Framework for Designing for Multiple Devices

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by Sachendra Yadav

Nowadays, content must be developed to be viewed and interacted with across a range of screen sizes, from smartphones to the widest flat-screens. With devices becoming increasingly abundant in our daily lives, people are shifting from device to device, and they expect their products and services to shift with them. Regardless of what size screen your content is on, people expect a delightful experience across devices.
Here is a list of popular resolutions on various devices:

Resolution	Devices
800 x 480	Samsung Galaxy S Vibrant Nexus One/ HTC Incredible HTC EVO/ HTC Desire HD Windows Phone 7
854 x 480	Droid/ Droid 2 Droid X
480 x 320	iPhone 3GS and Lower
960 x 640	iPhone4
1024 x 768	iPad PC
1024 x 600	Galaxy Tab Blackberry Playbook
1920 x 1080	PC TV

Designing for multiple devices involves much more that simply resizing content to display on different screens. It must be truly viewable and usable across screens. We have to determine how our content changes from one screen to the next; more specifically, we have to control how this content gets resized, even to the extreme of accounting for both portrait and landscape orientations. To do this, it’s necessary to develop an effective strategy to target a diverse range of devices and screen sizes.

Different Devices, Different Experiences

Every device does something different. Each device is better at doing certain things, and worse at doing others. So, not all features make sense on all devices. You need to identify how the user will use the product in different contexts. Mobile users want different things from your product than desktop users. As an example, consider a website about movies currently in theatre. On the desktop, users want an immersive experience including trailers and production details. On mobile, they focus on movie listings, nearest theatres, and showtimes. We need to maximize the user experience for all devices so users believe that the application was actually designed for their devices instead of being simply stretched to fit the screen on their devices.

Understand Context of Use

Users consume content from multiple devices throughout the day. It’s important to understand the context in which these devices are being used to craft experiences that specifically suit them. You need to provide the right content, on the right device, at the right time.

It’s also important to understand how the usage of different devices overlaps and how they complement each other. Here are some interesting findings from a Nielson survey of time spent on different devices for daily tasks:

1. 70% of tablet owners and 68% of smartphone owners said they use their devices while watching TV.
2. Tablets and TVs complement each other very well; 30% users used tablets for browsing the Web or accessing TV-related apps while watching TV. Only 20% of smartphone owners did the same.

Define Device Groups

Although there's a myriad of devices with varying screen sizes out there, it's possible to manage this diversity by defining device groups based the tasks the user is likely to focus on, and by device capabilities.
Here’s an example of device width groupings:

1. Featurephones: 128, 160, 176, 220, 240
2. Smartphones: 320, 480
3. Tablets: 800
4. PC: 1024+
5. TV: 1600+

Note: This is an arbitrary example; create groups based on your user research.

Identify User Goals for Different Groups

Smartphones are personal; they are used mostly for micro-tasks, acting on locally available info, entertainment, and social sharing. Tablets are shared; they are considered an alternate to laptops and are primarily used for content consumption. Adapt the experience for each context of use.
You need to identify the different scenarios in which your product will be used across the groups of devices, and design an experience suitable for each of those scenarios. For example, to create a good mobile application, keep it simple by focusing on core functions and the activities mobile users require.

Break down the basic interactions and functionality offered by your application, and make combinations suited to each different device group. The information and UI design of each variation should reflect this, with elements repositioned or reorganized accordingly. If you’re designing for mobile, reorder the categories by priority to best suit the needs of the mobile audience. For example, Google’s mobile website focuses on different items in the navigation than in their desktop website.

^{Google News website on PC and mobile}

Evernote is a popular note-taking product that’s available on multiple devices. Its PC and tablet versions are optimized for content consumption whereas the smartphone versions are optimized for photo and audio input, and notes are location-tagged.

^{Evernote app on different platforms}

Create a Scalable Reference Design for Each Group

Once you’ve identified the features to be supported for each device type group, create a reference design that contains the essential components of the application that will scale across the range of screen sizes across the group of devices by defining a set of principles, patterns and guidelines. Make sure to address different orientations.

^{BBC Mobile Style Guide}

Design for Mobile First

Usually applications are designed for PC or desktop and then ported to mobile. However, it’s better to design for mobile first as it has the most constraints and will help you focus.

When designing for PC, we face the “kitchen sink” problem where lots of things get added to the product, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved. This is because adding things is relatively easy when you have a lot of real estate. But when you design for mobile first, it forces you to decide what matters most, giving you practice in applying the same process of judiciousness to the other versions of the product, be it on PC, tablet, or TV.

Luke Wroblewski, who wrote the book Mobile First, discusses some of the ways designing for mobile first can help mitigate some of the thorny issues that have plagued designers for years.

