What’s so hot about Pinterest, that it has even the traditionalist internet users, who shy away from trying something new, wanting to try it out? In a web space already cluttered with numerous social networks, and dominated by the BIG TWO, will a new social network really command enough attention?  Only time will tell if Pinterest will have the wherewithal to create its own space in what is increasingly looking like saturated social space on the World Wide Web.

But there is also no doubt that Pinterest has begun luring social media fans with its concept and the features that it has on offer. Let’s take a look at what this social media platform is all about and what we can make of its features.

Here we go.

Pinterest in a Nutshell

Pinterest takes its name from a pinup board. The team behind Pinterest has made a virtual pinup board that helps organize all those inspiring and interesting images that you find on the World Wide Web. As it’s a social media platform, you can even share these images with your friends. In Pinterest parlance these images are called ‘Pins’ that can be added to a ‘Board’ customized and themed to suit your needs and requirements. You can create a ‘board’ on any and every topic that you can think off, without any limitations.

Pinterest can be called a voyage of discovery through the use of images. You can browse the pinboards created by other users who share similar interests and passion as yours, which helps you discover new things about your shared passion.

What you can do with Pinterest?

This is the key question isn’t it? Users no longer are happy just with a presence on a social media platform. What they are looking for is a way to practically use it to improve their lives in some form or the other. And Pinterest does help them do that in many different ways. If you are a photographer, you can build a whole portfolio with the help of Pinterest. If you are an architect, you can create a Board that has pictures of your best work. If you are a housewife, you can create a shopping list of things that you need to buy for your home through the week. The options are literally endless. At the end of the day, if don’t really have any clear purpose in mind, just pinning pictures of the really interesting stuff that you come across, not only on the internet but also in your daily life, is reason enough to use Pinterest.

Using Pinterest

The purpose is all well and good, but is it usable? Two words – It is. Here’s how you can pin stuff in Pinterest. It offers you something called the ‘Pin It Button’, in the form of a ‘drag and drop’ browser extension. So, in your travels through the web, if you come across an image that you like, all you need to do is click on the button and choose the pictures that you want to add to your Board. You will also be able to add some interesting text describing the picture. What’s more, the image doesn’t necessarily have to be from the internet. You can click a picture and use the Pinterest iPhone app to add the image to your Boards.

Taking a cue from the ‘Retweets’, you can even ‘Repin’ images that other users have posted on their boards.

The Social Perspective

Ok, so what’s the social angle to Pinterest? Well, it works on the belief that if you do something together, it is more fun. If you are pinning something on your Pinterest board, you are a Pinner, and you can find different Pinners to comment on their Pins or Repin an image that you like onto your board. You could even follow a board that you find interesting and get any new updates on that board. If you want to follow somebody on Pinterest, you don’t need to take permission of the Pinner, as it’s an open network. Also, as a Pinner, who is also on Twitter and Facebook, you can share your pins with the friends and followers on your respective networks on these two social medial platforms.

It’s not only about Pictures

Yes, the focus is on pictures, but you can pin videos also. You can even buy gifts on Pinterest and it’s also a great way to promote your small business. If you own a small business, it makes perfect sense for you to try out different avenues to ensure better and highly effective branding. Much like other social media platforms, a presence on Pinterest, will help you get in touch with people, who are not only looking for the kind of products and services you are selling, but also share your interests. It’s a win-win situation for your business.

Cut back to around ten years or so to a time when usability testing of websites was considered a luxury by businesses. But, back then no website owner was worried about the amount of conversions on their site. As long as their website was up and running, they were happy. But times have changed and it’s not only having a website and attracting traffic that is important, but also the amount of conversions it achieves. Optimizing the rate of conversions is now the focus of attention and online merchants are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that their website can convert as many visitors as possible into their customers.

This is why usability testing is important. The point is very simple. It is only a usable website that can guarantee conversions. Such websites reduce bounce rates and improve sales by offering users a highly satisfying user experience. Basically, usability testing involves, checking the website on various parameters.

Let’s take a look at what these parameters are:

Checking the Design for Credibility

Credibility is the key driving force of a website that ensures a high degree of conversions. If the design does not project credibility, it isn’t going to work for the customers. So, usability testing involves checking it for professionalism and whether it is able to deliver its message with clarity and without confusing the users.

The Navigability Check

Are the websites navigation buttons, easy to use and doing their job properly? Website visitors don’t like wasting their time, trying to understand the navigation of the site. They need to be able to go through website to the pages of their choice conveniently and quickly with effortless ease.  Great navigation turns into an essential time saver and helps visitors optimize their use of the website.

Checking the Response and Intuitiveness of the Website

The design features and functionalities of the website should be responsive to the needs of the user. What this means is that the website must be able to effectively respond to the user’s action. For e.g. in an ecommerce shopping cart, if visitors have chosen the products that they want to purchase and place them in their shopping cart, the payment button should be highlighted as soon as that happens. Doing a thorough testing of the website with respect to its standards of responsiveness and intuitiveness is an important component of usability testing.

