Mobile – grasp the nettle!

By Chris Abbott, DetectRight Limited. All research ©DetectRight Limited except where stated

We feel the need. The need for speed.

Source: http://www.strangeloopnetworks.com/resources/research/our-need-for-web-speed/

Remember this. It’s important later!

Slowness: the consequences

Source: http://www.strangeloopnetworks.com/resources/research/our-need-for-web-speed/

Why support mobile?

Properly implemented…

• Quicker loading

• Better visual impression

• Easier to navigate

• Don’t forget “The Internet of Everything”

More Social than you thought?

• Social Media interaction encourages mobile traffic

• If you have these icons, you’re inviting mobile traffic!

• Sixty percent of Twitter’s 200 million active users log in via a mobile device at least once every month.

Mobile Support and Performance

0.0%

50.0%

100.0%

150.0%

200.0%

250.0%

300.0%

Percentage load time improvements (Mobile Sites)

Total

Weak 3G Connection Page Loading Time Averages

0

5

10

15

20

25

Adaptive Mobile redirect None Responsive

Average first view page loading times (seconds) across 166 popular websites

Total

Seconds

Above 10s, the visitor will probably give up.

Irony alert!

Who supports mobile? Which Magazine top 10 online retailers 2013

Clued-in Oh, the humanity! Nice try, but…

1

2

1. “Pure Responsive” means website is still bloated and zoomed out despite supporting touch 2. Once mobile has visited full site, impossible to get back to mobile site

Of the top 10 retailers 80% attempt mobile.

Who supports mobile? Which Magazine bottom 10 online retailers 2013

Clued-in Oh, the humanity! Nice try, but… 1

1. “Pure Responsive” means website is bloated, glitchy and unresponsive, and not at all optimized for mobile.

Of the bottom 10 websites, 60% attempt mobile, 10% flawed

Who supports mobile (generally?)

52.41%

47.59%

Mobile Aware Sites

Aware

Unaware

The long tail would almost certainly be worse.

How are they coping?

3.01%

39.16%

43.98%

10.84%

3.01%

Adaptation methods in use

Adaptive

Mobile redirect

None

Responsive

Separate Site

Who is aware?

50.00% 53.33%

72.73%

85.71%

8.33%

22.22%

42.86%

89.47%

18.75%

100.00%

70.00% 78.57%

63.64%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Mobile Aware Sites (by sector, top sites)

Unaware

Aware

Quick, there’s been a disaster! DONATE NOW!

DEC (mobile friendly)

Oxfam (mobile friendly)

International Red Cross (not mobile friendly)

American Red Cross (mobile friendly)

I need information about Cancer…

Cancer Research (mobile friendly)

Prostate Cancer UK (mobile friendly)

Macmillan (mobile friendly)

WRCF (not mobile friendly)

I need a 3D TV right now!

Amazon (mobile friendly)

Argos (mobile friendly)

John Lewis (mobile friendly)

Play.com (spot the TV)

What’s the latest?

BBC News (mobile friendly)

Google News (mobile friendly)

Yahoo News (mobile friendly)

Sky News (cram it all in)

Feeling Referential?

British Library (mobile friendly)

CIA (logo is mobile friendly, Since it’s the only thing

visible on small phones!)

Wiley Online Library (not mobile friendly)

Library of Congress (I’m glad the library is

bigger than this)

Feeling encyclopaedic??

Wikipedia (mobile friendly,

responsive)

Encyclopedia.com (mobile friendly)

Britannica (mobile friendly with

glitches caused by responsiveness)

Encyclo (“Value” encyclopedia)

Clash of the Titans – Round 1 EasyJet vs RyanAir

Friendly and considerate Snappy and App’y

User-hostile 9 times slower than EasyJet Mobile Site

Verdict: An Easy Jet-speed Knockout for the Orange corner

Insult to injury

Getting this message on a Samsung Galaxy S4? What is this, 1998?

Clash of the Titans – Round 2 Thomas Cook vs Thomson

An app-like experience OK load speed

More unreadable than a Travel Agent’s small print

Slow to load

Verdict: Thomas Cook takes the full-breakfast bacon

Keep taking the Tablets…

(Wide browser does not mean tablet!) This is why you need proper Device Detection…

Clash of the Titans – Round 3 Expedia vs Opodo

Simple, and extremely usable. Twice as long to load as

Opodo, but less navigating.

Attractive and simple Faster than Expedia but with

less functionality

Verdict: ?

Clash of the Titans – Round 3 Expedia vs Opodo

Aha! A tie-break! Alas, Opodo is a bit ‘Appless.

Verdict: A technical last-round knockout for Expedia

Clash of the Titans – Round 3 Apple vs Microsoft

Looks good until you want a menu… fast to load because

it’s just a big advert.

For Android and iOS…

Verdict: Microsoft eats Apple for lunch.

For other mobiles… Flawed, but valiant attempt!

Best practice case studies

• BBC (News/Information)

• John Lewis (Retail)

• Oxfam (Charitable)

BBC case study - “Stacking”

Desktop Mobile

Much content is preserved: 1) As-is, or with less detail 2) Behind dynamic menus Access to all sections is preserved.

Enhanced BBC Desktop Design

Complete UI Rewrite

Desktop site directs to Mobile-first Responsive Website. Designed by UsableNet, in common with BA, M&S, LizEarle, Dell and Tesco. Better device detection needed on long tail, but that’s another story!

John Lewis Extra

• John Lewis has predicted that mobile traffic will overtake desktop at 5pm on Christmas Day this year (2013)

• Meanwhile, Boxing Day – which last year saw a record 920,000 visits from mobile – is set to exceed 1m mobile visits.

DEC – getting to the point

Priority

Final comments

• Recommend desktop + Mobile First Responsive sites

• Wearable/Tablet/Connected TV sites would put you way ahead of the competition

• All sites needs proper device detection

• Mobile is not optional