A key mobile design trend in 2013
Mobile usage is only going one way. Up. Rapidly.
[caption id="attachment_9550" align="aligncenter" width="537" caption="UK mobile adoption exploding: 27 million regular users, 54% of all mobile users. Source: Comscore."][/caption]
But how good are the experiences we're building for customers? Designing experiences on mobile is challenging because of the form factor and because it's a relatively new design approach with the tools and technologies evolving fast. Brands also want to get to market fast.
Today's mobile designs often fail to differentiate brands
These challenges can lead to some "screen scrape" design approaches where every site looks similar, with little differentiation of brand or experience. These 4 retail sites show this:
Don't get be wrong, these sites show a lot of features of good…
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Yahoo mobile modes research
I found this research interesting since it set out to understand how users interact with devices on their mobile. We all know from our personal use of mobiles that, if we have a smartphone, we’ll prefer apps for some tasks and browsers for others. This research gives a nice clear statement on what these mobile tasks are:
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A testing service and resources on testing for mobile apps
Value/Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended link: uTtest.com - mobile app testing
I was tipped off about uTest.com by a marketer who is currently involved with launching a mobile app. It wasn’t a service that I was aware of, so thought we would share here. We have mentioned tools like WhatUsersDo before, but this new tool caters specifically for mobile app and software testing with crowdsourced testing for mobile apps.
Utest.com is a US focused, but internationally acting innovative way of connecting businesses that want to launch software applications of all sorts of industry sectors with freelance testers around the world. They support Google, Amazon, Groupon with user testing for web or mobile.
They also have a useful introductory ebooks on Mobile Testing and whitepapers on agile mobile testing.…
Creating a mobile marketing roadmap
Launching mobile commerce within an organization requires a sound Mobile Strategy and a well-defined roadmap to ensure the right items are prioritized and that actionable results can be quickly obtained.
There are so many options – both technical and business based – that it is important to step back, look the business and marketing strategy, and to determine how mobile fits in at the strategic level.
On the technical side, core ecommerce and marketing services such as content merchandising and discovery, checkout and payment, and content delivery can be provided to traditional desktops, as well as new devices like smartphones, tablets, TV’s and BlueRay players through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The API’s standardize the interfaces which apps, sites or products need to access, simplifying integration and providing common tools and technologies which are scalable and well documented.
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Value: [rating=4]
Recommended link: Google GoMo site
We’ve seen a lot of interest in our posts on mobile marketing options and mobile adoption stats this year, so thought it would be useful to flag this new site to you.
If you’re reviewing your mobile strategy, this is worth reviewing, but be warned, the site is bizarrely designed as “a Flash horror show” so is light on in-depth technical information and marketing ideas.
However, there are useful features which you may find helpful. We think these are the most useful ones:
Test your current site feature
10 mobile best practices
Suppliers - not comprehensive
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Google Wallet launches
Importance (for retailers in the long-term): [rating=5]
Recommended link: Google Wallet launch announcement
If you’re a retailer and have heard about the recent launch of Google Wallet, this is a short update on its relevance as we see it and the bigger picture about NFC and contactless payment that we have been hearing a lot about in 2011.
Well if you’re based in the UK, Europe, in fact anywhere out of the US, Google Wallet is not relevant at all right now.
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September 20, 2011
An introduction to mobile marketing strategy
Mobile marketing has an exciting future shown by its rate of growth - you've almost certainly seen the statistics to support the claims for an exciting future for mobile...
Did you know that there are 5.3 billion mobile users globally? That’s 77% of the world’s population!
Did you know that mobile web is predicted to overtake desktop by 2013/4 as this Smart Insights compilation of mobile marketing statistics shows?
Here are some other statistics you may not know, which again show the potential of mobile:
The current m-commerce industry is predicted to be worth $3.3 billion this year, and due to rise to $20.5 billion by 2015. These are not numbers that a marketer can afford to ignore.
It takes 26 hours for the average person to report a lost wallet. But it takes just 68 minutes for…
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August 15, 2011
Pizza Express’ multichannel QR code
Nothing makes an idea or concept come to life better than a story or an example. So I’ve decided to create an ongoing series of posts simply showing some of the best examples of engagement I’ve seen. These are both as part of campaigns and as engagement devices on web, mobile or social network sites.
If you know of anything I should feature please drop me a line.
Pizza Express – from QR code to iPhone App payment
Over the last six months the rise of QR codes for multichannel customer engagement and marketing has reached a tipping-point. Providing an easy way to use a smartphone to scan a small code in the real world and immediately access information or a service online means QR codes have started to crop up on posters, newspapers and even…
New report compares desktop to mobile advertising showing rapid growth, CTR X 2.7, 60% of CPC costs, but lower conversion
Over the last few years (largely thanks to the rise of the Smartphone and texting) mobiles have become a much larger part of everyday living. Their success is in making a lot of tasks easier & providing entertainment / connectivity while on the go.
Predictions of global use of the Mobile Internet such as the one on right all point it to exceeding desktop use by 2015.
But it seems that while businesses have started to "experiment" with mobile marketing there are few who have a clear strategy. Instead, mobile-based marketing tends to be through applications, some recent examples that caught my eye are:
Lynx Stream App
My Starbucks
Tesco Grocery App
New data on mobile search usage in the…
This is an interesting infographic on the reality of marketers seeking to leverage social location-based check-ins, whether it's Facebook Places or Foursquare. There's been a lot of hype - mostly between early adopters it would appear - about check-ins. So, even though this is US data, what are the take-aways?
Be realistic and targeted - smartphone's are still only owned by half of the population, and roughly half of those have privacy concerns or feel that there's no motivation to bother
Provide a motivation - Check-in % is high amongst smartphone users and the three main motivations are to meet people, learn about the location or actively promote it
Are you the right location type - People are most likely to check in at places to eat or drink - where others gather to socialise (restaurants, cafe's, pubs/bars and clubs)
Play to your strengths - People are more likely to interact with large brands, yet they're more…
