It’s the New Medium

Mobile has really hit its stride and this medium of marketing has become wildly popular. With a record number of consumers using their smartphones to surf and shop online, there’s never been a better time to embrace this technology. Mobile has become today’s primary method of communication; it’s a great way to stay in the loop and get your small business or start-up noticed by the people who matter.

It Expands Your Reach

Did you know that, in 2014, 37% of global consumers are using primarily mobile devices to go online? And furthermore, that a 23% of users access the Web in only this way? Having a mobile version of your website allows you to reach a greater number of customers quickly and easily while avoiding the dreaded bad review. In today’s day and age consumers not only need but expect a streamlined, appealing Web experience no matter what the device – it’s your job to give it to them.

It Increases Your Traffic

Smartphones play an important role in overall website traffic. With more and more users browsing the Web from handheld devices instead of laptop and desktop computers, going mobile gives your clients and potential customers access on the go, from anywhere. The easier it is for the public to access and use your website, the more likely they are to visit and, in turn, recommend it.

It’s Key to Keeping Up

Since its inception, mobile has become an absolute necessity. If you’re establishing a small business in a competitive market, offering a functional, appealing online experience via smartphone and tablet is key to staying on-par with the competition. By not having a mobile website, you run the risk of sending potential customers right to the doors of your competitors who do.

It’s an Essential Investment

The mobile landscape is only going to grow from here on out. According to Microsoft Tag, a whopping 50% of all local searches are performed mobile devices. Of the 4 billion mobile phones being used worldwide, nearly 2 billion of them are smartphones. A mobile website should no longer be viewed as an option – it’s a necessity for small business success in the 21st century.

Going mobile is popular for good reason – it’s increases website traffic and reach, gives businesses an edge over their competition and is absolutely key to digital communication today. An indispensable investment, all of today’s mobile marketing statistics point to continued growth as more and more users rely on their devices for browsing, shopping, researching, socializing and more on the Web.

Image Credits: Mobile Site Provider & Liquid Select

In this post we’ll look at the mobile equation from more of a UX design perspective by delving into some of the key elements that will ensure your audience has a great experience when interacting with your digital content through a mobile device.

The mobile Web is unique from the traditional desktop browser experience. The most obvious difference is screen size. While mobile displays are physically much smaller than conventional laptop and desktop screens, most modern smartphones will usually run a higher screen resolution (a.k.a. pixel density), somewhere in the neighbourhood of 150 ppi (that’s pixels per inch) all the way up to 326 ppi on the iPhone 5. Again, this resolution is much higher than you’ll typically find on a desktop monitor. Inevitably this will cause an older Web site —that is, one that has not been mobile-optimized— to render at a much smaller size in a mobile Web browser. Page headlines and body text for example, set at a common 14 pixels or less, will likely appear illegible to most readers. In 2 and 3-column Web site layouts this problem is amplified by the additional information cluttering up the limited screen dimensions which causes everything to appear tiny in the viewable screen area.

In a mobile-optimized layout less is more. Removing sidebar columns in favour of a single column layout lends precious screen real estate which can be devoted to larger body text and more clearly defined menus and buttons allowing for greater overall ease of use and less eye strain on the part of the user.

Formula1.com is a textbook example of a desktop centric Web site that renders poorly on a mobile device (screenshot taken on Samsung Galaxy SIII smartphone). In this particular case a conventional 2-column layout becomes a usability nightmare even when rendered in landscape mode. Having trouble reading the text? This is a classic mobile UX faux-pas. Visitors are forced to constantly zoom-in on specific regions of the interface and pan around the screen to effectively read text or navigate between pages. Buttons and text hyperlinks are insufficiently proportioned to accommodate touch inputs —that is, finger taps as opposed to mouse clicks.

A great example of a mobile-optimized Web experience is this very site you’re reading right now. Yabstadigital.com employs a fully responsive design layout that dynamically sizes and reorients visual elements to make the best possible use of the available screen real estate.
You could think of a responsively designed Web site as one that intuitively knows how big the user’s screen or browser area is and how best to rearrange the content for optimal display efficiency. If you’re curious and on a laptop or desktop computer, try resizing your Web browser window to see how our site layout smartly adapts to the changing window dimensions as you expand or contract the browser area. Whether you’re viewing this site on a gigantic 27-inch desktop monitor or a 4-inch smartphone, headlines and body text will always render clear and readable; buttons and menu items will be easily accessible for touch or mouse driven input, and above all, distractions such as excessive page scrolling and zooming in/out actions will be kept to a minimum allowing you to focus on the site content itself rather than wrestling with the interface.

Mobile design considerations play a critical role in establishing credibility in the digital space and require special attention. As we’ve seen, a poorly executed mobile site conspires to undermine the user experience and can result in higher bounce rates and leave your audience with a fractured impression of your business offerings.

By contrast, a well planned and executed mobile design strategy has the capacity to enhance audience engagement with your brand, product or service and foster more successful interactions. Mobile is quite simply an investment in your business’s future livelihood and competitiveness.

[media url=”http://www.yabstadigital.com/staging/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/getting-mobile-friendly.jpg” width=”774″ height=”309″]Today, thankfully, a lot has changed. Mobile phones have become incredibly ubiquitous in the marketplace and are currently the driving force behind the growing digital economy.

A recent Nielsen report suggests the growth of mobile devices has reached a “critical mass” with greater than 80% of consumers 16-years of age and older in developed countries using a mobile phone. In terms of daily usage, we’re using our phones for an ever widening array of tasks, from video streaming and price-comparison shopping, to email, social networking, banking and location-based navigation. Many of these tasks several years ago were only possible through desktop computers. Smartphone devices, now with greater processing power and larger screen sizes, are providing a viable alternative to the traditional desktop Web experience.
With more of our Web surfing taking place on smartphones and smaller tablet computer devices, it’s important to consider the benefits of a well-design mobile site and how proper execution can impact your company’s bottom line.

A study conducted by Sterling Research and SmithGeiger surveyed 1,088 US adult smartphone Internet users and found that nearly 75% of users prefer a mobile-friendly site:

• When they visited a mobile-friendly site, 74% of people say they’re more likely to return to that site in the future
• 67% of mobile users say that when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they’re more likely to buy a site’s product or service

The report goes on to suggest that not having a mobile-friendly site helps your competitors and can hurt your company’s reputation in several ways:

• 48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly
• 36% said they felt like they’ve wasted their time by visiting those sites
• 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company
• 48% said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business

If you’re a small business owner, start-up, or established company, it’s time to start thinking seriously about solidifying your mobile presence with a Web site designed with the small screen experience in mind. In our next post on mobile we’ll explore what makes a Web site mobile-friendly from a design and execution perspective.

Image credit: samsungtomorrow