Gartner says “mobile usage will eclipse desktop browsing by 2013”.
It’s crazy how fast the trend to mobile smartphone is going, and both web developers and their clients need to look at creating user-friendly, mobile-friendly websites.
Different countries in the world have different preferences for devices. iCrossing shows mobile device market break-up in Australia:
Blackberry … 52%
Apple (iPhone/iTouch)… 35%
Nokia … 6%
The most seemingly popular devices are not always the most used devices. Apple’s so great at marketing but not yet got the big cheese. Nokia is a very popular mobile phone in Australia, but their smartphones only have a small share. Microsoft will soon release Windows7 for mobiles, trying to get its little bit of new mobile media market share.
How are people using smartphones? In US, 34% of smartphone users have used a browser and 31% have downloaded and used an app (Comscore mobilens). These numbers possibly lag the real growth trends this year.
Designing for Mobile web or Apps?
Because of all the different products in the device marketplace, it means creating a lot of apps – for iPhone, Symbian, Blackberry, etc.
When you consider a mobile site with a browser, the advantage is people can find you through search and just view it. Providing apps means the user has to download the right app first.
It’s also easier to find a technology developer to build a mobile website.
Read more in Digital Market Labs blog about creating iPhone apps.
Start with a Good Plan and Strategy
It makes sense to start with your organisational goals: i.e. drive membership, gather leads, encourage donations, etc, and then work out how to help customers who use mobile devices, to help them accomplish what they’re going to you for. You need to design a good customer experience.
Then you must engage the Best Practices of Building Mobile Web:
1. Content drives experience
2. Screen Real estate
3. Navigation
4. Leverage device capabilities (e.g. HTML5)
5. How much to mobilise?
6. Measure and optimise*
* Source: Ektron
Content drives Experience
The first thing your Analytics will tell you is what device consumers use, which browser, and what search phrases they used.
Be aware of the environment that people are using a device. Someone using an iPad will probably be relaxing and want an experience, but if they’re using a smartphone they might be transaction oriented.
Real estate
Screen real estate means designing in a single column template so that your user won’t have to scroll too much to get to the main info. Assets need to be a smaller size to download quicker.
Navigation
Traditional web navigation (left, right or top menus) doesn’t work well on a mobile device. Most commonly mobile navigation are at the bottom with a very simple menu at the top. You can use Ajax technology to get further into the site.
Device Capabilities
Support location information, support click to call, support video – all these will be important on the mobile web.
How Much to Mobilise?
If someone surfs to m.site.com on a mobile – they can access the site more directly, rather than www.site.com (which may not be mobile friendly).
So how do you transition across to a mobile-tailored website? The first step is ask your web developer/designer of their capabilities for designing for mobile, and define your needs accurately.
Measure and Optimise
You won’t be able to tell what your users are doing unless you look closely at your web analytics program. And if you’re creating a new product site, you need to look at the general trends for your marketplace, i.e. what are they viewing and from which devices.
Optimise your site for your mobile users and their regular habits (e.g. opening an email newsletter on a device, oops it doesn’t work for them).
Thanks to ektron’s webinar by Bill Rogers and Tom Wentworth.