With the rapid rise of Smartphones and the increasing propensity for their owners to go online with them, its only a matter of time before we will all need a mobile site to augment our website. A new Neilsen report indicates that 43% of all mobile users are able to access the internet and 29% of those are using the internet on thir phones. Sure they may mostly be Tweeting or using Facebook, checking email or news, but if the trend persists they will soon be checking out your company on their phone.
So what are the main considerations?
Well firstly, because a significant majority of these users are on iPhone here in Australia, if your site is in Flash it won’t be able to be viewed. Given that many brands that target the iPhone demo like to use Flash this may present some challenges and you will need to make some choices.
Then there’s the user experience. Even a well designed HTML site viewed on an iPhone takes some effort. Finding information when its too small to read and then navigating around a site when you’re pinching and zooming does not count as a positive user experience.
For a site to function and work well on a wide range of Mobile Phones it needs to be designed specifically for that purpose. In addition however, even a well designed mobile website will not necessarily be enough to satisfy your audience, with users’ expectations growing to include location based services, search, maps and localisation. The iPhone has raised everybody’s expectaions in relation to what they should expect from a mobile user experience and it will take time to get up to speed.
The compexity of communication in an online world is increasing and the best strategy is to develop an online site that is device agnostic. In this way your business will appeal to the widest possible audience and provide a satisfying user experience further developing their relatioonship with your brand and increasing the direct marketing opportunities.
Finally, the Smartphone is here to stay. It’s the next generation communication device, that much is clear but, you won’t be able to do away with your online website anytime soon so be prepared to run them site by side for the forseeable future.
COMMENTS