Synchronize

Based on usage scenarios, you might want to ensure that the content consumption on each device is in sync. For example, if you started reading an eBook on your smartphone, when you shift to the tablet you should be taken back to the point where you left off on the smartphone. Amazon’s Kindle handles synchronization of multiple devices very well.

Get the Details Right

Designing for multiple devices involves a lot of complexity. Sweat it out to get the details right to create quality experiences for each group.
You need to understand the strengths and weaknesses of each device and how can be used to design an experience suited for the specific device. Consider such variables as user posture (stationary, mobile, leaning back, leaning forward), device input capabilities, device display capabilities, and navigation style while defining the scenarios in which user may be using the product. Depending on the scenarios, it may be beneficial to design two or three different versions of the product.

Mobile Web vs. Native App

The easiest way to reach multiple devices is mobile web; however, mobile web and native apps offer different benefits and serve different audiences. You need to answer a number of questions:

• What experience does your product need to deliver?
• What you are trying to achieve?
• What is your business model?
• What is your budget?
• Who is your target?
• Et cetera.

Weigh the pros and cons of both the mediums and decide what works best for you.

Mobile Web

Native App

Reach a larger audience The majority of users don’t own a smartphone and don’t access app stores. They are more likely to use a mobile browser and access the Internet from their mobile phones. The barriers to accessing a site via a browser are lower than those to downloading an app, even for Smartphone owners Lower cost and time to market The biggest benefit mobile web offers is that you design once and it’ll run on all mobile platforms with minimal tweaking. The fragmented nature of the mobile industry means that porting apps to different platform environments costs money, especially when you include maintenance and marketing costs.   Instant updates Whatever changes you make become available instantly to users.   No censor Mobile web does not censor content and allows you to publish when you want and what you want.   Low barrier to entry and no revenue share Mobile web has no entry costs, and you get to keep 100% of the revenue.

Connectivity Productivity in a browser depends on constant connectivity, and in the real world data connections can be transient. Native apps can be built to interact with users even if offline. Device-based caching Native apps can cache data persistently, reducing data usage and providing faster access to the data. Richer experience Native apps can tap into the device’s functions and features, providing richer experience and seamless integration with native features such as camera, address book, etc. Users prefer an app that feels like it belongs on the phone rather than a Web app that seems shoehorned into the device.   Immersive experiences Immersive apps like games need a lot more horsepower to deliver rich, polished experiences, which the native apps can achieve easily.   Stronger engagement Native apps currently present better opportunities for stronger engagement, not only because they offer richer services and experiences, but also because they place the brand icon on the user’s home screen.   Discoverability Native apps can be found easily in an app store. It is easier to build great marketing around apps than around mobile web links.

^{For further reading on this topic, check out these posts from Mobiletech, Forbes and CMSWire.}

Conclusion

When designing for multiple devices, the best strategy is to keep the end-user experience in mind. Ensure that on all devices, users can complete their task with ease and efficiency, and the experience is tuned to their expectations from that device.

50% of U.S. Cellphone Users Have Apps, Pew Survey Says

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By Dan Rowinski / November 2, 2011 8:48 AM

The Pew Internet and American Life project released details of a new survey today showing the trends in how U.S. adults download apps to the smartphones and tablets. Including those that have downloaded and app or have apps preloaded to their devices, about 50% of all U.S. cellphone users have an app on their devices. That correlates to about 42% of all U.S. adults.
The amount of U.S. cellphone users that have apps on their devices rose from 43% in May 2010. Pew points out that the demographic has not really changed, there are just more people from those demographics downloading apps. For smartphones, they tend to be young, have higher incomes and college degrees and live in urban and suburban areas. How do you fit in these demographics?

Pew reports that half (51%) of users who have apps on their cellphones use them at least once a week. Less than a fifth (17%) do not use apps on a regular basis. For tablets, 39% use apps six or more times a week with 8% reporting no app activity.

In terms of paid apps, games are the leader. That comes as no surprise as game developers are the ones that are pushing the bounds of what these devices can do. People will pay for a good game. Weather, social networking, maps/search, music and news were the next highest on the list of apps usage. Of app users, 46% have paid for an app at some point, which is no different from the 47% that said the same thing in May 2010. About 52% said they paid $5 or less for apps with 17% have paid more than $20 for an app. Those that pay for apps tend to be aged 30 or above with college degrees in urban areas.

Check out the chart below breaking down what apps that users are downloading by age demographic. The results are pretty interesting. African-Americans are more likely to download apps that help them communicate with family and friends. About 46% of people use mobile apps to help them make decisions about purchases and 48% of users use apps to help them with work-related tasks.


Check out the full report here.

