Ten years ago, many companies did not even have a website. Now, the number that people access the internet via mobile phones is already more than
sitting in front of computer. People use mobile phone to check email, book ticket and hotel, even shopping online. What possible business during this
breakneck pace change? Usablenet Inc, the company which I worked between May, 2009 and January, 2011, is playing a important role in this business.
Usablenet provides a dynamic mobile web platform that uniquely leverages a company’s web site and services and extends the functionality to the handhelds and mobile phones of their customers. The result is that users can seamlessly access web site and services from whatever mobile phones they are using in a view specialized for mobile. Usablenet clients include most major airlines, hotel chains in the US as well as a variety or national retailers, city transit agencies, governments, colleges and universities. Any business related to people’s life, any company would like their sites to be accessed via mobile device by customers, Usablenet can customize a mobile platform for you.
During my one and half years working as Quality Assurance Engineer there, I attended the mobile sites development of American Airlines, Expedia, Starwoods, etc. So basically, it will take 6 to 8 weeks to design a new mobile site for the client, based on the restriction of mobile devices, like exclude javascript, flash, which is not supported by most mobile devices until now. The new mobile site has totally different view of their website, but will keep main functions, like booking, login account, manage reservation, and so on. Then after everything is done, client will put a redirect code in their server, launch mobile site to production. When the customer try to access this website by mobile device, the http request will include the user agent information, tell the server, which device it is, then the redirect code will take effect, redirecting the website to pre-customized mobile site, for iphone, blackberry, or andriod phone. Pretty cool, right?
