In today’s society, it is becoming increasingly common to come across the continuous increase of users who surf the Internet through Mobile devices (tablets, smartphones,etc.), becoming integral parts of our daily lives. It is now increasingly rare to find an individual who is not with a smartphone in hand chatting rather than surfing the Internet. This is due to the increasingly rapid evolution of the devices used, which give us no respite, bombarding us with ever more high-performance and inviting novelties.
But the low costs of flat connections offered by phone operators also do their “dirty” work, promoting continuous increases in Giga available to users. How can one resist? One cannot, it is obvious! Traditional browsing from fixed locations (desktops and notebooks) and from the comfort of your armchair is giving way to mobile, limited, mostly, to office hours or weekends.
Over the past year, we have been faced with a new way of experiencing online: as there is no longer an obvious distinction between the net enjoyed via classic desktop versus browsing from mobile.
This massive migration is also accentuated by the Social Networks of which we have a wide choice according to our needs and which keep us updated on the latest news from our contacts, but not only. It is increasingly common to track down large companies that use these portals as promotion or sales interfaces, taking advantage of people’s perennial being online, who in this way are able to follow closely what they are interested in and, if desired, buy directly from their cell phones.
Giving great weight is geolocation, a very useful piece of data for advertising campaigns that take advantage of this option to select the type of services and targeted offers. Identifying the geographic location of a given object, such as a cell phone or a pc connected or not to the Internet, is a must-have feature in an increasingly technological and sharing-conscious world.
Mobile First: the reversal of perspective
In order to allow people to easily access their portals from any location, the idea was to create an appealing design that is easily readable from any mobile device . This gave rise to the Responsive requirement, which is the development of sites with a layout that adapts to the size of the devices in which they are viewed.
The continuous unraveling of smartphones, or tablets, has given rise to the need to create sites specifically designed. If before, the “fixed” for pc was taken as the starting point, flanked, only in the last stage, by mobile (Mobile Last); now, web designers have gone further, taking precisely mobile as the starting point for site development (Mobile First) and then moving on to the design of the desktop version.
What are the advantages?
- the product will be viewable anywhere from smartphones to large desktops;
- from the outset, one can consider the fundamental elements, those that are essential for the site in question, both from a graphic and content point of view, and then add secondary elements in the desktop version.
Are there also disadvantages?
- the wrong tendency to add numerous elements without realizing that with the desktop the loading powers are higher than with a mobile device, so when you switch, then, to the latter you might find yourself with a site loaded with content too heavy for mobile;
- many people use mobile, but it must be considered that still a good percentage use PCs.
In summary, it can be said that the “mobile first” approach is not always advantageous but is certainly useful for websites where mobile is indeed an important focus for the business. The alternatives a company has in this regard can be summarized in three simple solutions:
- make a standard site for desktop locations and have an alternate version for access from mobile devices (the access platform will be recognized and the appropriate version of the site displayed);
- make a single Responsive site, more complex in implementation, but having the ability to automatically adapt to the resolution displayed by the user based on the device being used;
- Build a standard site for desktop locations and develop a Mobile APP for the various existing platforms ( iOS, Android, Windows Phone).
Mobile APPs are practical and immediate, but many users still prefer to view a version of the site suitable for their smartphone/tablet. One thing is certain, the future to focus on is the Mobile Web, the benchmark of any service or, better yet, commercial business through showcase sites we use to call E-commerce.
The Mobile Web and Ecommerce
Coincidentally, I learned that mobile commerce was born in 1997 thanks to a big brand: Coca Cola. In Finland, the ‘company installed the super innovative dispensers giving the possibility to pay by text message. “Here is the dawn of E-commerce sites,” I thought. At that time, however, it was still a novelty for that most applications turned out to enhance the site in question … with time this is no longer the case. We are too used to confronting online storefronts to realize that they are all the same and each one aims only to sell through messages and products.
What are the right elements to make our E-commerce easily usable from mobile and different?
- Suggest products related to the one the user is browsing to entice purchase, or at least click, on a related product;
- Make the site as easy as possible and free of the countless purchase processes that sweep the user;
- Enter quick and easy payment methods, such as PayPal;
- Carefully choose the images to be uploaded to the site, keeping in mind that they will not be viewed from a traditional screen but from a cell phone, thus smaller screen and lower quality;
- Make the site as light as possible with lightweight graphics;
- Include a reference phone number for information-some users prefer to be reassured before a purchase.
In the face of these changes, I can’t help but wonder:
are we dependent on our cell phones? Is it possible that we have had our feet, so to speak, put on our shoulders by technology? Our daily routines are totally dependent on a small “contraption” that masters our attitudes and gestures. It used to be that we would get up in the morning and eat breakfast, now the first thing that comes to our minds is to turn on our cell phones and see how many people we have been sought by. Our daily times are punctuated by technological times and are bound to be exhausted in them. I could elaborate on the emotional side of this issue….
But this…is another story.
