarin are two accelerators that can help web developers quickly build native apps for all top mobile platforms: Apple iOS, Google Android, and Microsoft Windows Mobile� Microsoft recently announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Xamarin� The impact for Microsoft

Platform-speci�c native app Cross-platform native apps

Sitecore MobileSDK .NET PCL

Windows Android iOS .NET Android iOS

Sitecore MobileSDK Android

Sitecore MobileSDK iOS

Sitecore Mobile SDKXamarin Forms PCL

The Sitecore Mobile SDK family

or

Figure 1: Developers can choose a platform-specific variant of the Sitecore Mobile SDK or use it in conjunction with Xamarin to simultaneously address iOS, Android, and �NET mobile devices�

3 iOS Developer Library, iOS Human Interface Guidelines: Designing for iOS�4 Getting Started with Apple Pay�

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/

https://developer.apple.com/apple-pay/get-started/

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/MobileHIG/

https://developer.apple.com/apple-pay/get-started/


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developers is significant; the acquisition promises to make it easier for them to develop mobile applications for all the devices that matter most� Developers still will need to contend with the app store approval and deployment process, of course, but with Xamarin, development is done with a language and tools developers know well�

Together, these tools give Sitecore developers a best-practice productivity solution� Darren Guarnaccia, executive vice president of customer experience at Sitecore, explains: “the Sitecore Mobile SDK and Xamarin bring the simplicity of developing for the web to developing for mobile, which is much more complex� These tools let mobile app developers access the familiar Sitecore environment and, through Xamarin, deploy compiled native apps to all major mobile platforms in a streamlined way,” as illustrated in Figure 1�

Developers can choose a platform-specific variant of the Sitecore Mobile SDK, or use it in conjunction with Xamarin to simultaneously address iOS, Android, and �NET mobile devices�

In fact, Wyanoke is in the process of building 12 Journal Apps with Xamarin in the spirit of what was established with Arke for its News Apps� By creating one Journal App base code, Wyanoke is not only leveraging it to create iOS apps for the 11 others, but for the 11 companion Android apps as well� All 24 apps from the same base code�

Mobile development in C#

Specifically, Xamarin lets Microsoft �NET developers use C#, their preferred programming language, to write mobile app functionality that uses content from Sitecore, and “paint the glass” of the mobile screen with creative content from Sitecore� Xamarin integrates with Visual Studio, instantly recreating the familiar Sitecore web development environment� The combination of Xamarin and the Sitecore Mobile SDK provides developers the framework to build rich mobile features using data and content from Sitecore� The sum of the two tools can give mobile app developers the best of both worlds�

When development is complete, Xamarin compiles the C# code and creates three executables: one each for Apple iOS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, and Google Android platforms,

ensuring high performance� In summary, �NET developers can use their skill sets to develop for Apple, Android, and Windows in a “write once, deploy many” environment�

Best practice #5: Keep analytics at the forefront“Categorically, mobile takes analytics to a new level,” Arke’s Stoll says� “It’s easy to overlook the granularity of analytics that mobile requires� Advertisers, in particular, like detailed mobile metrics�” As a best practice, companies need to use advanced analytics to understand not just what users are doing in the mobile app, but how they’re doing it, and where on the screen they’re tapping and swiping�

Sitecore® Experience Database™ is a marketing data repository that can collect all customer interactions, across all channels including mobile and offline, depending on the implementation� This data can also include permission-based geoIP information� Sitecore xDB allows marketers to connect omnichannel data points to create a comprehensive, unified view of the individual customer�5 It makes more data available to marketers in real time, allowing the right content to be presented to the customer, in the right context, at the right time�

“Context is critically important for mobile consumers,” Sitecore’s Guarnaccia notes� “Physical location adds another

Mobile quick tip

Analyze mobile metrics to learn:

■ What users are doing in the app

■ How users are completing a task in the app

■ Where on the screen users are tapping and swiping

5 Sitecore Mobile SDK currently does not support xDB integration for tracking actions in the mobile app or mobile content personalization out of the box�


