Becoming Mobile Friendly
Mobile technology is changing the way consumer’s access brands and information. Smartphones and other mobile devices have become increasingly popular, and now we are witnessing a huge cultural shift in where and when people use the Internet.
This is no longer an emerging market – people are searching for products and services using their mobile phones, and it’s time businesses considered a strategy to interact with mobile customers. One of the first things that should be considered is a mobile website, geared specifically for mobile users. Why is this? After all, can’t any website be viewed on a smartphone? The answer to this is yes – on today’s smartphones you can view almost any website. The problem however, is that a website designed to be viewed on a desktop monitor does not translate well onto a mobile phone, nor is it aligned to the different objectives of a mobile user.
So just how is a mobile website different?
Presentation:
Unfortunately not everything shown on a desktop website can fit reasonably onto a mobile screen and there is not a mouse available for navigating when using a mobile. Mobile users can find themselves pulling, zooming, scrolling and trying to use fingers to hit buttons that are pinpoint sized. This makes for a difficult and incredibly frustrating user experience.
A mobile friendly website is designed to make life easier for users on a mobile device. The layout and structure of content is organised in a simple, streamlined way to make the most of the limited screen space available. Content is typically kept to a single column, text entry is kept minimal, and navigation is large and chunky so that users can ‘tap’ with their fingers.
Content:
The objective of any website is to deliver users the most appropriate content. Most often, a person browsing the web on a mobile phone will have different objectives to someone using a desktop computer. They could be riding on the bus, waiting in line, out to lunch, or running to the departure gate – so they generally want specific information, and fast.
Content in a mobile website is adjusted so the distance to specific information mobile users want is only one or two ‘taps’ away. A nice example of this is Christchurch airports mobile site. While their desktop site has a wealth of information covering flights, accommodation, shopping and more, the mobile version is much simpler. Content is refined to specific information most likely to be sort after by their mobile users – such as flight information, parking and transport, airport information and maps.
Performance:
Browsing the web over a mobile network can be considerably slower than at home or in the office, and simply loading a website that hasn’t been optimised for mobiles can be slow and painful. A mobile website is designed to give users a smooth experience by rethinking exactly what information needs to be kept, and reducing the number of elements that need loaded on the sites pages.
The Power of mobile:
Smartphones enable people to move around with a powerful computer in their pocket. Creating a mobile website gives businesses the ability to leverage all of a smartphones capability, and interact with customers in new and exciting ways.
Mobile users can be great content creators. They love to share what they are doing on their mobile using social networking sites and applications. By providing a compelling experience for mobile users, a business can help encourage its users to market their brand, products and services.
The marketing opportunities extend further than this also. For example, QR codes can be used to get users involved with a digital brand in its physical location, while location specific offers can be targeted to mobile users using geo-targeting.
Conclusion:
The shape of a businesses online presence must change to reflect the change in its customers browsing habits. A purpose-built mobile site that is designed to accommodate a mobile user’s goals will leave fewer opportunities for problems and frustration. Mobile websites exploit the special characteristics of mobile phones to provide the best possible experience to mobile users. In articles to come, we will look to cover in more detail of elements of mobile business strategy.