Evaluating the Products or Services Page for its Ability to Make an Impression

There are three major components of an impressive products and/or services page – Images, Content and their Presentation. You need to put in place the best product images that are attention grabbing and can help visitors sit up and take notice. Also, you need to add eye catching content that enhances the marketability of the products. More importantly, the website should be able to present the images and content in a way such that they deliver a single, comprehensive and effective marketing message.

Testing Load Time

Designers very often are accused of designing a website for themselves rather than designing it for website visitors. They add a whole array of visuals and animation that makes the website impressive to look at and its creative navigation buttons also ensure the navigation is inventive, but in doing so, they compromise on the most important factor determining website usability – load time of the website. It’s of paramount importance that whatever the internet speed of your target user, the website must be able to load quickly. The visuals, animations, features and functionalities of the website must be such that they do not take a toll on the time taken for the website to load.

Apart from these crucial parameters, there are other parameters like cross browser functionality, help features, next action and call-to action-buttons and various others that are also tested for their feasibility and ability to create the necessary impact in the minds of their website visitors.

The idea behind ensuring website usability is to remove any barrier that the website might have created between itself and the user. This ensures that the website generates more interest, converts better, and improves its profitability.

 It was inevitable and something that was just waiting to happen. Adobe has announced that it is moving away from Flash software and is embracing HTML 5 for mobile devices. Industry watchers say that this was a move that was predestined; HTML 5 has emerged as the universal standard for displaying rich media on the World Wide Web, and Adobe was going to realize this fact sooner rather than later.

This is great news for those smartphone and tablet users, especially those using iPhone and iPads who couldn’t view Flash coded media on their devices.

Steve Jobs Proven Right

Back in April, 2011, Steve Jobs didn’t have nice things to say about Flash and said that it wasn’t a great choice for viewing rich content on mobile phones because it was closed, proprietary software and did not offer support for touch based mobile devices. He also said that the time of HTML5 had come and its time developers started to use this language instead of Flash as it was an open standard and allowed media content to be directly embedded, without need for middleware. Many experts dismissed this as rant, but it seems Adobe was taking notice.

HTML 5 for Mobile Devices

Adobe has abandoned developing Flash for mobile devices, and has woken up to the realization that it’s HTML 5 that is way ahead and not Flash when it comes to mobile platforms. All major mobile devices support HTML 5, which means that it has emerged as the definitive choice for the creation and deployment of content across multiple mobile platforms.

Adobe’s shift speaks a lot for HTML 5 as a universal standard for putting rich media content on mobile devices conveniently and efficiently and in a manner that ensures the highest standards or reliability. As more and more users are starting to access the internet through mobile devices, it makes perfect sense for development companies to start developing HTML 5 tools. This is why Adobe’s, move towards using HTML5 development tools such as Adobe Air etc. to build HTML 5 websites and applications for mobile devices isn’t surprising.

Flash Isn’t Dead

Adobe will continue to develop Flash for PC. Its aim is to use Flash for offering PC users advanced gaming experiences and premium video solutions, which also includes 3D graphics.  But, when it comes to mobile devices it’s shifted its attention to HTML 5. It realizes, as many other companies have realized that HTML5 is the future of mobile development and its increasingly getting difficult to justify the use of Flash for developing and deploying mobile compatible content. That’s not just working any more.

So, when it comes to mobile development, its goodbye Flash and Hello HTML 5.

An online venture has its work cut out in terms of establishing its own distinctive online presence. The competition is tough and its only chance of success is reaching a wider target audience. If you are launching an online venture, it’s your branding efforts that will determine the success or failure of your business.

The most decisive component of your branding strategy is your online presence in the form of a website. But, gone are the days when this presence could only be limited to the web; your online presence now needs to go mobile. Also, this presence should be such that it can be accessed through a variety of devices such as desktop, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. Limiting its accessibility will have a negative impact on your branding efforts.

Mobile Users are a Rapidly Emerging Target Audience

If there is one development that is getting noticed by online marketers, it is that people are getting increasingly tech-savvy. This is reflected in the ever growing number of mobile users and the fact that a large percentage of these mobile users are smartphone users, who are accessing the web from their handheld devices. In doing so, they are no longer dependent on a desktop/laptop for accessing a particular website. Now, a large part of these users will comprise your target audience and you can’t afford to ignore this audience as it is a potentially lucrative source of revenue.

The mobile website as an important branding tool

In order to target your audience of mobile phone users, you need a mobile compatible website. This is the kind of website that can be accessed from the mobile phone of your target users. The importance of mobile website as a branding tool can be estimated from the fact that more and more mobile users are becoming ‘mobile only internet users’. This means they are accessing the internet only from their mobile phones. A large percentage of these users are likelier to buy from retailers that have a mobile website. So, having a mobile website makes tremendous business sense!

Although not as popular as smartphones, tablets such as the iPad are slowly but surely making their presence felt.  The ensuing years will see increased website viewership on the mobile operating systems that a tablet runs on. So, your online presence also needs to be tablet compatible. It helps you establish a presence in the minds of an emerging audience.

