What’s the News on Your Mobile?
system-concepts.com | May 2009 | Ansgar Kupper
Almost 7.5 million people accessed the web from their mobile phone in the UK last year and this is forecast to grow rapidly as costs reduce and phones improve. News sites are the most popular, so we checked how three quality newspaper sites perform when accessed through a mobile.
The Times, the Telegraph and the Guardian all have comprehensive websites which perform well when accessed using a computer. They all also have sites specifically designed for access by mobile phone.
What did we do?
We compared the usability of the standard and mobile sites of each newspaper by asking users to perform five common tasks on both versions of the websites using their own phones. We:
- measured how quickly and successfully the tasks were completed
- observed the users’ navigation paths
- used questionnaires to find out the users’ preferences and impressions.
What did we find?
Graph showing overall satisfaction levelsIn general, users were more successful and preferred using the mobile sites rather than the standard sites as long as the information they needed was provided.
All the standard sites tested provided a fairly poor experience when using a mobile. Particular problems included:
- Slow download speeds
- Poor navigation
- Distorted presentation of content.
The Times mobile site was rated better than its standard site by everybody. It was the best performing mobile site out of the three sites tested. It scored much better than the other sites on being quick and easy to find the information. However, the standard site did not perform as well as the Telegraph’s.
The Guardian mobile site was rated better than its standard site by most people, being appealing and simple to use. However, users found it less quick and easy to find the information they needed than using the Times mobile site. Users had problems with both navigation and display when accessing the standard site.
The Telegraph mobile site provides only a very limited collection of headline articles and was rated as worse than its standard site and the worst performing mobile site out of the three tested. However, the standard site, when accessed from a mobile performed the best out of the three sites, although there were still issues including missing text and compressed displays.
So what can we learn from this?
Each of these sites has got some things right, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Understanding what your users want from your site and testing real tasks with real users on real phones can help you create a satisfying mobile experience.
- If you have decided to create a separate mobile site, make sure it has the content and functionality that your users need. A very basic site does not enhance your overall customer experience.
- Check how well your standard site performs when accessed from a mobile, whether you also have a mobile site or not. You can’t control which site people access from their mobiles, and a poor customer experience on your standard site will be a poor reflection on your brand.
