Check your user experience on a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet.
It is becoming increasingly important to understand how users are viewing your web content and what the user experience is like on a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet.
Using website tools, such as Google Analytics, it's easy to get a breakdown of operating systems and devices being used to access your web presence (from the Google Analytics dashboard click Visitors > Mobile > Mobile usage).
The increasing use of QR codes, and niche URLs as a call to action in traditional print media and the ever growing app market is changing customer expectations and feeding the increasing hunger for on demand information.
Consider these advantages to a mobile optimised web presence:
- Faster, clearer communication of key messages
- Overcoming bandwidth limitations when mobile network browsing
- Bespoke graphics and layout to maximize screen real estate
- Easy to use GUI (Graphical User Interface)
- Touch screen optimised navigation tools
- Native smart phone functionality such as video players, GPS and SMS
- Instant telephone contact with potential customer
The growing trend in mobile browsing
This is having a massive impact on the culture of sectors and defining winners and losers in consumer markets.
By demanding access to mobile banking and commerce, consumers confirmed they trust the mobile web to keep their personal information secure. Emerging cross platform operating systems, such as Windows 8 and Mac OS X Lion demonstrate the blurring of the boundaries between mobile and desktop devices.
According to a new report from market research firm IDC - a leading Marketing Intelligence company, mobile internet usage on smart phones and tablets will surpass internet usage on PCs by 2015.
IDC predicts that devices like the iPad, iPhone, and Android phones and tablets would grow at an average of 16.6 percent annually, while PC use would eventually decline as the tablet market picks up.
The total number of internet users is expected to grow from over 2 billion in 2011 to 2.7 billion in 2015, but by then the online landscape will have changed drastically with a visible shift towards mobile web browsing.
IDC did not give an estimate as to what the numbers will look like for PC usage, except that it is expected to stagnate and then slowly decline.
"Forget what we have taken for granted on how consumers use the Internet," said Karsten Weide, research vice president of media and entertainment at IDC. "Soon, more users will access the Web using mobile devices than using PCs, and it's going to make the Internet a very different place.".
Google reported 550,000 daily activations for Android devices in July 2011, up from 400,000 per day in May 2011. That trend doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
Mobile web content doesn't mean making your current web content redundant, your site can seamlessly and automatically switch to a mobile web optimised format when a mobile device is detected.
Imagine a scenario where an estate agents sign with a QR code on, a potential buyer stops at the sign interested in the home, scans the code, views the homes interior shots and books a viewing via an online calendar, you have captured their data, vetted their interest and booked a viewing!