A note from Pew on the survey results:
The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project has begun to explore the contours of this relatively new digital phenomenon. In August of 2011, the Project conducted its most recent national survey of the state of apps culture. The survey was conducted from July 25-August 26 among 2,260 adults ages 18 and older in both English and Spanish, 916 of whom were interviewed on their cell phones.

Six questions for analyzing a website

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by Seth Godin

It's tempting to believe that any website can become a perpetual motion machine of profit. But before you start one, invest in one or go to work for one, a few things to ask:

1. What's the revenue per visit? (RPM). For every thousand visitors, how much money does the site make (in ads or sales)?
2. What's the cost of getting a visit? Does the site use PR or online ads or affiliate deals to get traffic? If so, what's the yield?
3. Is there a viral co-efficient? Existing visitors can lead to new visitors as a result of word of mouth or the network effect. How many new visitors does each existing user bring in? (Hint: it's less than 1. If it were more than 1, then every person on the planet would be a user soon.) This number rarely stays steady. For example, at the beginning, Twitter's co-efficient was tiny. Then it scaled to be one of the largest ever (Oprah!) and now has started to come back down to Earth.
4. What's the cost of a visitor? Does the site need to add customer service or servers or other expenses as it scales?
5. Are there members/users? There's a big difference between drive-by visits and registered users. Do these members pay a fee, show up more often, have something to lose by switching?
6. What's the permission base and how is it changing? The only asset that can be reliably built and measured online is still permission. Attention is scarce, and permission is the privilege to deliver anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who want to get them. Permission is easy to measure and hard to grow.

Do the math on successful companies online and compare it to those that are struggling and these six metrics will help you understand the difference. For example, if the RPM is less than the cost of getting a new visitor, you've got trouble. If the site is relying on fads and occasional PR but isn't building a permission base, that's trouble too.
The good news is that each of them can be changed if you're alert and willing to do surgery on the business model and structure of the site.
The ideal structure is a business that's a platform, not merely a place to stop by. Once people move in and become members, they're hesitant to leave, they share permission over time, they tell their friends, their RPM goes up and the cost of acquiring and hosting members goes down. The real question is: are you on that path?

Shoppers share top 5 “must-haves” for buying online this holiday season

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By Fiona Swerdlow, Head of Research, Shop.org 

Some of the most insightful data we gather from the annual Shop.org eHoliday Study centers simply on what matters most to consumers.

In partnership with BIGinsight, we asked consumers: “When choosing to make holiday purchases from a given online retailer, what is most important to you?” In an industry fueled by constant innovation – whether technical, marketing, merchandising, and beyond – the answers are a reminder that, no matter what those of us in online retail may dream up next, our customers will be looking for a number of key factors.

With a nod to last year’s rankings, here is this year’s fantastic five “what matters most to consumers” list:

1. Seeing the shopping cart total prior to check out: 4.5 of 5. Like last year, this function tops the list for consumers again. As Forrester Research has found, a leading cause of shopping cart abandonment is simply sticker shock when they see the final total including shipping costs. Bottom line: continually update the shopping cart total on relevant pages, thereby getting ahead of this issue even before the customer starts the formal check out process.

2. Product available to ship immediately: 4.5 of 5. Up from number 5 last year, consumers clearly want no surprises on the inventory front, either. Many retailers have bought (very) carefully into inventory in recent years after the 2008 holiday inventory glut – all well and good, but the burden is on the retailer to communicate clearly when inventory levels are minimal (see Boden USA’s effective use of color coding to indicate product availability in terms of in-stock, limited inventory, and out of stock, still one of my favorite examples). Putting a different spin on managing inventory stock issues, ModCloth actually keeps out of stock items on its site, allowing customers to sign up to be notified via email when the item is back in stock – which, in turn, becomes a remarketing tool that the customer is happy to receive.

3. Value for money / good deals: 4.4 of 5. Solidly in third place again this year, consumers continue to look for good value. As many have pointed out, this doesn’t just mean the price itself – it’s about conveying to the customer how the price relates to the qualities of the product such as quality, durability, fashion quotient, uniqueness, and the like.

4. Clear product descriptions: 4.4 of 5. A merchandising basic that always needs updating and fine tuning, this merchandising area now also benefits from the explosion of product video available to consumers. Executed well, product video can significantly enhance the clarity and depth of the product description – a fact not lost on close to half of retailers surveyed who invested significantly this year in product videos. Indeed, Golfsmith’s commitment to using video to explain technical details and ease of use features for products has resulted in increases for both conversion and SEO rankings.

