Everyone involved in digital marketing is well aware that every year — since, what, 2000? — has been named “The Year of Mobile.”

Without surprise, yet another year is coming up short.

AdAge came out with an interesting article (Why ‘08 Isn’t Mobile’s Year — Again [requires subscription to read]) that tackles the reasons why we have been prematurely forecasting every new year as THE year, along with fixes that make 2009 more probable.

AdAge’s outlined mobile’s challenges as:

CHALLENGE NO. 1: REACH (OR LACK THEREOF)
CHALLENGE NO. 2: MEASUREMENT
CHALLENGE NO. 3: COMPLEXITY
CHALLENGE NO. 4: THE MISNOMER OF MOBILE AS AD MEDIUM
CHALLENGE NO 5: THERE’S BEEN NO HALLELUJAH MOMENT

I think Ad Age did a really decent job of identifying the pieces of the puzzle that must fit together before THE year can happen. The biggest point is that the technology need to reach the masses is still not widely adopted.

“Of the 219 million U.S. wireless subscribers, just over 30 million are on data plans, according to M:Metrics. That means more than 86.1% still use mobile devices primarily for talk, which isn’t optimal for mobile marketing.”

Clearly, there is progress that needs to be made before mobile takes off. As AdAge suggests, beginning to define the elements that will create success now will serve us well when the audience is ready for it.

I am a fan of biking, just ask any of my coworkers who have had the pleasure of seeing me haul into the office after a nice jaunt. I am also a application developer and web addict. Given the ubiquity of cheap wi-fi, the pleasure of not having to park or follow most traffic laws, and an investment in a laptop which weighs 3 pounds and has a 5 hour battery life, I tend to do a lot of work on the trail.

This has lead to an interesting problem. Most of my job is creating web applications which fail when you do not have any internet access. Now not being able to check my email when I am on the side of Stone Mountain may not be a problem, but not being able to update my spreadsheets, compose mail, or save my changes to the next great American novel is.

Many sites do not see the need for dealing with intermittent connectivity and instead take an all or nothing approach. Things are changing, needs are changing, and this attitude should change. Over the past few years there have been several technologies developed and proposed which mitigate these issues.

One that I have worked with is the Dojo Storage API. This API is a part of the Dojo project, an open source Javascript library. It provides wrappers for Adobe Flash’s shared object functionality which means that I can write Javascript code which will call Flash and save data to the user’s machine even if I am not online.

There are a few downsides to using the Dojo Storage API. First, a user must have Flash installed and must not have disabled shared objects. This is not a very large concern because of the large userbase of flash, however; Apple’s iPhone does not have a version of Flash and is not capable of using this API. Secondly, this API is part of the Dojo Offline SDK which has not had a stable release.

Of course this is still a far cry from an official, supported, implemented standard such as ones being proposed by the W3C (and subsequently ignored by Microsoft, Apple, Opera, Mozilla or bascially whoever DIDN’T propose the standard), but it offers a general step in the right direction.

With even more appologies to Jeff - Man, I’m killing my career here - check out this post from AdAge: More Football Fans Hit ESPN’s Mobile Site Than Its PC Pages.

So maybe it’s just our definition of expectations that needs alignment. It certainly isn’t distribution - a recent annoucement that 1 of every 2 humans in the world now carries a cell phone surely resonates. 

Going mobile? Smart decision. Analysts keep saying that companies expect a huge increase in mobile interactions with their customers over the next few years.  But designing for mobile isn’t like designing for today’s website.  Here are just a few tips to save your on-the-go users endless downloads, needless frustration–and to keep them coming back for more.

Think Simple Yet Engaging
I mean, really simple.  Remember your users are dealing with those confounded mobile device interfaces on top of your mobile website interface.  Most devices can’t handle large downloads, either.  So use simple layouts with very concise yet very clear navigation, optimized images and video, brief text, and limited options.  

Choose & Prioritize Your Content Wisely
You can’t gear all of your content for mobile, so select your mobile content strategically. Google categorizes mobile users into three behavior types: 

• Repetitive now (e.g. checking stock quotes, sports scores, etc. regularly)
• Urgent now (e.g. looking up directions to an airport)
• Bored now (e.g. playing games or reading entertainment headlines to kill time). 

Identifying content that supports those three behaviors is a good start toward a mobile communication and content strategy.

Keep Consistency with Your Regular Website 
Even tiny mobile screens have room for look and feel.  Tie in the look and feel of your main website with your mobile site so users know they’re in the right place and attribute their positive mobile experience to your brand.

Redirect Mobile Traffic to Your Mobile Site & Promote Your Mobile Site
Unfortunately, you probably won’t work out a deal with wireless carriers such as Verizon and AT&T to include your link as a default destination in their mobile web browsers.  So your users will use their mobile device to visit your main website (the one they see on their PC). Fortunately, you can save them the pain of downloading your huge home page to their tiny screen.  Technology can detect whether users are visiting your main website through a mobile device and automatically send them to your mobile site.

To draw in users who are unaware you have a mobile presence, promote your mobile site vigorously, especially on your regular website.  Some nice examples include CNN.com and Delta.com.   

Spun friends…

If your cell phone surprisingly disappears, this video may explain where it went. Our Behavioral Research Department just loves conducting user experience tests on cell phones, PDAs, and touch screen iPhones. Check it out!

P.S. We promise to take good care of your devices! =)

Okay, maybe communication never truly left … but our awareness of it has grown keen as we shape effective customer experiences in interactive media. Recently, Donovan (Director of User Experience) gave a presentation about web 2.0’s impact on the landscape of user (customer) experience.  He convincingly described how web 2.0 capabilities evolved as a response to user needs and allow the web to become, among other things, the communication medium people envisioned 10 years ago.

