Once upon a time…
In the first century of the 3rd millennium (aka the 21st century) the world was full of websites designed and developed with high-speed internet access in mind. Then one day, mobile feature phones were introduced: Palm, Inc. (remember them?), Kyocera 6035 and the HP iPaq h6315 look. Today they look like something from the dark ages! It wasn’t until 2009 that a few companies started noting mobile phone usage rising and started to develop their own mobile initiatives. At that time, data networks had far slower speeds. Designers were faced with a problem: they needed to allow the small screen carrying “on-the-go” user access to their content without frustration.
The solution: Native apps and m.sites were born. Brilliant. Limited function to be viewed in this mobile context. It made complete sense. Traditional websites and mobile solutions lived independently and happily One of our clients said then “all we want is a mobile site that looks like our contemporary [then mid-90s!] website.”.
But, then one day the K48 (the iPad) and other tablets joined the list of available offerings for both home and on-the-go users. Android and more recently Win8 tablets followed suit and here we are on the edge of a holiday season where the tablet is the number one gift. The tablets that were introduced had screen sizes that weren’t quite as large as a super-sized widescreen monitor and weren’t quite as tiny as a smartphone. Designers stopped in their tracks and considered a new challenge: Do we continue to design a solution for every form factor that emerges or is it possible to try to find a way to make our websites accessible AND user friendly across all form factors?
Ethan Marcotte, a thought-leader for the design industry published a concept and coined the phrase “responsive web design” (RWD) as a viable solution. His solution was not simply a response to varying display sizes, browsers, speeds (also known as “adaptive web layout”), it was a response by using a particular approach involving three critical components: fluid grids, flexible images and media queries.
For companies ready to start from the very beginning and make their content available across all devices, Marcotte’s RWD approach made perfect sense. They could follow his steps to build a somewhat one-size-fits-most solution.
However the companies who had already spent a great deal of time and energy creating those separate independent solutions scratched their heads – do we start from the very beginning and develop a truly responsive web design OR do we work to use what we’ve developed to date and create an adaptive web layout? The debate began and designers began to grapple with the advantages and disadvantages, they presented them to business stakeholders and business goals and budgets became part of the decision making process.
Eventually, the conversation got louder and more complex. We started to be brought in as consumer insight and usability experts to advise on the best way to make the end users happy. Key Lime Interactive’s considerations.
So what advice do we give? In short, we agree with some of the others that there is no one-sized fits all solution. Every project has to be evaluated individually and the most effective techniques need to be applied accordingly. We can see the strengths of adaptive design for established groups and responsive design for folks starting fresh, who have the resources and budget.
Most importantly, from a user perspective: It doesn’t always matter! Jeffrey Zeldman proposed in mid-2011 that the design community should broaden the term “responsive design” “to cover any approach that delivers elegant visual experiences regardless of the size of the user’s display and the limitations or capabilities of the device.” The key phrase: “elegant visual experience” resonates with us as we advise our clients. A quick quiz:
If you’re in a position to determine which direction your company should go, start by taking this short quiz as you begin the conversation. Keep your score!
1) My Current Properties:
a) I already have both a traditional and mobile site and satisfaction metrics are high for each
b) I’m starting fresh/early stages because I have no properties in place at present and/or I’m looking for something new or my satisfaction metrics are low.
2) My Support:
a) I have the capacity to hire out or to self-maintain a few different website versions.
b) I have the expertise in house (or the funds to hire out) to utilize the necessary toolkits (fluid grids, flexible images, media queries) and I prefer to maintain one site once it’s been built.
3) KEY QUESTION – The Context:
a) My user’s experience through mobile or tablets should be different than the experience they encounter via the traditional web because the context of mobile use demands different features and/or I need for my users to have a really amazing desktop experience that cannot be reduced by the least common denominators.
b) Reformatting our traditional site to fit the mobile web or tablets will work quite nicely for my offering. I understand when I resize to fit all, compromises are occasionally made, and this is ok! Scoring:
If you answered mostly “a’s” you’re leaning toward Adaptive Layout Design
If you answered mostly “b’s” you’re leaning toward Responsive Web Design
As a consumer and user research consultancy, we weigh question 3 far more heavily than the others – so ultimately, the direction that you choose for question 3 should be the direction that you investigate most.
PRESS RELEASE KLUE Mobile Simplifies Mobile User Testing: Unique Tool Records On-Screen Activity and Gestures Along with Audio of Mobile Users Wherever They Are.
