Category Archives: Mobile

Which Came First—UX or UI?
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It’s a question that has plagued many designers and developers over time—I still find myself getting into heated debates over it. While it’s important for a website or app to look stellar, it’s equally important for it to function well and provide a seamless experience for the user.

We’ve all encountered poorly organized websites. You know the ones: you click on what you think is a button and nothing happens, all because someone decided it would be cool to use the same color as the active links elsewhere, leaving users lost over where they can click. Or there’s the dreaded app that requires ten touches or swipes to download a song or post a comment. While the UI may have been brilliantly designed, there was clearly a lack of UX planning behind the scenes.

So which did come first? For years we’ve been designing magazine-worthy user interfaces without a whisper of the letters UX. Often, user experience seems to be an afterthought—and it isn’t until countless emails from frustrated developers flood the inbox with 25 questions about what happens after x, y and z do we realize that hey, maybe we should have thought through the UX a little more carefully.

The moral of the story is: it really doesn’t matter which came first. There is no UI without a clearly planned UX—every interface needs to make sense and be aesthetically pleasing.

This feature presentation by Kai Brunner is a humorous look at the UX vs. UI conundrum.

Thoughts on Mobile Payments
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It seems like every year there is a proclamation that this will be the year of mobile, and every year there are large industry gains but never quite to the level of what was predicted. Everyone has seen the charts about the growth of mobile phones (5.3 billion phones worldwide), apps and mobile web traffic. Those numbers are impressive and show tremendous growth, but which trends will stick? Augmented reality is a cool concept in practice but does the mobile user really derive a benefit? Will AR be here for the long haul?

Location-based messaging was hot in 2011 and was going to be the next big thing, allowing marketers to deliver personalized offers to users. That’s another great technology with tremendous benefits for the consumer, but can it overcome the “big brother” factor of identifying where the user is located?

The mobile technology that I find intriguing and that ultimately has the greatest consumer benefit is mobile payments. The mobile industry has been talking about this a lot in the last few years. Now that the payment industry is beginning to get more interested and more phones are starting to be equipped with payment technology (NFC, Google Wallet, and there is a rumor that Apple is working payment technology into their iOS), it feels like this technology is ready to finally be relevant and take off. There are still some hurdles at the POS, however — you have been able to buy your coffee at Starbucks with your phone for a while now. Just think about extending that to everything you do — groceries, restaurants, taxis, etc. The marketer benefit is as good as the consumer benefit, with retailers able to drive offers using personalization. Ultimately the success of mobile payments will be determined by how easy it is for the consumer to use and how accessible the technology is. Here is one consumer who is looking forward to that day.

New Facebook Ads Target Mobile Users
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When clients invest in Facebook fan pages they want to see their “Insights” stats climbing in the upward direction daily — and at a healthy pace. Growing the page followers organically by posting fresh, relevant content daily is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that does not always produce the quick results clients want to see. Investing in Facebook ads to increase your reach is one method of growing a brand page. The social networking goliath has just announced a new mobile ad offering — “Premium on Facebook — this week at its first marketing conference to serve ads to its 425 million mobile users in a tactic to monetize a key revenue source.

Mega brands like Coca-Cola, Starbucks and Macy’s, who invest in Facebook ads to increase their already huge followings, will be able to extend their reach by paying to put their campaigns in news feeds. While brands may give this the thumbs up to increase their “likes”, it could potentially annoy users. In the past, the text ads were always on the right side of the page. If you wanted to ignore them, you could. The new ads can also appear when logging off your account on your mobile device. So which is it for you, thumbs up or thumbs down? For users who don’t like what they are seeing in their feed, they can now let the company know. For brands trying to broaden their reach via social networking, they can engage with their customers and have a conversation about what they’re selling.

Not your Mom & Dad’s Super Bowl Advertising
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The Super Bowl advertising landscape is a different frontier than it once was. Ads now cost an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot—up from $37.5k in 1967.They are also estimated to reach over 111 million viewers in 2012 compared to over 24 million viewers in 1967.

The numbers are interesting, but what has changed in the last 45 years aside from cost and the number of viewers? The biggest change has occurred in the last few years as a result of mobile phone and social media advancements. To give you an idea of the dramatic shift, nearly half of the 70 Super Bowl advertisers this year put their spots online in the days leading up to the game—a significant increase from last year when only a handful of spots were released ahead of time. Bluefin Lab also tracked 12.2 million social media comments during the Super Bowl, which is a 578% increase from 2011. Plus, mobile apps like Shazam were being featured during the halftime show and in commercials to engage consumers with free and exclusive content like never before.

What does this mean for the future? The drive to engage the audience not only via TV but in the real world and on the second screen (mobile, tablet, PC) will only increase in the years to come. The incremental cost to have a fully integrated campaign across multiple channels is minimal compared to the $3.5M for 30 seconds of air time. Plus, multi-channel engagement has the potential to leave a longer lasting impression with consumers than a 30-second TV spot. If brands and agencies aren’t thinking of creative ways to engage their consumers using these innovative new channels going forward, they will be left behind.

Step Up With Stand-Out Apps
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It’s no secret how inundated mobile app stores have gotten — the App Store features about 500,000 apps and Android Market 300,000. So how do you get yours to stand out in front of consumers against all the rest?

A recent report by Distimo showed that featured apps receive increased revenue: 41% on the first day and 22% on the second for the App Store. In the Android marketplace, the numbers were 7% on the first day and 29% overall. The same study gauged what discounting an app can do for sales. Surprisingly, the report showed that it actually lowered revenue. Find out more here

So how do you get your app featured? Although you can apply for the honor, the best approach is just to make your app good. Make it pop, make sure it works well, create a compelling user experience, make the design incredible and plan your marketing in advance. In short, build it well and they will come.

A few elements that successful apps share are a recognizable name (often), a clear benefit or purpose, eye-catching design and a smart interface. They also work as promised. Hey, you stand out visually and conceptually, but it won’t get you anywhere if your product doesn’t work well.

A few words of advice about app marketing from the experts out there: plan ahead so you’re prepared when your app launches, promote via social media channels, have a website to back up your offering, and ensure your app is a recognizable part of your brand. Positive buzz, good reviews and sales or downloads are sure to follow.