7 replies to this topic

[cre8pc]

It's a constant source of amazement to me that companies of all sizes don't consider making their web sites usable on mobile devices. So those do that do get an entire market segment.

A new whitepaper came out from the Human Factors folks that is interesting reading.

It's a FREE PDF (I never get hassled when I fill out the form to get these.)

Mobile Phone: A Persuasion Channel?
A white paper by Amber Krishan

http://info.humanfac...PreparedMessage

This white paper discusses the relevance and nuances of the mobile channel across three key aspects: business considerations, user engagement and technical capabilities.
Most companies go through six stages in their mobile journey:

• Mobile Trigger
• Rushed Development
• Reality Check
• Repair and Rescue Attempt
• Enlightenment
• Reset and Rebuild

"It is now evident that the possibilities through mobile technology are tremendous. It takes a cleverly crafted persuasion strategy to leverage this unique opportunity."
"There are many steps to building a persuasion strategy and, like a typical design process, it starts with understanding the customer."

[EGOL]

I have not done anything to make my websites "more useable" on a mobile device. Although they look fine on my iPhone - in my opinion - the columns are about the same width as an iphone (350px).

After reading this post I looked at my Holiday sales and about 3% of the conversions came from screen widths of 350px and 320px. I am surprised that people are shopping on such tiny screens - even though I have purchased a couple items with my iphone while travelling.

I am sure that the number of tiny screen shoppers will be much larger next year.

Edited by EGOL, 04 January 2013 - 02:43 PM.

[cre8pc]

EGOL, I hear you. Site owners are looking at the same data you are. The way I've been presenting it to clients is that I recommend testing for mobile rendering (there are tools out there and we offer it here now at the forums in the Cross Browser testing forum) IF they are looking for every possible conversions funnel. This is also why I recommend accessibility standards to them too, as this is another conversions funnel for something as simple as a newsletter signup or white paper download.

Are you able to see any abandonment signals? These are harder to figure out I think, unless funnels are created for testing in GA or another tool. Of interest would be those users who arrived with their small device and attempted to do something and could not, so they gave up.

The other suggestion I've made for centuries is to ask for user feedback and put up a simple feedback form. It's the old "Did you find what you were looking for?" idea, only for web sites. It's extremely rare to find a site that asks for user feedback in any visible way other than tucking it somewhere where most visitors will never bump into it.

[tam]

It seems odd to me because I rarely use my mobile at all and never for web browsing my I know my sister does, and even shops that way if the site will let her. My things to do in 2013 list has mobile users on in. According to google analytics 30% of my directories users are using tablets/mobiles, the bounce rates seem comparable with my overall averages but I want to make sure they are getting good access, maybe even look at presenting a mobile version!

[EGOL]

Are you able to see any abandonment signals? These are harder to figure out I think, unless funnels are created for testing in GA or another tool.

I don't have the ability to do this with this year's data. However, I could do it for future data by setting a special goal for tiny screen users.

(I use getclicky.com... and that ability is available.)

[glyn]

I am completely nutty on measuring mobile and tablet devices, which account for at least one.third of accesses.

[Ken Fisher]

Something I should look into. Thanks Kim.

Maybe you can shed some light. I'm thinking it's common for mobile visitors time on site to be lower, but by how much? While I'm at it, bounce is higher and page views per visit are also lower.

PPV -20%
Time On Site -26%

Bounce? + 12% from a high number to begin with. I'll blame that on Panda, where it's obvious.

[fisicx]

I've been developing a responsive wordpress theme for a while now and I'm not convinced. Many responsive sites are very clever but in being clever they loose a lot of the usability that a full width site has. I'm quite capable of expanding a site to make the font larger. What often happens though is you get a cut down version of the the side with sidebars and things pushed down below the main content. This forces me to scroll to get to navigation and other features. Another common design feature is to hide everything and have me click to see the content (see wikipedia). This is also annoying.

Consider also that as larget phones and phablets become available there will be less and less need for a responsive site. A 960px wide site on a laptop will easily display on a high resolution tablet without the need for anything to be responsive.

Thought: much of the whitepaper is about Apps not mobile websites. They are two different animals. The paper is also quite a bit out of date as it only mentions Windows 7.

Still, a good link Kim and it does provoke some thought. Thanks