Something else that is capturing the imagination of mobile users is the mobile app. The various mobile OS specific apps stores are full of innovative and highly engaging apps that are eagerly being downloaded by users. A well-designed and engaging mobile app is an efficient way of capturing the attention of a mobile user; and integrating the mobile app with a ‘splash page’ is an innovative way of marketing your online venture.

In order to optimize the marketability of your mobile website, it’s important to identify the smartphones and tablets used by your target audience and design a website and/or mobile app that work perfectly on your user’s mobile devices.

A concerted marketing strategy

Be it a desktop website, a mobile and tablet compatible website or a mobile app, they must offer the same message. Yes, the limitations or freedoms offered by certain devices/operating systems will determine the way this message is expressed, but the gist should remain the same. 

Here are a few pointers that need to be taken into consideration to ensure successful use of your presence on the web and mobile.

• There should be no distractions on your Desktop/laptop website, mobile and tablet compatible website, and mobile app. Distractions dilute the message of your website and lead to unnecessary confusion. So, they need to be avoided at all costs.
   
• You need to ensure that you use the same logo & design theme across all websites and even your splash page. It ensures a commonality between all your online presences and helps you make a much stronger and concerted marketing effort.
   
• Your information should remain the same across all platforms, but its presentation can change keeping in mind the space constraints of certain devices. When it comes to a mobile website and mobile app, the information should be to-the-point and mention only the important points.
   
• It’s also important to provide links to your mobile website and app on your main website.
   
• If someone tries to access Desktop/Laptop compatible website from the mobile browser then this user should automatically be redirected to your mobile compatible website. This fact is relevant to the tablet as well.

The process of establishing a successful presence doesn’t end with just building a series of compatible websites or mobile apps. It also includes marketing the website and/or app in the best possible manner. So, even mobile marketing plays an important role in ensuring your online venture reaching a wider audience. Taken together the combination of an online presence on desktop/laptop, mobile/tablet, mobile app and penetrating mobile website marketing solutions, ensures a formidable internet presence that reaches and makes an impression on a wide target audience.

Talk to different people, and they will offer you different viewpoints about what they think are the important design considerations for a mobile website.  These points of view might differ on various grounds, but there is a common thread that runs through all of them, which is that it is definitely the time of the ‘Mobile Web’. Online promotional battles will now be fought and won on the mobile web. A mobile website is the need of the hour and businesses that don’t have one will miss the bus.

But, having a mobile website is not enough. This website must be expertly designed in order to be successful. An important fact to be noted is that the factors that determine the design of a traditional website do not hold true for a mobile website. The considerations are different and the recipe for a successful mobile website design is founded on taking note of these considerations.

Before we list out the top three considerations, it’s important to understand that when a mobile user is accessing your mobile website, the conditions in which it is being accessed have a big role to play in determining the mobile website’s design. What this means is that the general environment, usage, motion, lighting conditions, internet connectivity, etc. all have a big role to play in the design of mobile website.

Now, let’s have a contextual look at some of the top considerations that determine the look and feel of the mobile website.

A smaller screen size

Quite obvious isn’t it? When accessing a particular website using a desktop or a laptop, you have the advantage of a larger screen size. But, when it comes to a mobile device, the size of the screen goes down appreciably. The mobile website must be designed for a smaller screen size. Also, there is a range of screen sizes on offer when it comes to such devices. Your mobile website design must cater to all these sizes. There are some designers who take the easy way out and miniaturize desktop websites to suit the smaller screen size of mobile phones.  But, more often than not, this solution breaks the user experience. This is why it’s important to create a specialized design that can adapt to this difference in screen size.

Simplification of Navigation

Another facet of a mobile website design that is very obvious. A mobile website does not have the luxury of a complex navigation process. A mobile user has to make do with trackballs, touch functionality or tiny keypads in order to navigate a website. So, the design of the mobile website must focus on navigation clarity and make it more intuitive. Most mobile websites have a list of links on the homepages that take visitors to the main features of the website. A vertical representation of these links is the norm, as is the reduction in the number of categories and levels of navigation. One of the better ways of simplifying the navigation process in mobile websites is by ensuring that users gets an immediate visual feedback, when they choose a particular link.

Keep the user input at a bare minimum

Your design should be such that it minimizes user input. Touch screen functionally and tiny numeric keypads have ensured that mobile devices pack a punch and offer a range of functionalities, but entering the requisite input data is not a cakewalk. Many users find it a real chore to enter data on the miniscule screen and end up making errors. So, in the interest of your users, the design must be extremely user friendly. Keep the URL short, and ensure that the necessity for data input is limited. Offering users the benefit of smarter default values, and minimizing the essential data fields is just one of the many ways that user input can be minimized.

Each site has a different level of user input required. But, the design of the website must ensure that users have no problems in entering the required data.

This is just an overview of the 3 important aspects that need to be considered for the purposes of designing a successful mobile website. But, these are not the only ones. A successful mobile website design is a coming together of various diverse factors all of which have just one aim – improve website usability.