Designing Mobile Web Experiences
Published: February 2011
A Mobile Web Experience
Mobile is not a maybe… It’s a MUST!
User Friendly mobile sites are becoming increasingly more necessary. This is due to the fact that in 2013, 10.44% of the world’s web usage is trafficked from smart phones, while 10.58% comes from tablet devices. For this reason, it is essential to master the responsive platform to provide your customers with a user-friendly site which is of a high calibre, in order to optimise your web trafficking. Mobile and device users are a market of people that can have a huge impact on your business. These are the people that you really want to reach out to, and the customers you should want to have. With the reputation of being a mobile-friendly company, your company is likely to soar. Take our client TT2 Ltd, for example. With their new mobile-friendly webpage, regular users of the tunnel are able to top up their permits via their mobiles on the go. If the customer is able to save time, they are more likely to return to your site. The Tyne Tunnels have launched an iPhone Web App which is an example of a local company going to great lengths to give their customers a great mobile experience.
TT2 iPhone Web Application
But what is mobile optimisation you ask?
This is the term used to describe a webpage which alters to suit the device in which it is viewed on. Responsive web pages should minimise as soon as they are accessed on a mobile or tablet; this is so they can be viewed the same as if they were on a computer or laptop but the user can browse on the go opposed to being restricted only to use at home. This technology has the potential to optimise your business’ clientele, as it is unlikely that your customers spend all of their time browsing sites from a desktop.
Getting it right
Planning a mobile Internet experience for your customers can be a tricky affair and getting the right design agency and development team on board at the start will pay dividends.
You’re likely to hear your fair share of technical jargon whilst the mobile site is being planned. There ‘s a ton of questions to think about. What devices are we targeting? How will we manage our Mobile content? Shall we design the user interface (UI) to match up with the device (the iPhone being a beautiful example of a great UI)? The list goes on.
Mobile Devices Breakdown January 2011
The burning question
I feel that the most important question to ask is:
“What would our customers want from a mobile experience?”
There’s mixed opinions in the development community. Some say you must give mobile visitors everything a desktop viewing customer would get; others suggest that you refine the content to account for the fact that these customers tend to be on the go. Let’s not forget we’ve not got a huge amount of screen real estate to play with on mobile devices.
Personally I’d suggest that if your customers are using devices that are capable of viewing your normal website, you’re better off letting them choose. You’ll find that if you can notify a customer that a better alternative is available, you’ll gain brownie points for making a special version of your content just for them.
Think about what information a customer might need on the go. Do they really need to read last year’s annual report whilst commuting to work? Or are they more likely to want rapid access to your contact information or the status of their order. Every single piece of content should be geared towards low input and maximum output. Make sure the experience of logging in, signing up and of course checking out, if you’re selling online, is completely intuitive. Without the need to sift through pages and pages of slow loading content before they can even get started on the task they visited you for.
Once the customer is enjoying the fast loading, beautifully designed content made especially for them, you’re onto a winner and if your chosen agency adds a little magic into the experience you’ll raise a smile and hopefully some customer loyalty too.
Why not contact us today and see how we can help your mobile user experience? You might also want to know that Google favours mobile responsive sites!
