Mar
22
Written by:
Charlie
3/22/2010 12:47 PM
The first decade of the new millennium began with associations looking inward as they revamped internal systems and processes (think Y2K and business process reengineering) and concludes with associations looking outward as they finish their highly functional websites (think web content management, online self service and social networking). What will the second decade of the new millennium bring? My bet is that we are entering the mobile decade.
According to a recent ABI Research report, mobile shopping in the U.S. increased from $369 million in 2008 to $1.2 billion in 2009 and is expected to explode to $119 billion by 2015. Furthermore, according to Coda Research, smart phone users in the US will increase from 38 million in 2009 to 149 million users in 2015 – representing nearly half of the population.
Why all these numbers? The point is that in the near future your members will be looking to their mobile devices to get their news and information, perform social networking, shop, receive customer service – you name it. And if your members are going mobile but your organization is not, you will be left behind.
So where to start? You should begin by reviewing your business strategy to identify opportunities where a mobile presence can further your objectives. Remember that having a mobile website is not a strategic objective – but having a mobile website that helps you provide better service, creates new revenue streams and delivers unique capabilities is. Once you define your mobile strategy, it is critical that you follow some basic principles to achieve the desired results. At Euclid, we have created a set of design principles called RESF – Relevant, Enabling, Simple and Fast.
Relevant means that the mobile site uses predictive logic to tailor the website for each member according to their interests, historical transactions and recent activity. It is the opposite of the “show everything possible so we look busy and make our members look for what they need” logic used by many of today’s websites.
Enabling means that your mobile platform not only leverages the capabilities of your AMS, but also takes advantage of the many available web services and the “connected” status of your members. The “personal concierge” service that comes with Euclid’s mobile platform is a good example: When a member goes to her mobile homepage, the service checks to see if she is registered for an event in the coming week. If so, she immediately sees the event information along with the local forecast (85 and sunny!). With one tap at the airport, she receives turn-by-turn directions to her hotel. With another tap, she sees the best restaurants within walking distance of her hotel. When the event starts, her home page tells her exactly where she should be (“Your breakout session starts in 20 minutes in Ballroom 3”). She then taps again to see the attendees in her session, along with their profiles and pictures (great for networking!). At the bottom of her homepage, she sees “tweets” made by fellow attendees (‘The Golfing for Lawyers Session is Awesome!’) and taps once more to register for it. The “personal concierge” is truly an enabling application.
As relevant and enabling as mobile applications can be, it is equally important that they be simple and fast – principles often sacrificed by today’s web platforms. Simple means a clean and intuitive interface where less is more, scrolling is bad and context sensitivity is imperative. Fast means pages load instantaneously regardless of the network, ruling out many of today’s CMSs and commonly used web platforms, which often create “fat” pages.
The research shows and trends indicate that the next 10 years will be the mobile decade. Is your organization ready to go mobile?