KLUE Labs, a new company formed out of a partnership between leaders in user experience research and mobile app development Key Lime Interactive and Crucian Point, has announced the beta release of their flagship product KLUE Mobile. KLUE Mobile is a tool that captures user interaction with mobile websites and immediately delivers video clips complete with on-screen activity, gestures and audio to design teams and researchers looking to see their products in action.
With KLUE Mobile design teams and researchers can use their own list of iOS users or utilize the diverse panel offered by KLUE Labs to screen in participants for qualitative mobile user experience studies. Users can take studies from anywhere in the world at a time and place that is most comfortable for them. This tool eliminates the need to schedule test time or have participants visit a test facility.
Once a study has been designed using the KLUE Mobile web interface, KLUE Labs will notify participants that a study is live via email or push notification. Participants can be targeted by gender, age, education, household income and location. Users who opt to participate are presented with a task to complete on a defined site while KLUE Mobile records user interaction. KLUE Mobile then delivers spoken audio and playbacks of gestural movements.
Unlike other remote testing products for mobile, KLUE Mobile does not require any modifications to an existing mobile site. Additionally, intelligent management solutions immediately notify clients when results have been captured and they can easily select, download and share video clips as they wish. Optionally, follow up surveys can be launched to gather satisfaction metrics and much more.
“User testing on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, is in high demand,” says Ania Rodriguez, Founder & CEO of KLI. “Our researchers are spending a lot of time observing and surveying users to intimately understand mobile behavior and trends for our clients. In doing this, we identified that a tool that would allow us to capture the same data remotely would help our clients reduce the time spent on various design cycles and save them money; KLUE Mobile was born.”
KLUE Mobile is available for independent use by parties interested in capturing qualitative data with mobile interfaces. Designers will be able to closely approximate the perspective of their audience by watching live interaction and qualitative user behavior can be analyzed by researchers as products are in development or being improved. They can draw conclusions from feedback and behavior to understand where challenges or strengths are present in the tested interface, and more.
KLUE Labs will be offering a sneak peak tutorial and question answer session via web conference on Tuesday, November 27th at 1:30pm EST. Interested parties are encouraged to attend and share the registration with others. To register: http://bit.ly/KLUEMobileIntroduction
If there is an interest in using this product for research, KLUE Labs is accepting registration to participate in their beta program. To register send your inquiry to info@kluemobile.com.
About KLUE Labs:
KLUE Labs (http://www.kluelabs.com) is an independent company formed by Key Lime Interactive (https://dev.keylimeinteractive.com ), a global leader in user and consumer research and Crucian Point (http://www.crucianpoint.com) a mobile app development group. KLUE Labs has a mission to simplify user testing and user experiences by providing tools and solutions for use by industry professionals so that they may make informed design decisions and improve their products. KLUE Mobile is their flagship product and is a response to industry-wide need for testing solutions for the growing development of digital properties for mobile devices and tablets.
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THE STATE OF THE INDUSTRY Consumers drive technological advancement in the banking industry and in the past 18 months they have driven the top US banks to offer complete mobile programs with a variety of services to meet the needs of this on-the-go audience.
The evolution of banking tools began with the ability to receive a text message to your feature phone with your balance information. Since, we’ve seen tremendous expansion as mobile solutions have evolved to encompass features like visual check capture, debit card deactivation, person to person payments and have even begun expansion to include offers in the past month. As the teller lines get shorter at the brick and mortar locations, this broad feature list has become an element of attraction and retention of consumers for banking institutions.
Additionally, as the leaders pave the way, regional banks and credit unions observe and mimic solutions that prove successful. INFORMATION TO OUR CUSTOMERS AHEAD
The Mobile Banking Competitive Review by Key Lime Interactive summarizes these new, successful and well received features across the industry so that both the leaders and the small institutions can make at-a-glance decisions about areas that they should work to improve to satisfy their existing and prospective customers. KLI’s research experts highlight opportunities that they discover in their evaluation and ultimately assist in moving the entire industry forward. In a detailed report KLI profiles the competitive mobile landscape of six of the top US retail banks: Bank of America, Chase (JP Morgan Chase), Citibank (Citigroup), Wells Fargo & Company, USAA and PNC and ultimately reveals which bank offers their consumers the best mobile solutions.
This includes a general discussion about what these banks are doing to provide for their retail banking customers via mobile optimized sites and apps (iOS and Android). Data is captured from real customers of each bank and includes screenshots of features from behind the login screens of each provider.
