Doing the mobile two-step on the web

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After testing hundreds of mobile sites and full websites with popular mobile platforms, usability expert Jakob Nielsen says in his Alertbox newsletter that the main guidelines serving mobile users have become clear:

• If you can afford it, build a separate site optimized for mobile users. It should remove features from the regular site that aren’t central to a mobile use; reduce content to cut word count and bump secondary information to secondary pages; and enlarge interface elements to make usability easier.

• If mobile users arrive at your full site’s URL (which happens as many search engines don’t rank mobile sites high enough for mobile users ), automatically redirect them to your mobile site. Offer a clear link on the full site for mobile users who end up there.

• Also offer a clear link to your full site from the mobile site, for the users who need special features found only there.

The challenge with the mobile site, Mr. Nielsen said, is to eliminate features and word count without limiting the selection of products. "A mobile site should have less information about each product and fewer things users can do with the products, but the range of items should remain the same as on the full site. If users can't find a product on a mobile site, they assume the company doesn't sell it and go elsewhere," he said.

Special to The Globe and Mail

Harvey Schachter is a Battersea, Ont.-based writer specializing in management issues. He writes Monday Morning Manager and management book reviews for the print edition of Report on Business and an online work-life column Balance. E-mail Harvey Schachter