Let’s drag the mobile web into the present!
Posted by Tim on the 23 July in Mobile
Mobile
The latest research from the Nielsen Norman Group shows that the mobile user-experience is years behind today’s standards of usability and what people have come to expect online. The mobile web is neither “pleasant” nor easy to use. Research studies undertaken by the Nielsen Norman Group in both the US and the UK, showed that the average success rate of completing a task on the mobile web was a dismal 59%, compared to that of regular desktop PCs which averaged 80%.
Along with the physical constraints of mobile devices such as small screens, awkward input, and download delays; the biggest challenge facing mobile web users is simply poorly designed mobile websites. Traditional website usability and principles are not cross-compatible, different factors affect different context and one size truly does not fit all.
Sites that were optimised for the mobile web and took into account users’ goals, download speed and screen size succeeded on average 64% compared to the 54% success rate of the users’ experience when using “full” sites ( the same as desktop users get) on their mobile phones. Therefore, spending time developing a mobile version of your website - taking into account your potential users' goals and device limitations - can improve mobile user experience and task completion by 20%. If mobile strategy is important to your business then designing a mobile version of your website to live alongside your core site should be of paramount importance. Remember, 20% is a large percentage when you're talking about a national company’s lost revenue.
Many of us now own smart phones or touch-based mobiles, (especially in the latest round of phone releases) so if you want to see some good examples of mobile websites to get an idea of what can be achieved, I would suggest the new(ish) Financial Times website, which you can find out more about on their website or by visiting the ft.com on your mobile. Another example is Amazon.com, a benchmark for e-commerce across the web, who have also developed a mobile version of their site where they have streamlined the product search and checkout page, arguably the two most important parts of the site.
Here at the Design Militia office we’re frequently purchasing travel tickets online via Virgin Trains and National Express, something which has to be a desktop based experience due to there being no provision of a mobile version for either of these companies. So I decided, just to keep my hand in, to spend some time last week mocking up a mobile version of both their websites to show what a transformation a mobile version of your brand can make.
We think they’re pretty good, in fact we thought that we might as well send them off to the companies in question... even though I did only spend about an hour on each. We’ve yet to hear anything, which is shame, as you would think mobile strategy should be at the core of both of these businesses. If you like them, share them around... get people looking at them and find out what they think. Would you be happy with an interface like this on your iPhone, Blackberry or N97?
Why not tweet @designmilitia if you think they’re sexy? Who knows, the buzz might get back to Virgin Trains or National Express...
This is what you get if you visit the sites right now. Photos taken on iPhone (3.0) today using the inbuilt screenshot function.
