​Santa Ana College (SAC) in California is among a small but growing number of community colleges that have launched a mobile website that offers easy access from any smartphone.

When a vistor accesses www.sac.edu from a smartphone, the site automatically redirects the browser to the new mobile site.

“We are excited to embrace this new technology,” said Norm Fujimoto, SAC’s vice president of academic affairs. “Our students and would-be students are constantly accessing information through their mobile devices, and we want to satisfy their needs for quick and simple-to-navigate information about the college.”

The mobile site was developed through a partnership with SAC, Textopoly, Inc., and its higher education innovation group, Republic of Digital. The mobile site evolved through the collaborative efforts of the Republic of Digital team, student intern Andrew O’Melia and the SAC Web Committee.

Since 2007, O’Melia has been enrolled part-time in the college’s digital media program. With 12 years of experience as a graphic designer, he is working on his associate degree with plans to transfer to a four-year university.

During his three-month internship, O’Melia helped design the mobile site’s user interface elements and the graphics for the header bar. Textopoly and Republic of Digital’s internship program helped incorporate a real-world project into an invaluable experience for O’Melia. 

“Since working on the SAC mobile site, I’ve really fallen in love with the process of designing and developing interactive media,” said O’Melia. “It’s not something I could have learned in the classroom, and I’m now working as creative director with two application development companies.”

The SAC mobile site features quick access to many of the most popular links on www.sac.edu, including a campus map Google API, phone directory, class schedules, Webadvisor, library information, safety and security guidelines, continuing education information, counseling scheduling, frequently asked questions, click-to-call phone numbers and links to the college’s Twitter and Facebook pages.

Since the mobile site has gone live, Android devices and iPhones top the list of devices accessing the new site.

According to Morgan Stanley, the volume of mobile users will eclipse the number of desktop Internet users by 2014. A report by Gomez says 52 percent of consumers are unlikely to return to a website they had trouble accessing by phone. When that happens, 40 percent of polled browers say they would likely visit a competitor’s website instead.