Recently Google began the GoMo initiative, an online campaign to increase awareness of the importance of having a mobile-specific version of your website for your visitors.

WHAT IS A MOBILE SITE AND WHY DO YOU NEED ONE?
Just because you can see your desktop site on a mobile phone doesn’t mean it’s mobile-friendly. Mobile sites are designed for the small screen, with the needs of mobile users in mind. A mobile-friendly site can help your business connect with customers and drive conversions.

The GoMo website includes useful information and powerful statistics to show you why going mobile should be an important part of your online business plan & future.

It will also allow you to test your website, and will give you a ranking of 1-4 in terms of the quality of the mobile experience you’re offering visitors.

Lastly it provides a small, non-WordPress list of vendors that assist in building mobile sites. We’re not yet listed, but that will likely change, and folks like us will be included.

Adwords Quality Score Now Affected by Mobile Sites

Google also recently announced that mobile site optimization now affects your AdWords Quality Score. This means that serving ads to mobile visitors with a mobile-optimized website will earn you a higher rank.

The AdWords system will automatically visit your landing page, and evaluate your site as viewed by smartphones. However, if you already have a mobile site, we recommend confirming with your webmaster that you’ve configured your server to show the mobile-optimized site when the AdWords mobile User-Agent is detected.

So in both cases, WPtouch & WPtouch Pro powered WordPress websites score perfect and will help you both with your business presence online in an increasingly mobile ‘webscape’, while also improving your Adwords quality & revenue.

Recently Jakob Nielsen (famed usability consultant) posted a review of a website’s mobile version, which (it seems he didn’t realize) was running WPtouch.

We wanted to write a follow-up to this article as many followers on Twitter found the post by Jakob and asked us about it, plus— we’re big fans of Jakob, too!

First off, it has to be stated that it seems Jakob didn’t know that this is a free plugin for WordPress, and was mostly in its basic, default settings. As a result, his review is skewed towards thinking allkpop.com made all the decisions in the design appearance for the mobile version.

WPtouch’s default settings are mostly aimed at exposing its most commonly used features, making it simpler for a user to setup (or in some cases, they don’t even have to set anything up, you just activate it and go!).

While Jakob had some great things to say about WPtouch, he recommeded a few design changes which, unbeknownst to him are either configurable options in the WPtouch plugin, or options in our newer WPtouch Pro plugin.

The site he reviewed is allkpop.com, a celebrity news and gossip site.

Here’s the site he saw:

And here’s his re-desgined version:

We’ll respond to his list of design changes one by one here:

1. Fewer features, which we achieved by removing three elements:
bylines, because they aren’t needed to choose an article (which is the only point of listing headlines on the front page); selectable categories and tags, which were too small to hit reliably anyway (and categories like “music” seem worthless on a pop site); and the triangle-button that displays a summary in place (instead, we always show a summary).

Bylines, categories and tags are options in the WPtouch settings, and can be turned off easily. The drop-arrow that reveals the excerpt is also a configuration option (excerpts shown) in the admin settings.

2. Bigger touch targets. The entire story tile can now be tapped, and users no longer need the added precision of tapping the headline itself…

We agree that the full tile as a clickable link is a good thing— but hard to implement given our options for this area. We chose instead to add a “read this article” link in addition to being able to tap on a title.

3. Full headlines instead of truncated headlines. This is probably the biggest redesign…

Full headlines or truncated headlines is also an option in the WPtouch settings.

4. Enhanced scannability by highlighting each pop star’s name in the headlines.

This we can’t really do anything about, nor WordPress itself without some custom hacking around.

5. Even more information scent by showing a short story summary (a “deck”) under each headline.

Let’s be honest, the term “information scent” is kind of creepy, no? (jk, Jakob).

Here Jakob doesn’t know that we are simply creating excerpts automatically from post content, and thus need to truncate. WPtouch will show the custom excerpt set for a post if it’s used.

6. Using pop star photos instead of date icons. Not only does this add some visual interest, it further enhances scannability and information scent as many users will recognize their favorite star’s face faster than they can read a headline.

WPtouch supports using thumbnails instead of the calendar icons as an admin option.