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dimension to the conversation, and an opportunity for marketers to show how well their company or brand knows that individual customer�”

Setting expectations

Equally important, analytics can be used as metrics of success—if the parties involved agree upon which metrics should be used� As a best practice, IT organizations can work with marketers at the onset of any mobile initiative to determine the most important metrics and KPIs, and set expectations�

For example, with the Wyanoke specialty medical journal apps, the company has greater visibility of who is on the site, where a visit originated, how much content a user is consuming, and how long a visitor is spending per device� Based on registration data and other integration touchpoints, Wyanoke can see whether a user is a physician or other healthcare provider, along with their medical specialty/sub-specialty area of interest�

Best practice #6: Conduct user experience testingEvery digital firm aims to make mobile apps extremely easy to use� General user experience testing—which is distinct from Sitecore’s integrated multivariate and A/B content testing—helps ensure that they really are� “With the Wyanoke apps we didn’t run into any usability problems,” Arke’s Perrone says� Wyanoke chose to assemble internal teams for that purpose�

Perrone recommends using an automated service, submitting wireframes and the app’s target demographics� “Even by going out and doing some simple tests, you can get extremely useful feedback in just a couple of days,” he says� “UX testing is not valued enough until after the fact�”

Best practice #7: Choose the right mobile partnerFinally, creating an effective mobile app requires the right digital agency partner� Divya Mathew, marketing and communications manager at valued Sitecore Platinum Partner Velir, says that IT organizations should evaluate the service provider on the following:

■ Experience working on apps that have a similar scope and offer similar functionality

■ Portfolio and experience with organizations in similar industries and with comparable target audiences

■ Commitment to understanding your business needs and goals

■ Importance given to strategy and design and UX, in addition to the back-end engineering

■ Number of approved apps that the service provider has published through the various app stores and success of each in terms of customer satisfaction and engagement

■ Ability of the provider to offer long-term support and ongoing enhancements

“In sum,” she says, “Look for a partner who sees mobile holistically; offers a full suite of services; and can connect the dots seamlessly between desktop, mobile, and an app�”

Beyond the device“Mobile” is more than a device� Mobile is today’s customer, who expects to interact with companies and brands in purpose-driven “mobile moments” at lightning speed� Mobile marketing requires organizations to deliver experiences in context of the consumer’s interaction history, as well as what they’re doing right now� When the audience expects—or needs—useful, relevant information in a flash, Sitecore is uniquely capable of delivering seamless, contextual experiences in real time�

As an IT leader, you can dramatically increase your success in building and managing mobile apps by following the best practices that Arke Systems, Velir, and other valued Sitecore partners use to shape mobile experiences:

1� Take time to build the right foundation

2� Understand how customers want to use mobile

3� Minimize friction with app stores

4� Use SDKs to expedite delivery

5� Keep analytics at the forefront

6� Conduct user experience testing

7� Choose the right mobile partner

http://www.sitecore.net/platform/aida/analytics/ab-mv-testing.aspx


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For more on Sitecore’s mobile experience, visit sitecore�net/strategies/mobile-marketing�aspx or download the ebook “How mobile leaders connect with customers in context�”

About SitecoreSitecore is the global leader in experience management software that enables context marketing� The Sitecore® Experience Platform™ manages content, supplies contextual intelligence, and automates communications, at scale� It empowers marketers to deliver content in context of how customers have engaged with their brand, across every channel, in real time� More than 4,600 customers—including American Express, Carnival Cruise Lines, easyJet, and L’Oréal—trust Sitecore for context marketing to deliver the personalized interactions that delight audiences, build loyalty, and drive revenue� For more information, follow us at @sitecore or visit sitecore�net�

1 How mobile leaders connect with customers in context

How mobile leaders connect with customers in contextSeven steps to master the mobile experience

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http://sitecore.net/strategies/mobile-marketing.aspx

http://sitecore.net/strategies/mobile-marketing.aspx

http://siteco.re/Mobile-Leadership-ebook

http://sitecore.net

http://siteco.re/Mobile-Leadership-ebook

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Shaping the mobile experience with Sitecore® XP and the Sitecore