The Plight of the Mobile Navigator

An analysis by ChangingWorlds (Ireland) and Mobile Metrix (Sweden) finds that the majority of current mobile portals are designed in such a way as to inhibit users from finding and using mobile services. The analysis published in a report entitled The Plight of the Mobile Navigator and available from Mobile Metrix is based on data collected from 20 European mobile portals.

For the first time it has been possible to provide usability benchmarks for mobile portals. While the future of mobile Internet success depends on portal usability, it is believed that the findings in the analysis should act as a wake-up call for the industry. According to the author Prof Barry Smyth, 'The situation is rather acute with the average portal click-distance (number of clicks/menus to arrive at the desired content) is in excess of 16 and often greater than 20. Moreover the number of mobile services that are within the critical click-distance of 12 (believed to be the point at which users loose interest) is, on average, less than 36%!'

However there is some good news and best performing portals were found to be; Sonera (Finland), T-Motion (UK), O2 (UK), Vodafone (Ireland) and Genio (Germany).

Upon reviewing the amount of content available within 12 clicks it was found that on average, just over 35% of portal content services falls within this limit. In other words, among the portals analysed, approximately 65% of content services are positioned too far from the portal home page to encourage user access. According to Smyth, 'this is a critical issue for all portals wishing to encourage consumption of services.' He went on to say that 'the three leading portals - Sonera (Finland), O2 (UK) and T-Motion (UK) - stand out in this analysis because of their consistency across the various analysis elements including portal width, depth, average number of clicks and percentage of services available at the critical click-distances of 6 and 12. Each of these portals is placed in the top 3 in 4 out of the 5 of these categories. This consistency that exists among the three leading portals suggest that their developers have taken particular care in the design and implementation of these portals from a structural standpoint.'

When analysing the results of the study by region, the area with the best overall usability is that of the UK and Ireland. While Scandinavia is home to the leading portal in terms of usability the overall average for Scandinavia is below that of the UK. This further underlies the fact that while Scandinavia may be the leading region in terms of infrastructure development and supply it is not at the forefront of mobile service provisioning with the exception of Sonera Zed.

The Plight of the Mobile Navigator makes it clear that the success of the mobile Internet is at a critical juncture. Smyth argues 'Unless usability is treated as a priority it is very hard to see how mobile service usage will increase -an issue the industry at large requires to happen.'

For more information, visit www.mobile-metrix.com.

All articles 2006-22 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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