Additionally, KLI shares the methods employed to rank the banks based on consumers’ self-reported preferences and insights; provides a best-in-class feature list, as well as a comparative list of the available features of the six; and identify trends and opportunities that bridge the gap between consumer expectations and the current banking solutions. This consumer based solution differs from other syndicated reports as KLI uses these consumers’ preferences to weigh the importance of features. METHODOLOGY
An expert capabilities assessment, comparative feature ranking, and user ratings were combined to determine an overall score and ranking.
User feedback was incorporated by gathering responses from users (n=500), to understand which features and tasks were must-haves when it comes to interacting with the mobile property of a retail bank. From those results KLI prioritized user’s needs and preferences, and then placed the features into four tiers relative to importance and these tiers played a part into the weighted score we awarded each feature when tabulating a final score for each mobile property. Additional information about the logic included in our scoring algorithm is detailed the full report.
For more information or to reserve your copy reach out to our sales team at sales@keylimeinteractive.com
The ability to submit bill payments, view their detailed policy information, and enter detailed accident information including photos, scene details, date, etc. are reported to be the elements that mobile auto insurance property users rank most critical. Having access to a virtual insurance ID card rounds out the top tier of features desired by auto insurance customers. Companies who exhibited these features in a visually appealing, intuitive and highly useable way received the best overall scores in Key Lime Interactive’s recent report.
These results, along with additional details, were announced by Key Lime Interactive (KLI), a leader in mobile experience testing, after the completion of a fourth iteration of their renowned competitive review of the leading U.S. auto insurance companies. In this June 2012 release of the study, State Farm took first place for Best Mobile Website, while in the Best Mobile App portion of the study USAA, and the newly improved GEICO and Progressive Apps round out the top performers. The entire study and/or associated annual subscription are available for immediate purchase. Additional Report Information
KLI’s Auto Insurance Mobile Heuristics were used to determine the overall score and ranking of eight (8) carriers including State Farm, Allstate, GEICO, Progressive, Nationwide, Travelers, USAA and Liberty Mutual. These heuristics consisted of a combination of a capabilities assessment, comparative feature ranking and overall user score and ranking.
“The feedback from users can be regarded as the most critical component of the study” says Eugene Santiago, lead KLI researcher for this report series. “The methodology first aimed to understand, using consumers’ self-reported preferences, which features and tasks were must-haves when it came to interacting with the mobile property. These identified features were then placed into tiers to highlight their importance. Finally, these tiers were used in the algorithm used to tabulate the final scores.”
KLI recognizes the importance of aligning business-centric goals with consumer-centric needs to produce winning solutions and makes this a core component to all deliverables. This incorporation of user feedback is a primary component for this and all studies across various industries ranging from finance, retail, hospitality, etc.
Additionally, the expert contribution to the report pushes the carriers to consider ways to improve their offering by identifying and prioritizing areas that can be improved in general and for each specific property. “Our best-in-class highlights and the listing of available opportunities that we’ve identified for the carriers is another point that receives a great deal of attention. The carriers can compare this with their own research or use it as a starting point for future strategic planning” reports Santiago.
All mobile property assessments included are as of June 22, 2012. The next iteration of the study will be available on Friday, September 28, 2012 and will include any user preference changes by collecting new user data as well as the improvements or changes for all listed carriers as compared to the June 2012 assessment. Please contact us at sales@keylimeinteractive.com to purchase either report.
Key Lime Interactive’s Mobile Insurance Report Identifies Allstate as the Only Carrier in the Top 8 to Offer Mobile Properties in Spanish
In 2009 Allstate made it clear that they were working to ensure effective communication and business practices with both the English and Spanish speaking US communities in which they offered their services. They integrated a Spanish-language national marketing campaign, complete with targeted tv spots and a Spanish website version that continued through 2010 and beyond. Today, those business goals remain unchanged and separate Allstate from their competitors. In a recent study by the marketing research and usability company Key Lime Interactive, it was reported that of the top 8 US auto insurance providers, Allstate was the only provider who offered their mobile solutions in Spanish.
The report included Allstate Mobile, GEICO, Liberty Mutual Mobile, Nationwide Mobile, Progressive, State Farm Pocket Agent, Travelers and USAA and was largely focused on combining a set of consumer determined desired features and capabilities and ranking how well each carrier met those stated needs. Although Allstate did not rank first in overall mobile experience for their app or their msite, the availability of their properties to be accessible to the Spanish speaking community was one area in which they stood alone.
Last week, BIGresearch reported that more Hispanic adults reported mobile device usage than all US adults. For example, the survey indicated that iphone usage is 6.6% higher for Hispanics. Allstate is taking note and staying ahead.
