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Mobile Site Content vs Desktop Site Content

Mobile Sites Should be Designed to be Different

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Separate Goals for Mobile

There is a strong argument to be made that a mobile website should be fundamentally different from a desktop site in terms of both structure and content (i.e. even if you can synch the content between mobile/desktop you probably should not). This is because usability/comprehension/visitor goals are different on mobile. Consider this research from usability expert Jakob Nielson.

Simplify Content & Message

This research provides striking support for the main conclusion in our usability studies of mobile websites: websites (and intranets) must design a separate mobile version for optimal usability. Specifically, complicated content should be rewritten to be shorter, with secondary information deferred to subsidiary pages.

Here is yet another report to support the idea that mobile and desktop sites need to be fundamentally different, not only in terms of design, but content and architecture:

The desktop user interface platform differs from the mobile user interface platform in many ways, including interaction techniques, how people read, context of use, and the plain number of things that can be grasped at a glance. This inequality is symmetric: mobile users need a different design than desktop users. But, just as much, desktop users need a different design than mobile users. Jakob Nielsen, April 10, 2012

Choose The Right Mobile Platform

Pick one which allows you to create, not just sync content.

We believe this is one area where Qfuse has a distinct advantage, for those who buy into this approach and want to develop targeted micro-sites with mobile-specific structure and content, independent of the desktop site. It is also a great platform for those who want to be able to quickly generate and manage many mobile sites for targeted purposes (e.g. marketing agencies might deploy time-limited campaigns or support many different product-specific sites).


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