What makes a great mobile website experience? In preparation for a presentation at eTourism Summit 2015, we asked Destination Analysts to conduct a consumer audit. Mobile sites volunteered by eTourism Summit attendees were analyzed by the consumer panel tasked with identifying the best user experiences based on:
- First Impressions: The X factor (the look and feel).
- Inspiration: Find reason(s) to visit the destination (assessment of content).
- Usability: Select a travel planning task (i.e. attending an event, finding a hotel) and attempt to complete it (assessment of usability).
The consumer test panel summarized their selections of a winning destination and an attraction.
Q: “What do consumers look for in a great mobile experience?”
A: “Clean design, not too much text on the pages, and really cool photos.”
Winners of eTS15 Mobile UX
DMOs: Kudos to @travelportland on having the best destination mobile website experience.
Attractions: Kudos to @CityPASS for the perfect amount of information on their mobile website.
Recap of Key Takeaways from eTS15
- Smartphone IS the main screen. 62 percent of searches for destinations and attractions are on mobile.
- “Desktop is useless. Be where your users are.” – Shaun Aukland, Google.
- Speed matters. Test your site at www.webpagetest.org because 40 percent will abandon a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load and 47 percent expect it in 2 seconds or faster.
- Hi res images, double the resolution of a desktop, are essential for retina-quality screens.
From the Developer Who Coined RWD
Responsive web design was originally defined by web designer Ethan Marcotte in A List Apart. That was in 2010. Halfway through 2015, Marcotte said, “The web hasn’t merely moved beyond the desktop in recent years; the web has vaulted right over the desktop.” Conclusion: we’re not designing for pages anymore. Instead of building and thinking in columns and rows, we must “embrace patterns: small components that can adapt independently of any interface, and that we can stitch together to create more complex responsive layouts.”
