Trends in Online Technology: Mobile Web

May 19, 2010 | by Asea Ginsburg | Posted in User Experience, Web Strategy

How could your company use mobile technology to attract new customers and most importantly get more revenue? Is it time to make mobile a main part of the user experience? How do you decide which approach to take in terms of user experience? These are some great questions every organization needs to answer.

There are three options that organizations have in terms of optimizing mobile browser experience

1. Mobile CSS - Optimize default style sheet for web and hope for the best. This means that some of the older browsers might support it, while others will ignore it. Modern, high-end devices may ignore it and will display a miniature version of desktop website, while older browsers will strip down styling and display all content in an unformatted fashion.
2. Mobile Website - Create a separate, optimized user experience for mobile users that targets their needs. This option also allows you to have custom targeted content that might (but does not have to) be the same as on main website. This option will work on all mobile devices; however the look might be slightly different depending on the device. This approach is more usable and accessible from the customer perspective than mobile CSS.
3. Mobile Application – Give your customers access to your brand 24/7 by providing them with an application that targets their needs. Because of the lack of standards in terms of mobile development, applications are usually targeted to a specific mobile device at a time, such as iPhone or BlackBerry. This means that, based on your website analytics, you will have to either choose one single device or develop multiple of applications that target different devices.

Before you make a decision whether to even develop a website for mobile, you should always look at your organization as a whole from a customer point of view. Find out their needs and goals and then provide them with answers in a timely, usable manner.

What Are They Looking For? Information vs. Communication

Analyze your website analytics and tracking resources and determine the top 3-5 key reasons why people come to your website and what type of information they are looking for.

Generally, people who come to your mobile website already know about your company and they are looking for a specific piece of information. Thus, it is very important to make that information accessible and easy to find without overwhelming your customers with too many choices. Some of which could be:

• Directions
• Business hours
• Schedule
• Phone numbers
• News
• Email
• Traffic
• Review ratings

Top Mobile Activities:

• Email
• Social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube
• Checking order status
• Placing an order
• News
• Upload photo
• Maps

Ask yourself:

• Does it make sense to have a mobile website? Why?
• Are people likely to use your site on a mobile device? What for?
• Do people come to your website to do quick transactions? What type of transactions?

Then:

• If your budget allows for a mobile site, build one and build it for high-end phones (touch phones and smartphones)
• Use site analytics to determine how much your site is accessed from mobile devices and decide whether it’s worth building a mobile site
• Build a mobile site if your users are likely to do small, quick transactions on your site under time pressure
• Build a mobile site if your users use your site to communicate with each other
• Build a mobile site if people come to your site to kill time and browse

Still Wondering Why go Mobile?

• Mobile is a rapidly growing segment of Internet use
• Users who visit sites that are designed specifically for mobile devices have a higher success rate in completing their tasks than same tasks performed on a "full" sites
• Users with the more sophisticated phones are more likely to use your site, simply because they use the Internet more

Consider These Case Studies:

Best Buy

• Made their top priority launching a mobile website and native applications for the tech-savvy demographic
• Increased analytics and tracking resources to tie in main marketing efforts with other channels
• Concentrated on providing value to existing customers with multichannel usage who are interacting with brand in a new way
• Solved existing customers' needs first before attracting new customers
• Provided mobile access to product details and customer product ratings

The bottom line:

• Increased mobile traffic and actual conversion via mobile devices 25% in comparison with conversion rate from the regular desktop website
• 28% of customers visiting the mobile platform are using it for purchases, in-store pickup, research, and review ratings

Starbucks

• Created mobile app called Starbucks Card Mobile, which allows customers to pay for coffee in the shop with their iPhone or iPod touch. Initial tests saw a 60% redemption rate of the coupon component.
• The test was very successful and the company is now letting consumers in 1,020 stores in the U.S. make payments via their mobile devices.

Conclusion

The popularity of mobile web is growing. 2010 is the year of mobile explosion. This year will be the breakout year for how businesses use mobile technology to market their services. With so many different ways to market via mobile, the question becomes where to start and how to do it progressively. If you are thinking of transitioning your business to mobile web, give us a call. We can help.