“The small screen or smart phone is a design discipline which is healthy for companies,” Sterling adds. “It really forces them to think about what’s most important and how they can get rid of the clutter. A lot of sites might be full of Flash, galleries and gates, but mobile imposes a kind of discipline that is very worthwhile in that you need to re-evaluate what is most important to your business.”
Utilize Social Media. As you evaluate what design elements are most important, it’s also a great opportunity to involve your already loyal consumer by utilizing social media. Your friends, fans and followers are typically people who already like or utilize your services, so talking to them and figuring out the most important elements as they browse the mobile web is a great way to show that you care. Then you can show them a product and let them react to it, to figure out what you’re doing right and wrong. You’re unlikely to get it right the first try, but crowdsourcing and involving your customer will give them an added equity with your brand.
Limit the Clicks. “One of the greatest things that Amazon has working in its favor is that it has credit card numbers on file,” says Sterling. “Something as small as that can’t be underestimated in terms of purchase. Can you imagine putting credit card numbers into smartphones? The fact that my credit card is right there takes steps out of the process. When you survey people, you often hear about security and people feeling insecure buying from their phones. But to me it’s much more about usability than security, because credit cards have such great liability protection now. So you create these better user experiences, reduce the clicks, and it reduce the barriers when it comes to making transactions.”
Dig Deeper: How to Design and Build Your Mobile Website
3. How to Evaluate Cost
The beauty of design or app development for tablets and smartphones is that it is typically cheaper than a conventional PC design. Prices can obviously vary based on the depth, feature set and interactivity you’re looking for in the tablet or smartphone design, but in all likelihood that will be considerably less complicated than your standard site.
“It’s can cost anywhere from $15,000 to well over $100,000 dollars for some really robust designs,” Sterling says. “I think cost partly involves who you contract with. A bigger shop may have more overhead, where if you work with a few independent designers, you might find a better deal. It really depends on the features you want to include, though. If you’re a shopping app and you build in barcode scanners, cameras to take pictures, and more, that’s some heavy-duty functionality. Again, you need to figure out what the experience you want to provide is and what the requirements of your site are that you need to bring over into a mobile experience. That will let you build the best experience for your money.”
4. Measuring ROI: Engagement and Brand Loyalty
If you’re in the e-commerce space, it’s a matter of looking at transactions and purchases to evaluate the success of a redesign in terms of ROI. But for many companies (and specifically those without an e-commerce focus), measuring engagement and brand loyalty is a great way to determine success. You should be evaluating how many people are engaging on the site versus engagement within the tablet or smartphone. You can also track phone calls that come in via mobile and tablet devices. When people are interacting with you, see where and what they’re saying.
Another way to measure ROI is via the brand loyalty you create on the tablet and smartphone. While the Internet breeds varied clicking patterns (the old adage is that a competitor is always a click away), tablet and smartphone behavior tends to show more loyalty. Marketers must ask themselves whether their brand is in the right place at the right time with the right information.
“There’s a branding opportunity in the mobile space that doesn’t exist online where there are so many more distractions and clutter,” says Sterling. “If you are loyal to an app or brand on your phone or tablet, then you likely launch that app and have a direct relationships with that brand in a considerably different manner than you would when doing a navigational search through a site on a PC. But you need to remain relevant.”
According to August statistics from Pew Internet Research, “one third of American adults (35%) own a smartphone of some kind, and these users take advantage of a wide range of their phones’ capabilities. Fully nine in ten smartphone owners use text messaging or take pictures with their phones, while eight in ten use their phone to go online or send photos or videos to others. Many activities—such as downloading apps, watching videos, accessing social networking sites or posting multimedia content online—are almost entirely confined to the smartphone population.”
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