A bit of background….

The rapid increase in web ready mobile devices on the market is something that cannot be ignored. With mobile devices outnumbering personal computers three to one, there are approximately 3.5 billion mobile phone subscribers globally (Source: MIC -Market Intelligence Center)

Approximately 30% of these mobile phone owners browse the internet through their mobile phones and in 2008 the total number of mobile web users surpassed the number of desktop web users. (Source: International Telecommunications Union).

With people updating their mobile device approximately every 18 months and increasing screen resolutions and access speeds, mobile web is becoming a very compelling offering for mobile users.

All the big players in computer manufacturing have forecasted this trend with Microsoft supporting mobile for years, Google recently releasing the Android Os, and Apple bringing out the revolutionary iPhone.

Apple has sold approximately 50 million iPhones all Mobile Web ready. Its ease of access and superior usability has seen a dominance in the mobile web market with approximately 65% of all mobile web browsing performed on the device.

Source: Market Share

The success of the mobile web is due to the intimate relationship that society places on the mobile device. No other technology is continually on us all the time.

When designing for the mobile web, we should be sympathetic to this personal nature of the mobile phone..

Designing for the mobile web

One misconception that many people hold is that mobile web it is merely an extension of the desktop experience with restrictive limitations. Up to this point, most mobile sites have been developed by re-hashing traditional web content and squeezing it onto the small screen; an unfortunate approach to both mobile usability and design.

The way people engage with the web through their mobile is very different. Research has regularly shown that users perform very different tasks on a mobile compared to a desktop. Traditional desktop users are sitting down facing a large monitor, while in contrast, mobile site users are viewing content on a small screen, waiting in line, on the train or lost in an unfamiliar city browsing the mobile for directions.

These varying situations and challenges faced by mobile devices needs an appropriate mobile focused user centric strategic approach….

1. Focus on user needs In order to create a successful mobile website, we need to focus on analysing what information your users will want and deliver appropriate content quickly. Don’t seek to represent all your site through your mobile site, understanding the user needs and what devices they have will define what you need and can represent. Just targeting the handset of your CEO isn’t enough! Mobile users are more likely to want information to help them in a location or time, such as finding directions or finding out time critical information relating to your company. For your site, predict user’s needs and fulfil these as quickly as possible.
2. Publish only what is necessary Content should be represented in a way that would be easily viewable on any size screen. Consider how your information will be displayed on the smallest screen in your user group. Content should not simply be repurposed and shortened from the traditional website. Important information should be extracted and put in an easily accessible and visual location.
3. Use a subdomain The most popular option for a mobile website. Here at Areeba we recommend using a short subdomain such as ‘m.example.com’ as with some older mobile devices it is still difficult to enter lengthy URLs. Another effective strategy is to perform user agent detention so that people entering the regular URL is sent to a special mobile site. This is the most elegant from the user’s perspective.
4. Don’t forget usability Just because mobile web is visually more simple then that of its desktop counterpart, basic usability principles should still be applied. For example, content should be easy to navigate, selected items should be clearly marked and input fields should be very simple or removed completely as inputting text can still be difficult. Bear in mind download speeds and small screens. More information is given by the famous usability expert Jakob Nielsen over at : http://www.useit.com/alertbox/mobile-usability.html Furthermore W3C has developed a best practice paper to improve the mobile user experience  http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/

How Areeba has helped its clients?

Areeba recently relaunched the Melbourne Sports & Aquatic Centre website and facilities website network uniting the State Netball & Hockey Centre, MSAC Institute, MSAC and the governing State Sports Centre Trust.

Part of this relaunch was to develop a mobile website which allowed users instant access to lap lane availability, fitness classes & timetables and centre opening hours. It was developed to take advantage of the iPhone platform but allowed it to gracefully degrade for less popular mobile devices.

This has received praise both from board of directors within MSAC for meeting business objectives but also from the general public and regular users of the MSAC facility.

We are also developing the VCAA/ VTAC results mobile website. With its emphasis on speed of downloading and ease of access a simple structure was designed. Within the first two hours of operation a combined total of 52,370 users accessed the site.

In summary

Although the mobile web is still relatively in its infancy, there is a huge potential for businesses to take advantage of a device which, in the appropriate context, will be more regularly used to access the web then the desktop computer.

It is ironic that there are significantly more people who own mobile devices than computers but most people would never even think to include mobile into their marketing strategy.

With statistics like 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices, it will also play a fundamental rethink of how we use social media. Moving forward users will start to demand information whenever and wherever they are and businesses who ignore this trend will be left behind..