Listen to the grapevine – what your clients/consumers don't want!

With the rapid expansion of the mobile device market, your consumer needs have changed. Many people use their mobile devices to do some research about products and services online. Then they might follow up with more targeted research on their computers ... or not.

Decisions on the go characterise today's society, for better or worse. But that's the reality. Although iMedia people recognise that the screen size of smart phones and tablets define different needs of functionality and use, they are not always appreciating that their increasing use may cause a rethink of web use – a back-wash effect. Now if you're not aware of this, your clients may not be either. Are you complacent in your redesigns for them? Do you need to think about the interconnection of types of use between devices? Do they need to be aware and receptive to possible emerging changes?

Often it is good to take a step back and evaluate what is happening. It's easy to become too bound up with the moment by moment push within your projects. A very good way to take stock is to listen to the gripes. They'll make you rethink to avoid listening first-hand to them. So, what's on the grapevine at the moment?

Designing across devices to allow resizing of content for screen size and orientation (Responsive Web Design (RWD)) is current but brings its own problems particularly with testing, as Steve Jenkins in The Three Pillars of Responsive Design (7.2.14), notes.

Are you guilty of secret number two as defined by Rhys Little in Four Secrets to Modern Web Design that Agencies Won’t Tell You (27.1.14). Do you push your own specialism because that gives you work? He notes that an agency needs to be thinking strategically, but where's the awareness we're advocating about use across devices? He makes good points for web design that may well may be valid. How do they stand when the digital mix is involved?

But, the strongest set of don'ts for design we came across are heartfelt and ring true. Owen Radford in, The Top 7 Mobile Sins (5.2.14), makes you think long and hard about the effect of some design features on mobile devices. He lists seven sins; getting the size wrong, irrelevant landing page, unclearable pop-ups, re-direct hell, prompt for your app, going direct to the app store, and 'I forgot how to scroll/I want to constantly reload some small element of the page'.

Criticisms can help design get better if you take them in the spirit they are offered. Do you compile a list of criticisms of your projects in your company to focus the design teams on improving? Maybe that’s a good place to start.

The exploding mobile business market – are you on top of it?

You can't make a convincing business case to your clients about moving into mobile apps unless you have the overview of what is happening. You might well be busy developing the latest 'must-have' app, or extending the web presence and branding of some of your clients by linking their offerings to mobile platforms. But, will this mania survive? Will the money dry up?

Someone needs to keep an eye on the overall market and what's happening. There have been recent predictions by market researchers, and we're not saying they have definitive answers, but, there are some insights worth considering. Maybe, these insights might drive some of your conversations with your clients and get them to think strategically about what mobile presence means to them now and in a couple of years.

This FT article summarises a lot of research findings and includes some analysis of these: Enterprise mobility: Machine will speak unto machine, but will it pay?, Stephen Pritchard, 13th Feb 2011

He reckons that although mobile phone-based apps have caught the present imagination and will grow strongly, it is the business-led thrust that will push consumers in the markets of telematics, machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, healthcare and security. There is a dual thrust for employing the better broadband availability and geographical analysis of data via GPS systems. He quotes the European Union's telematics research project 'eCall' where every car in Europe would have the equivalent of a black box and in the event of an incident would wirelessly send information from GPS and impact sensors to the emergency services. See the Wikipedia entry on eCall.

Forrester Research produced several reports into Mobile penetration and the possible market sectors of banking, advertising and media messaging at the end of 2010. See a search on 'Mobile' on their site.

And if you can't put the time yourself into strategy research for the emerging mobile channel, there are companies that have their finger on this particular pulse, so to speak. The Mobile Interactive Group offer to educate your clients for you - but I imagine they'd educate you too if you pay them. They claim they've done all the research and offer. 'Mobile Industry Research and Forecasting', 'Business Analysis and Change Consultancy' (relating to businesses developing a mobile strategy), and 'Mobile Program Definition'(related specifically to the business needs identified in the analysis'. See www.migan.com.

The complete mobile picture is built up of device and platform awareness as well as realising the strengths of broadband and GPS because mobile web, cloud computing and embedded data streaming form part of the bigger picture - to say nothing of the features like Augmented Reality (AR) that some tip for the top!

Let's be ready for the next market swing by understanding the consumers' reaction to emerging tech mobile offerings.