Be Smart about Smartphones

The worldwide smartphone market is expected to grow nearly 50% this year according to a report by IDC. The smartphone industry is growing faster than any segment of technology in history. Google predicts that half of all Internet traffic will be from mobile devices by 2013.

While we are seeing exponential growth in mobile technology, many web developers don’t take full advantage of the true potential of this market. It’s simply not enough to create a version of your current site that is based on mobile style sheets for different browsers. Our approach is to develop a new user experience model – to understand who your smartphone audience(s) is, what platforms they use, how they find your site, what information they want, and what action we want them to take. While there may be some crossover with desktop users, we believe there are significant differences that need to be considered when you develop for mobile platforms.

Mobile sites need to not only provide the best possible experience on handheld devices, they need to cater to an audience that is far more likely to be searching for content related to the local environment they’re in. It’s critical for us to be aware of emerging technologies such as QR codes, mobile augmented reality and Near Field Communication that give smartphone users the opportunity to engage with their environment in new and more meaningful ways.

With consumers expected to spend billions via mobile this year, it’s time to stop thinking of smartphones as an afterthought, and apply the same level of user experience research to mobile platform development that we do to desktop devices.