Optimize For Mobile Experience

By Author: Susan Smith
Total Articles: 132
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In today’s mobile world, it is a high probability that the enterprise and brand engagement with the customer happens over a smart device interface. Smartphones and tablets have become the preferred medium of Internet access. Therefore, when an enterprise plans to engage with the customer base, they cannot exclude mobility from the equation. In fact, a number of enterprises are actually going ‘mobile first’, where an application is developed for the mobile platform, before it is for the web, or the desktops. The fundamental difference between mobile and web is that the mobile users are more impatient when it comes to dealing with poor performance or experience. Therefore, the focus on better experience is paramount.

What does experience mean?
As of January 2013, only fifty-seven of the top hundred brands had an online presence optimized for mobile.

A lot of organizations don’t even understand what the ‘optimized for mobile’ means. The users of smart devices typically do not engage in random browsing. They are focused on specific tasks that they intend to accomplish, every time they pick up their ...
... device. Therefore, it is important that the interface and workflows are simple, and intuitive to help the user accomplish their task sooner.

In addition to the ‘what’, it is important that the development team understands the ‘who’, and the ‘when’. You need to be cognizant of the target demographics and their behavior when designing the interfaces and backend.

Site vs. App

The organizations intending to go mobile always struggle with whether to put their money in re-platforming their website to support mobile, or to create a dedicated application.

Mobile apps offer a better experience and performance over sites. However, they are also more expensive to create and maintain. Also, with fragmentation in the platforms, it is even more difficult for the developers to meet the needs of all the customers. Websites have their own issues, with performance and rendering.

In the end, the choice is determined based on the target user community and their preferences.

How to improve the experience

In order to design and develop for an improved experience, it is important to first understand and internalize the fact that mobile is a very different platform than the personal computer. The mechanism of user interaction with the technology is very different on the two. Also, understanding of the fact that it is a handheld, and probably used by the user when he / she is in motion.

Some tips about improving the experience –

* Squash the bugs – Hygiene factor. No one likes a buggy piece of code. If yours is going to act moody, best not bring it out in the open.

* Agility matters – The performance of the product on the target devices better be good, else the user would not think twice before uninstalling or shutting the browser down. This is not the worst. The next thing the user will do is check out your competitor. And if they perform better, they win.

* User is king – Actually should be the first bullet. Do not focus on what you want to show the user. Shift from there to where you can understand the user’s needs and motivations. Unless you can meet their requirements, you will not be on their Christmas card list any time soon.

* Remember, its hands on – optimize for smaller form factor touch interfaces. Gestures, thumb-friendliness, readable text, and clickable areas sufficient distance apart, you know the drill.

The author is associated with one of the top mobile app companies, mobile application development Dallas and android development companies in Delhi NCR