5. Guaranteed on time delivery: 4.4 of 5. Again, imperative for holiday purchases in particular. Those coordination meetings you held last month with your operations staff and shipping vendors will go a long way towards ensuring a minimum of delivery snafus – and for those rare instances, you’ve got a flawless plan to make things right for the customer. Of course, customers can help themselves on this front via clear, visible shipping deadlines calendars (number 10 on their list of customer priorities, by the way). Another perennial favorite of mine, Nordstrom’s holiday shipping calendar, lays out shipping deadlines by each of the three most popular winter holidays (Christmas, Chanukah, and Kwanzaa) – I just wish it were already accessible from the home page even now.
What else are consumers looking for when choosing to do business with one merchant versus another? Broad product selection (4.3); merchant reputation (4.2); free return shipping offer  or policy (4.2); the ability to see product reviews from other customers (4.1); and – in tenth place, mind you – promotions (4.1). Clearly consumers don’t simply buy based on free shipping – yes, it’s important, but their decision to buy from you – or your competitor – is often likely much more multi-faceted.

For the full data for this and numerous other eHoliday survey questions, please visit Holiday Central on the Shop.org Web site.

How Digital Is Your Company?

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October 24, 2011

Posted by David Armano
Edelman Digital, Chicago
http://darmano.typepad.com/
Follow on Twitter @armano

Originally posted on the Harvard Business Review.

Recently, the CEO of Edelman wrote a blog post celebrating a company milestone. In it, he referenced our efforts in the non-analog world as “social digital.” To most, this may seem insignificant because the word “social” is often overused in professional circles. But the addition of “social” to the “digital” is immensely significant because it symbolizes that the current revolution is not only digital, but codependent on social behaviors and interactions from human beings. If the digital revolution was about computers being connected (the internet) then the social-digital revolution is about people being connected (the social web).

Though social and digital share similar attributes, they are not the same thing. Many organizations learn this lesson the hard way when they set up a “digital embassy” on a social network like Facebook, only to find out that fans can be unpredictable, vocal, and even antagonistic. Digital is the infrastructure, the plumbing and wiring, but social is the behavior and quite possibly the glue.
We are the sum of our connections in this social-digital revolution and doing business in the social-digital era means being connected.

A site called the Social Business Index underscores this point, at least in theory. It uses an undisclosed algorithm to provide a real-time assessment and ranking of how social (or connected) a company is. The site looks something like a stock exchange of businesses ranked by how “social digital” they are at the moment, likely related to the size and activity of their networks. The first few companies to appear on the list are what you might expect; Facebook and Google retain top spots. But the rankings get more interesting as you see companies such as Coca-Cola, Burberry, and Time Warner in good standing. The index sparks an interesting question. Will companies who embrace “social digital” perform better than those who don’t? To participate in the social-digital revolution, brands, businesses, and organizations need to take the following actions:

Add a social layer across all business functions.
Most organizations have “legacy” systems in place which have yet to integrate a social layer. For example, Facebook pages are often receptacles for customer complaints, yet this feedback does not get funneled into the same databases that compile information from areas such as call centers. Being “social” in a digital age means integrating social data and interactions across all of your business units and pulling in data from traditional, digital, and social sources.

Pursue a policy of integration and specialization.
Organizations must adopt a social-digital mindset if they wish to capture value in this area. This means evolving the culture and skillsets of your workforce. Being able to engage productively and appropriately in public-digital spaces may become as necessary as being proficient in private-digital communication such as e-mail. However, integration across complex organizations takes time and so specialization may be needed in order to develop social-digital capabilities. Last year, I asked if we should fire marketing managers and hire community managers. While marketing managers still play a critical role — today it’s common for a business to hire or contract community managers to run their social properties at scale.

Build, activate, and maintain a vibrant social graph.
Being “social digital” means being able to build and sustain a “social graph” with those who are critical to your business eco-system. In simpler terms, this means having the ability to build and sustain a human network which can potentially make your business smarter, better, and more inclined to adapt. Today, most businesses wishing to take advantage of the social-digital revolution are in the “crawling-walking” phase of their transformation; they are focused on building numbers measured by likes, followers, and the amplification of their messages. Tomorrow, many companies will be in the “running-flying” stages of social digital; they will connect effortlessly with multiple stakeholders who make their businesses smarter and better positioned for the future. Tomorrow’s metrics will be new efficiencies, ideas, products, and services as well as better business intelligence.

When Lego was in the process of reinventing their company in the 1990s, they reached out to the most connected Lego enthusiasts around the world to serve as a virtual R&D lab and ambassador network. In essence, this was an early example of leveraging a social graph for business. A social graph is not only about what you know, it’s about who you know. In the social-digital revolution, being digital won’t be enough — organizations will have to learn to connect with individuals, groups, and digital tribes on human terms in order to be not only digital, but social. These organizations may be the ones who come out on top after the social-digital revolutionary dust settles.