On a daily basis, I rely on a 4x2 inch brick that is my cell phone.
It goes everywhere with me. It's said, but true to say that my cell phone is my lifeline.
It goes everywhere with me. It's said, but true to say that my cell phone is my lifeline.
It knows what I like. As a journalism major, it gives me the news everyday. It allows me to record interviews if my recorder conks out. It allows me to take pictures in an mere seconds. It is literally the one way my family and friends can contact me on a daily basis. Do I want to know the best place to eat in a new city? Well my phone knows that, too!
I'm sure you feel the same way. I totally agree with the lady to the right—like a good pair of earrings, I feel naked without my cell phone.
And I'm sure we've all been here....
I'm sure you feel the same way. I totally agree with the lady to the right—like a good pair of earrings, I feel naked without my cell phone.
And I'm sure we've all been here....
A recent study by mobileinsurance.com found that people spend on average 90 minutes on their phone per day. For college students and millennials, I would argue—successfully, I might add—that we may spend a good two to three hours on our phone on a given day. We've grown up in a world that doesn't know what it's like to have a mobile device attached at our hip.
If you're not convinced, here's more proof why mobile matters.
If you're not convinced, here's more proof why mobile matters.
- The average person spends 23 days on their phone.
- 90 percent of American have a cell phone.
- For iPhone users, calling someone was the sixth most function used in last year. Social media access and gaming ranked higher.
- 54 percent of cell phone activity is searching websites in a browser.
- Global mobile traffic now accounts for more than 15 percent of all Internet traffic.
This is precisely why a good mobile design—both from a browser and app—is important. Many news sites, like the Tribune sites I spoke of in my last post, have put mobile importance at the forefront of their agenda for survival.
“Mobile is no longer a specialty, it’s a requirement” said Alex Hardiman, executive director of mobile at the New York Times. "Yes, it is still harder to monetize from mobile, but we all know that’s going to change—and probably pretty fast. So we must jump on the train now."
As the editor of Kentwired.com this semester, I've been researching what we can do better to connect with our mobile users. For us, that's all of our users since we primarily service college students. Here's what I found:
- theverge.com, 30 percent of Facebook users connec t to the site through their mobile device. According to Twitter's website, 80 percent of its readers access their profiles through their mobile phones. “Social and mobile are intrinsically linked,” Hardiman says. People share content more on mobile so you need to identify that type of content. “If you understand who your audience is and what it is that makes them share, then you’re going to win half the battle straightaway.” Mobile connection comes primarily through social media. According to
- Enforce mobile constraints. Luke Wroblewski, product director at Google, suggests testing your design by making sure users can perform actions with just their thumb. "When these constraints are grounded in how people actually use their mobiles, you’ve given yourself a great way to tell if you’re going in the right direction with your design," he said in a 2013 Mashable.com story.
- Keep calls to action front and center. This goes along with what Janice Redish, author of "Letting Go of the Words," teaches when she says to make useful links. Make all parts of a link to a story clickable. If you want people to notice your content bar, make it a recognizable icon. If you want people to subscribe to a certain RSS feed, have a huge button that says "Subscribe now." Make actions and their consequences know.
- Menus should be short and sweet. News websites do a good job of this in their content bars on a desktop or laptop screen, which is why they can adapt to mobile well. However, I hate nothing more than having to scroll down to get to the option I want in a menu on my mobile device. "Consider how you can present the fewest menu items possible," a Google study suggests.
- Make it easy to get back to the homepage. The Google study also suggests to make your organization's logo the source for taking visitors back to the homepage. This goes along with the point of making actions front and center. Web and mobile design follows a certain pattern and language through icons. The more mobile designers can anticipate what their readers already know about mobile navigation, the better the site will be designed for a positive user experience.
- Keep it simple.