In this changed landscape of customer experience, what is communication exactly?  How do we ensure customers not only get our messages but also find them relevant and convincing?  How do we coordinate messages across multiple channels to deepen our relationships with customers?

As a start toward answering such questions, I just published “Rediscovering Communication“ for the online magazine UXmatters.  Please add your insights as we journey through this exciting landscape together.

I read this on Slashdot this morning because I don’t read the NY Times …

“The NYTimes is running a story about an iPhone flaw that has been found and documented by researchers from Independent Security Evaluators. Attackers were able to gain full control of the iPhone either through WiFi or by visiting a website with malicious code. The exploit will be demonstrated at BlackHat on Aug. 2nd at 4:45pm. Until then, ‘details on the vulnerability, but not a step-by-step guide to hacking the phone, can be found at www.exploitingiphone.com, which the researchers said would be unveiled today.’”

Anyone hacked an iPhone lately? If so, what did you do with it? I would spam people with SMS and call my friend in Thailand for free.

Design and usability are to many “form and function” - the chocolate and peanut butter, and also the difference between an amazing product and a soon to be forgotten one.

I would like this blog post to be Round 1 of the debate over the design interface, the overall product design and its usability among the public. What this is not is a place to complain about Apples’ battery life issues from previous technologies or how Apple will be creating yet another design movement that will effect everything from toasters to toilets. (see iMac)

(Enter and exit Ring Girls and the sound of the bell)

iPhone Advertisement (use in action)

Product Shots:

On SMS Text News yesterday I saw a post about Pepsi’s new Bluetooth campaign run by Qwikker.   The concept is that several bus shelters and pay phones in Washington D.C., Los Angeles, Denver, Orange County, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will give consumers with a Bluetooth device the ability to download free video clips.  It’s considered the largest Bluetooth marketing campaign to date.

Very cool and all the press I read about it agrees.  But I’m confused.  Having been talking about the power of virtual worlds for the better part of six months now, the main objection that marketers have is the reach (or the perceived lack thereof).  In Second Life in particular, with only 40,000 to 50,000 people “in-world” at any given time, it’s hard to get the reach that you would get from most other interactive marketing campaigns.

How is this Bluetooth campaign by Pepsi any different?  How many people can they really expect on a daily basis to a) stop at one of these few locations, b) have a Bluetooth device, c) know how to use it properly and d) want to download a Pepsi video?  And knowing there’s very little chance this campaign is less expensive or time consuming to create than a Second Life presence, I doubt the ROI is going to be any better.

And the second thing I hear most about Second Life’s downside is that you can’t really have more than 30 to 40 people in any given area without experiencing serious lag and decreased productivity.  Last time I checked, there weren’t a lot of phone booth’s that could hold that many people (though try as they may).

Am I missing something or should the same people that chastise Second Life also be chastising this Pepsi campaign?

Staying Customer-Focused in Customer Support
In our ever-changing, high-tech marketplace, companies face more challenges than ever in communicating effectively to customers.  Many large companies are tasked with developing and managing communications that:

• Address the customer lifecycle, from winning new customers to providing customer support to deepening customer relationships.
• Encourage and support use of automation and self-service channels, such as the web and IVR, to save costs.
• Preserve consistent messaging across communication channels and yet are optimized for different channel formats.

In trying to accomplish this huge task, good old-fashioned communication can get lost.  That’s because most companies approach this task only from a technical or system perspective of content management, not communication.    Analysts at Forrester and KnowledgeStorm have noted the problem, saying companies need to focus on how content is used so that it’s effective, not just how to “manage and search” for content.  

However you describe it, the problem comes down to whether the content communicates.  This blog series will describe a few simple examples and some solutions.

Customer Support Example: Voicemail Instructions
Let’s say you’re a wireless customer and want to know how to change your personal greeting.  You tried on your own with no success, so you check your wireless service provider’s website hoping for some quick help. (If you can’t get help quickly, you’re going to call the company.) You get to a voicemail page under a section called “Support.” Unfortunately, most of the page defines voicemail (You already know what voicemail is, you’re trying to use it!) and explains its benefits (Again, you already know! You’d like instructions on how to use the benefits.).  Not the communication you need! Eventually, you find a link for voicemail instructions that opens this, only larger.

First, let’s give points for trying to make the instructions visual.  Unfortunately, you get a crick in your neck from turning your head to the left and trying to read the blue headers.  And as you try to follow the flow chart, the zig-zag lines combined with the scattered boxes give you a slight headache.Formatting aside, these instructions suffer two other communication problems: 

System Focus Instead of Customer Focus
These instructions are system-focused, not customer-focused, so they include the wrong information type.  These “instructions” are actually a diagram of the voicemail system structure.  This may work for the rare customer with some technical understanding of voicemail or IVR systems, but not most customers.  And if you find the personal greeting option in this diagram, then you have to trace your path back to the main menu to figure out which options you have to select and in what order.  A customer focus would lead you to include not structure but process, ideally concise step-by-step instructions written from the customer’s point of view and formatted so they’re easy to read.

Information Overload
The other communication problem is information overload—too much information is presented at once. You’re using these instructions just to find out how to change a personal greeting, not how to do everything in the voicemail system.  You have to sort through much irrelevant information to find the personal greeting option.  What would help?  Breaking the information down into small, manageable units.

At this point, dialing the phone seems much quicker than understanding these instructions.  So you call your wireless service provider for help, adding to their costs for maintaining call centers.  You tell your friends about your experience, damaging the provider’s reputation.  And all this could have been prevented with some good, old-fashioned communication.