The carriers and smartphone manufacturers tout the power of the full HTML mobile browsing experience but for anyone who has spent time pinching and zooming, it’s clear that the PC web experience doesn’t translate well to a mobile device. In addition to being an inefficient way to interact with the web, many full sites use technologies (Flash) that don’t function on mobiles and thus detract from the interaction. The mobile web experience should be focused exclusively on delivering text and other content in the most efficient manner possible. As marketers, it’s important to understand the three flavors of the mobile web.
- The most basic mobile web experience is what you see when you visit a website using a feature phone, as opposed to smartphone. Due to browser, bandwidth, and screen limitations, the experience is 99% function and 1% form. Each page is designed to be as lightweight as possible and communicating the most important information is the key objective. Below is a picture of the Amazon.com mobile site as seen by someone using a Motorola RAZR.
- At the other end of the spectrum is the “full” HTML browsing experience in which the smartphone user is tasked with navigating a website using the mobile browser. In this instance, the mobile user is presented with the exact same version as a PC user, with only the scale differing to account for the smaller screen. While in theory this allows for the “full” experience, it’s really the worst of the three browsing experiences. Content is not formatted to be digested easily, pinching and zooming takes too long, font is tiny, and download times are encumbered by images that aren’t critical to the experience.
- Splitting the difference between the two implementations outlined above is the device-optimized mobile site. This provides users with a mobile site that recognizes their specific device and presents content designed to maximize the experience based on the native features of the device. This allows for content that is more aesthetically pleasing than would be delivered on a feature phone and is formatted in such a way as to not require the pinching and zooming required when viewing the full site. Companies that do a great job with device-optimized sites include ESPN, Southwest, and Amazon.
At the bare minimum, it is essential to offer a mobile website that renders correctly across all platforms, but for brands looking to provide a robust experience, a device-optimized site is the only way to go.
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