Approximately half the people on the planet have a mobile and by 2010 90% of the world’s population will be covered by a mobile network. This coupled with the ever falling cost of mobile data access will mean that the user base for mobile services will grow rapidly. Phones like Apple’s iPhone, Nokia’s N95, together with the various Palm, Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices have the facilities to access the data we need anywhere, anytime. Mobile phones should be changing how we interact with the net. Why is it then that the majority of organisations are ignoring this opportunity?
A quick look at most websites will show that they are designed for powerful computers, with large displays and high bandwidth connections. This is understandable since a huge percentage of those accessing the net are using this type of equipment. On the other hand, this complexity is discouraging another massive group, mobile users. Granted the improvement in mobile browsers means that dedicated users can get a passable experience on these sites but for the majority of people the mobile web experience is frustrating. Small, screens, slow downloads and a frustrating inability to access all of the functions on all of the websites. If this situation continues then the mobile web will always be an interesting adjunct to the main feature.
Today most mobile devices can only offer a around 10% – 20% of the resolution and screen size of a desktop. Intelligent browsers with features such as pan and zoom can help alleviate some of the problems but ultimately the difficulty is caused by the size of the device. We are trying to view a newspaper paper shrunk to the size of a post-it note by using a magnifying glass. This works in some cases but can never provide an optimal solution. If the mobile web is to become a truly effective channel then we need to change how we present websites.
Obviously we can’t shrink all websites to suit mobile users but we should be considering mobile versions of sites where possible. Content is king but poor presentation will make for a poor experience, regardless of the content. With the increasing use of content management systems, it is a relatively simple task to maintain two independent versions of a website, one feature rich for the desktop the other more streamlined for the mobile. The additional expenditure for a mobile site is minimal since the majority of the costs for websites are generally associated with content generation, hosting, bandwidth etc rather than the development of the presentation layer. You may even find that the efficiencies required for the mobile version will provide you with the keys to developing a more effective version of your main site.
The counter argument / excuse, is that even these minimal costs aren’t justified because of the tiny user base. The obvious counter to this is that the user base is small because the current experience is so poor.
What opportunities are you missing by not providing a mobile friendly version of your site?
What if a potential investor overhears your name on train but can’t read about you because the flash front-end from your website doesn’t render properly on a mobile?
What if a client wants to contact your on-line helpdesk when they’re out of the office but can’t because the application you’ve built requires too much bandwidth for a mobile in poor reception area?
What if a customer reads about your product in a newspaper and wants to place an order but finds that the menu system is too complicated to access on a small screen?
Will they all wait until they get back to their main browser?
"Build it and they will come", not necessarily but if you do they’ll have one less excuse not to.
Photograph by CraigPJ via http://www.sxc.hu/