Tag Archives: Mobile Web

Business Talk

Apps over Mobile Websites

It must be very confusing for site owners debating whether to spend on a duplicate mobile website, or maybe an application version of their website, just because business trends suggest empirically this is what consumers want. They can obviously weigh up their options and speak to professionals found on websites like https://www.nopio.com/ to see what would be best for them, but they ultimately have to make a decision themselves.

Here is a following example from a recent econsultancy blog:

85% of Consumers Favour Apps over Mobile Websites

In the early days of m-commerce it was often asked whether brands should opt for a mobile app or a mobile website.

We can observe what looks almost conclusive that people prefer applications because they are more convenient, faster, easier to browser etc. Think of as an example how you shop on eBay. I personally prefer shopping on eBay and Amazon using their mobile Apps, however this sort of functionality doesn’t often translate to every website. Also, I bet that consumers will unlikely want to download an app for every website they want to visit on a less than monthly basis. Another example here is dating. Not everyone is looking for a serious relationship, but won’t want what they are looking for plastered over a big computer screen, so solutions like this Free sex chat app allow for them to seek what they desire in a much more discrete way.

The mobile war is over and the app has won: 80% of mobile time spent (Apps vs web apps ?)

Yes this shows the way we consume the net on our mobile devices has changed. In just the same way Youtube for example can consume a significant proportion of our desktop browsing habits, our mobile browsing habits are narrowing their stranglehold onto specific apps only. This means that the wider internet only receives less than 20% of our attention. And this is quite natural if you think about it. Imagine, you’re planning a hike and want to find out what the weather on your trail is like. If you have a hiking app (with a Weather API, likely) that gives you all the information you need about any trail imaginable, would you not prefer to use it rather than hunt around online for info?

There have been plenty of articles telling us that businesses have now got no choice in that their business website MUST be able to be viewed from a mobile. …

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

With users only spending 20% of their mobile time on the world wide web, we might have to think about what makes our website more mobile friendly. Ultimately we have a very short attention time to capture the interest of our mobile visitors because their browsing span is probably a lot shorter than infront a desktop device.
This article looks at the different options for making a website mobile friendly: for example enabling the Mobile Theme on your website: Is that really enough? Realistically if a user is only going to devote 3 minutes to your website. make sure it’s well spent and provide fast and easy access for them to contact you and bookmark you. So that on their return to their desktop device, they have a means of being prompted to browsing your website.

– Juliana

Web Development

Are You Hosting A Dynamic Website?

In the last article I wrote, we explored the use of mobile websites, and whether the increasing trend for mobile devices would affect the way in which you need to reconsider your web presentation to your future clientele. In this article, I’m going to give you the pointers you need to help you really qualify what mobile and dynamic websites are all about.

Mobile internet access via an array of
Portable devices is a now a
part of typical  business persons day.

Business people will no longer wait until they get home before
they can log on…

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

This article gives you a broad overview on the scope of a mobile website, and how that falls under the umbrella of a dynamic website. Dynamic websites adapt their presentation either from the browser perspective, or provide usability for the owner to upload new information.

Even something as simple as a content management system [CMS] such as WordPress, Drupal and Joomla will allow rich content to be updated with ease and is fundamentally part of the dynamic website approach. You don’t want your visitors to be turned away by stale content, but at the same time not all CMSs  are built equal with slick themes for usability. You might want to test your site appearance on many platforms and browsers to see how well it adapts.

 

Even though many people are stating that responsive web design is taking more time and money to implement it isn’t at all true. It may be a statement of frustration to try to minimize the importance of RWD and start a movement against it.

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

Take your pick of webmaster tools to add to your repository. Here is the definitive list of tools to check your website’s compatibility across many platforms and user interfaces – visually! Each tool listed will serve a different preference, you may prefer a book-marklet, a browser based web client, or a downloadable tool. Now you can check things like whether your website CSS script is adaptable to the user agent, or screen size. Of course if this represents the possibility that you may have a lot of work on your plate to adapt the website, you could consider making things more simple… Mohit Verma in the following article examines usability from an All-Text perspective. It was made as a usability suggestion on a government website:

 

Today, while browsing through the web, I found a website named Office for Disability Issues. As mentioned on their website, “The Office for Disability Issues (ODI) is part of the Department for Work and Pensions and works …

Juliana Payson‘s insight:

Mohit Verma makes a succinct evaluation of the government website’s recommendations. A picture speaks a thousand words, and many mobile devices have text readers built into them for those more visually impaired on small screen browsing.

Are there any other subjects you’d like to see tested? Simply place a comment to get in touch with me or connect on Google Plus if you have tips you’d like to share via Superb.net – Juliana

 

 

 

Technology

Make Your Website Mobile Device Friendly

The year 2013 is anticipating amazing surges in the adoption of mobile devices and technology. The way we consume the internet is ever-evolving and that’s an important consideration to make if we as website owners are going to consider the interaction of our audience. So if you are thinking about creating your own website, and have been looking for some support, either on this website or here, then that is a good first step to take. Here’s the latest news picked this week with supporting anecdotes to help to focus on your mobile audience:

 

Forbes Adobe: Tablets now drive more traffic to websites than smartphones – Tablets began driving more traffic to websites than smartphones for the first time, starting last month, according to Adobe.

This means a growing problem in terms of workload for webmasters who are used to building one site. With no user agent switcher for different types of browsers. How many of you as tablet device browsers struggle with a poorly laid out CSS structure, or even worse yet the navigation and web tools are hampered by the inability to “drag” just as you would normally do on the desktop.

Remember: Poor useability will translate to higher bounce rate, and this is going to be significantly increasing proportion of your web visitors are coming in through mobile. Which Brings me to my second point:

 

Check out this Video by Andrew from www.youtube.com – March 8, 1:18 AM
I am going to share 3 tips that can help determine if you need to spend whe… (Is It Really worth Investing Energy or Money into Cellular Websites?

He makes a valid and simple three point summary to assess whether this trend in mobile device browsing will apply to you. So while the breaking news suggests you might have a lot of work to do on your web hosting account, sound marketing reasoning may prove otherwise. ~Thanks Andrew!

 

And Finally, don’t lose hope yet. If your website is geared for HTML5, it may already be optimized for tablet browsing. Check out Richard’s article here on the way mobile devices will pick up on certain data fields to optimize your user’s web experience:

New features will go a long way toward making your life easier while delivering a delightful user experience. The best thing about all this? You can start using this today!

Date pickers for example aren’t restricted to desktop devices; some Blackberry devices and Chrome for Android render their internal date picker when used with type=”date”. Technically what this means is a customized experience when either browsing from the desktop, or allowing your mobile device keyboard to pop up at the right moment.

 

Simply place a comment to get in touch with me or connect on Google Plus if you have tips you’d like to share via Superb.net – Juliana