Marketing Mix: Making Great Mobi Sites

Featured in Marketing Mix Magaxine

The power and potential of mobile media in South Africa has recently tempted many leading South African brands to take the leap onto the mobile web.

However, going mobile successfully in South Africa comes with its own set of unique challenges and creating an unparalleled user experience on a mobile phone is a lot more problematic than it is on the web. The huge range of handset types within a predominantly 'hand me down' and 'pay as you go' mobile society means that launching your brand to the mobile masses requires much more than just a smaller version of your website.

Challenges of going mobi
Creating a great brand user experience on any platform involves serious analysis of a brand’s target market to enable comprehensive delivery of relevance, reward and engagement to the user. Over and above this however there are some important fundamentals that must be considered when moving your brand into the mobile space.

It goes without saying that a good user experience is a fundamental requirement for any online destination. Digital development agencies can generally make fairly broad assumptions when designing for the web with just a couple of standard screen sizes, reasonable connection speeds and a handful of browsers to worry about. This is certainly not the case for mobi sites.

Mobi site developers are faced with one consistent problem - a variety of small screen sizes no bigger than the palm of your hand, and a few tiny buttons to be operated by a large pair of thumbs.  And within these constraints, the objectives of the brand need to be fulfilled, and the user needs to interact and engage with it effortlessly.

When creating your first-rate mobile user experience, you must always be conscious of the average human being at the other end of the mobile device. It is important to understand the lack of knowledge and experience that some of these individuals may have in accessing the internet through this new channel. Consider too that some of them  may not have any online experience at all. It is then that one can begin to understand all of the challenges that need to be considered when producing a slick, intuitive and functional mobile deployment.

Having said this, there is no reason whatsoever why your mobi site should be the poor cousin to your online presence. Mobi sites do have the ability to deliver so much more value to the user and to your brand if you get it absolutely right.

So, how do you ensure your brand’s journey into mobile delivers the optimal user experience onto every one of your target market’s handsets?

Getting the basics right
There are a myriad of challenges for us as developers to consider on every build, not least the  close on 6000 mobile devices we are currently catering for, each with their own variety of screen sizes, unique features, connection speeds, file compatibility and limited controls.

Handset Content Adaptation is possibly the most important attribute for any self respecting mobi site, and it goes a long way in ensuring a slick user experience. Prezence’s well practised technology has the ability to automatically detect which cellphone is being used, and then immediately adapts the mobi site in question to suit the user’s phone. Within milliseconds of accessing a mobi site, HCA technology will detect screen size and resolution, ascertain optimal page sizes, audio or video formats, and the varied types of image formats supported along with a host of other information, enabling the mobi site to automatically make use of enhanced features of the phone such as GPS and touch.

The mobi site, along with its content, site imagery, layout and features is then automatically adjusted accordingly, ensuring that it is delivered to the user’s phone in the optimal user friendly and feature rich way. It is by harnessing this technology that will help any brand’s mobi site on its way towards creating the perfect user experience. Whether your customer is surfing with the most basic of handsets, or the latest generation smart phone, their experience of your brand should be a great one.

What buttons does the phone have? For the mass market: up, down, left and right buttons may be all we  have to work with but, then there are also touch phones to cater for. One has to take into account that when browsing with a touch device your mobi site needs to automatically adapt itself to ensure the user has enough space in between menu items to click easily with their fingers. Those without the benefit of touch need as few clicks as possible to get to the content they want.

Remember too that data costs money, so it is critical to consider the cost to the user of browsing your mobi site. At Prezence we believe that a key ingredient of a good user experience is one that the user does not feel in their pocket. Do not underestimate the importance of this on your journey to providing good user experience in our predominantly 'pay as you go' society.

Future proofing your mobi site is also imperative. New phones, devices and browsers are released every day and it is essential that your mobi site is built in a way that it automatically recognises these new devices and has the ability to effectively display the content and prompts interaction correctly. Expensive rebuilds or costly maintenance and upgrades are the penalty for not planning for the future.

These technical underpinnings have a big role to play in ensuring a great user experience. As the mobile world explodes and users realise that they can enjoy comprehensive browsing and interactive experiences on their phones, so too has the need for this advanced technology and the specialist skills needed to execute it.

Design and Functionality
From the outset it’s important to have short memorable URLs as well as SMS tools triggered from traditional media and websites to help to get the users to your mobi sites. Most of your target audience are still learning to access the internet through their mobile device so part of your role as a brand on the cutting edge also involves an element of education. Make it easy and intuitive whilst taking into account the target market’s technical and literacy levels. Mobile opens your brand up to everyone, so be sure to design for the mass market.

Functionality and flow are also essential design considerations to good mobile user experience. Prezence's approach to designing for a small screen is similar to how someone might organise themselves at a very small desk. Firstly, we ensure that all key information and the absolute essentials such as their 'screen, mouse and keyboard' are directly accessible in front of them. Then we ensure that other important items such as their 'coffee cup', 'notebook' and 'pen' are very close to hand. From there we work outwards in circular zones, with the less used items still accessible but out on the periphery, therefore keeping this small 'desk space' highly organised and focussed for the user.

The importance of a good user experience
The mobile web is rapidly becoming the access point of choice for the mass consumer market across Africa. Creating great mobile user experiences will result in the ease of user interaction and engagement with your brand 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and will ultimately build loyalty between you and your customer. When all of these technical, functional and design ingredients are successfully brought together you will be well on your way to mobile success.

If you give your consumers something to love, they will love you for it.