Observe people in any public area these days and there’s a good chance you’ll see someone browsing the web on a mobile phone. In fact, there are more than 3.1 million people in Kenya as of June 2010 accessing mobile web, and that number is on the rise exponentially. In order to provide this rapidly growing base of mobile web users with an optimal experience, more and more website owners are pursuing mobile web development to ensure that their website is optimized for mobile phone display. If the growing number of mobile web users alone isn’t reason enough to convince website owners to embrace the mobile web, there are also a number of advantages worth considering.
Your web site is your Supermarket, and your mobile site is your 7-Eleven
The most important and most sustainable reason for maintaining a mobile web site is that it plays a different role in your communication than does the traditional web. The mobile surfer is seldom just ‘surfing around’, he has a specific goal with his visit; to find a piece of information, to download a mobile service, or maybe visit his favourite brand.
Hence the mobile web site must cut to the chase, and must only present content that is relevant for the mobile surfer. Part of that content may be the same as for the web, but parts are mobile specific. The contents must also be presented in the right order for a mobile surfer. Information that is on level three in an Internet web tree, may be on level one in the mobile.
We see the Internet site much like a supermarket. There are many different ways to go from the entry to the cashier, and the range of goods is wide. There are several brands of shampoo, and they come in different types, prices and sizes. The mobile site on the other hand, is like a 7-Eleven. There is pretty much only one way between entry and exit, and most choices are already made for you. And there is often only one shampoo brand.
Instant Marketing:
Mobile websites allow for instant access and marketing as far as mobile browsing is concerned. Seeing as some sites may not load well on a mobile platform, many businesses sought to optimize the increasingly viable mobile avenue with mobi sites. One of the main reasons why websites went mobile is because of the popular public demand; following a vicious circle, marketing and advertisement has also caught up. Locally, if you do not have a mobile website for your business soon, it may become extremely difficult for you to survive the competition.
There are however, certain factors to consider when launching your mobile website:
Showing the right stuff in the right order
The content presentation should be mobile adapted, a less-is-more design philosophy is important for mobile web sites. Single out the three most important reasons to visit your mobile site, and make them visible at entry, without any down-scrolling. A small screen does not mean design is not important, on the contrary interaction and graphic design for mobile is the ultimate test for a designer.
Images may also need to be mobile specific. We are not talking about the image sizes – that is a technical issue – but image motives. What works well on a pc screen does not necessarily look good in a mobile. A landscape photo with a car in a distance is just a landscape photo in the mobile. No one will ever see the car.
There are thousands of mobile phone models
Adapt your web site for smart phones as well as feature phones. That is hundreds of phones of different brands and models. This requires a phone recognition software, which automatically creates the mobile web site layout and contents depending on which phone the visitor has.
The “weight” of the web page is also an important part of the adaptation. Opening a traditional web site in a mobile phone can be painfully slow, and may cost several many shillings in data traffic fees. A first page on any web site may weigh one thousand kilobytes. A first page on a mobile web site should weigh less than a tenth of that.
What if we still do not want a mobile site
We need to remember that a mobile site today is not simply a passing fad. It is predicted that in the future mobile sites will prove to be a necessity, even the new Internet standard. Another important point to note is what you are saying no to. If your customer opens your web site in a mobile browser and gets the wrong content, presented in the wrong order, with a slow and costly download, and with an un-adapted layout. In a world where most everyone owns a mobile phone and brand perception and brand liking is everything, this could be a problem.