Last week we explored the way information organisations design their digital spaces. This week I want to dive into a similar concept, the functionality of mobile digital spaces. It is incredibly common in modern society to access websites and online spaces with your mobile device, with the average number of internet-accessing devices in Australian households recorded as 3.3 in 2019 (Yellow, 2020). Whether it is with a smartphone or a tablet device, modern websites need to provide some type of functionality for mobile device access.

Similar to our exploration last week, I have provided a table below comparing and contrasting three different websites – Book Riot, bec&books and Libro.FM – I accessed using my smartphone. Highlighted in the table are several key features unique to their mobile displays.

*Note: For transparency, I would like readers to be aware that bec&books is my own personal website. This will not impact my opinions below.

Online experience on mobile devices comparison table

For this exploration, I have identified six features that seemed relevant to the user experience website design, specifically mobile website design. These features have been identified based on my own experience as a mobile website user, as well as an owner and developer of a website with mobile functions.

The first three features – pleasing aesthetic, natural layout, and placement of widgets – can all intertwine and be considered hand-in-hand. Overall, these three features refer to the visual aspects of the mobile website and how that impacts user experience. By “natural layout” we are referring to the placement of things being where we expect them to be. Placement of side widgets – embedded elements that are often shown on the side of a desktop website – was included because when converting to mobile websites, these elements can often become confusing and lost in the layout.

Advertisements can be a large manufacturer of profit for websites but sometimes they can become obstructive for users, affecting their overall experience.

It is important to consider what accessibility features were available on each website as well, as this is something that could make some mobile websites completely inaccessible for some users. The table itself refers to easy-to-find accessibility features embedded on the website, however, I did also examine how the websites converted with the Simplified Reader function available on Google Chrome.

The final feature was that the main menu was easy to find and easy to access and use. This was the one thing that all three websites did incredibly well. This is unsurprising because this is likely the primary navigation tools for the majority of users.

So why is this relevant to information professionals? Well, as discussed previously, an important part of contemporary information organisations is ensuring accessible online spaces. And if the mobile version of these spaces is largely ignored we, as professionals, would be doing a huge disservice to our patrons and organisation users.

References.

Yellow. (2020a). Yellow Social Media Report 2020: Part One – Consumers. Retrieved from https://www.yellow.com.au/social-media-report/#download-report