“Given the size and growth of the US Hispanic segment, this is certainly a wise decision to align business goals to target this consumer with the consumer experiences in an effort to retain consumers” reports Ania Rodriguez, founder of KLI. “Our research has indicated that the Hispanic population is brand loyal and community oriented. Companies who localize their mobile properties to Spanish properly present a competitive edge nowadays.”
KLI’s next iteration of this mobile auto insurance report is due out in June. “It will be interesting to see if any of the other players recognize the importance of Spanish localization to appeal to this market and follow suit.”
Additional Report Information: The report titled Mobile Competitive Review: Auto Insurance is a quarterly syndicated study published by Key Lime Interactive. The report combines a consumer response survey (n=300) where the most desirable mobile features were identified and prioritized. This priority list was compared to the available feature sets of each of the relevant carriers and ultimately the carriers were ranked on their ability to meet consumer needs in a usable way. For more information on this report or to purchase a subscription, please reach out to Key Lime Interactive directly.
Key Lime Interactive conducted a study aimed at understanding mobile shopping behavior. The results reveal key features users require, at-home and in-store mobile shopping behavior, and more.
In today’s consumer landscape we see retailers expanding and spending time to enhance their mobile offering in an effort to increase conversion on their mCommerce sites and apps. Often times, as they aim to keep up with the rapid pace of mobile growth, retailers fail to align their business objectives with their target end-user’s mindset, behaviors and preferences. To mitigate this problem Key Lime Interactive (KLI), a leader in mobile consumer experience testing and design, conducts frequent surveys to understand usage, trends, expectations, needs and preferences of retail consumers so that they may offer their clients current and relevant actionable recommendations for innovative, consumer-driven interfaces. Mobile Retail Study Last month, in KLI’s most recent mobile study, three hundred mobile retail consumers were surveyed. The results revealed a prioritized list of consumer preferences and validated the assumptions that many of us would make: the most important features for a successful mobile shopping experience included the ability to seek out pricing information, quality product images and specifications and to arrive at such information via a streamlined search tool. Additionally, users reported that they can’t live without an easy way to “find deals” offered by a given retailer – this serves as food for thought as said retailers consider the importance of a clearance section or discount offer placement on their mobile interface.
Surprising to some retailers, though, was the discovery that the ability to purchase a product ranked as a second tier need in the survey. “This validates a trend we’ve observed, particularly among consumers shopping the mobile optimized site offered by a brick and mortar retailer” says Eugene Santiago, Director of Research at KLI “77% of consumers report that they are likely to browse products on a mobile site to purchase in-store at a later time. Further, 79% of consumers use the m-site to compare rival store’s prices while they’re in store executing a purchasing decision.”
The report also stated that “many mobile sites still leave customers with unanswered questions” and product comparison tools are among the three things consumers would change if they were responsible for the m-site design.
“Information, such as usage information and preferences helps us shape our expert recommendations as we assist with mobile site strategic development. For example, knowing that most consumers are using their mobile tools to learn as much as they can about products, and less to purchase them, helps us validate prioritizing focus on building strong product interfaces ahead of refining a checkout process for a given client.” says Ania Rodriguez, CEO of KLI “Similarly, if we find that product comparison tools are the missing piece to the puzzle, we can encourage this feature and resurvey to demonstrate the increase in consumer sentiment – combine that with sales statistics through the mobile channel and we identify the source of an increase in conversion .” Additional Report Information
These results, along with additional details, were presented in a webinar by KLI on January 25th. Participants learned answers to questions such as Do we know which features are a catalyst for the transition from mobile browsing to mobile shopping? Do we have a list of recommendations from the mouths of our consumers to enhance our mobile offering? and more. The entire webinar/results are available free of charge. Slide Deck from Webinar Full Webinar with Audio
For additional information, or to conduct a similar study or evaluation on your website, contact sales@keylimeinteractive.com
In a detailed report KLI profiles the competitive mobile landscape of six of the top US retail banks: Bank of America, Chase (JP Morgan Chase), Citibank (Citigroup), Wells Fargo & Company, USAA and PNC and ultimately reveals which bank offers their consumers the best mobile solutions.
Last month, in KLI’s most recent mobile study, three hundred mobile retail consumers were surveyed. The results revealed a prioritized list of consumer preferences and validated the assumptions that many of us would make: the most important features for a successful mobile shopping experience included the ability to seek out pricing information, quality product images and specifications and to arrive at such information via a streamlined search tool. Additionally, users reported that they can’t live without an easy way to “find deals” offered by a given retailer – this serves as food for thought as said retailers consider the importance of a clearance section or discount offer placement on their mobile interface.