7. Room for 4 full story tiles without scrolling. The slightly tighter spacing lets users view the entire 4th story summary in their first scan of the page. If users do scroll down, the ability to view more tiles in less space also means that they work a bit less for each new story, and so they’re likely to want more of them. Because this second benefit is relatively small, we considered making the tiles smaller to display more stories on the first screen. On balance, the added information scent from the story summaries and pop star photos seemed a better use of the space — but testing an alternative would be worthwhile.

We disagree with this one— it’s a common practice on the web to “cut the fold”, meaning that content is cut-off at the bottom of the viewport to reveal to a user that scrolling will shown more content. If everything is neatly shown above the bottom of the viewport, it might appear that that’s all there is.

Additionally, because WPtouch dynamically truncates excerpts, some tiles are taller vertically than others. We spent a considerable amount of time trying all the variations in the settings to find a happy place where the appearance of a tile was decent no matter what the options were.

8. Showing the publication date only as a divider between stories published on different dates. Because so many stories are published each day, users typically see only the current day’s date when they access the site, unless they scroll down far enough to reach yesterday’s news. Thus, the story date is not worth the substantial screen real estate it occupies in the live design. In general, it’s good to question any mobile design that repeats the same information multiple times; such redundancy is probably a poor use of highly limited screen space.

Jakob doesn’t know that when thumbnails are used in WPtouch, the date is shown below the title of the post instead. We did look at designs where we only showed the date as a divider between posts, but it didn’t quite look/work right with the “Load More Entries” feature, so we canned it because it seemed confusing.

9. Adding more space between the navigation bar’s two options so users are less likely to touch the wrong one.

This one makes sense, though we don’t often find that users struggle with the WPtouch header links, we decided in WPtouch Pro to get rid of the thin bar below the header bar altogether in favour of the drop-down menu.

10. Labeling the drop-down menu instead of simply denoting it by a triangle. (It’s just above search in the original design — a subtle presentation that’s mostly overlooked by users.) Depending on which commands are actually in the menu, a different name might be better. We didn’t redesign the entire navigation system, but we assumed that a revised categorization system would be the most valuable and usable way to navigate the site, after headline-tapping and search. (See our seminar on IA structuring for more information on how to determine the best access schemes.)

In WPtouch Pro we moved all links on the thin bar within a menu toggle button which has the text “Menu”, precisely because we agree with this thinking. In all honesty we haven’t gotten around to doing the changes in WPtouch 1.9.x, but plan to.

Not Too Shabby

So there you have it! I think Jakob would be impressed to see most of the things he critiqued are included as options in WPtouch, our free mobile plugin offering for WordPress.

Today we’re happy to announce Piggy™, a new premium WordPress plugin which adds mobile web-app access to your WP E-Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopp or Cart66 sales information.

Piggy puts real-time sales data from WP E-Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopp or Cart66 in your pocket.

iOS and Android

Piggy works and looks great on iOS and Android devices. Its gorgeous, sharp interface also fully supports the iPhone 4′s rich retina display.

Clutter-free, Clean Layout

Simple and elegant, Piggy reveals the sales statistics you care about in its streamlined, easy to use layout.

View sales information for today, this week, this month or year— compare data, average sales and units sold, plus view the top selling products in your shop, and more.

Piggy Predicts The Future

Using complex forecasting, Piggy also makes accurate sales predictions for the day, week, month and year ahead, and provides forecasting for product sales, too.

See how new products added in your store affect your bottom line— gauge how new prices change your outlook— it’s all at your fingertips, in a glance, with Piggy.

Always Fresh

Piggy smartly checks and automatically refreshes when new sales come in, so you always have the most up-to-data at your fingertips.

Push Notifications

And it works with iOS apps like Prowl and Howl to deliver real-time, instant push notifications of new sales to your iOS device. Configure as many devices as you wish to receive these updates.

Knowing your sales numbers is vitally important for your business— with Piggy you can have them in your pocket.

Availability & Compatibility

Piggy works with WP E-Commerce, WooCommerce, Shopp or Cart66.

A support and upgrades license for Piggy costs just $25.00 (CAD).

Piggy™ is on sale now!

The Beginning

When we first wrote the code and designed what would become WPtouch we did so with one clear thing in mind— we were creating something for where the mobile web was going, not where it was or where it had been.

On Every Website

We imagined that nearly every website would eventually offer mobile versions, and that those who didn’t would be the exception.

At first, tools like WPtouch would be useful to bridge the gap between desktop and mobile presentation. As anyone who’s built a website knows, development and design aren’t all that cheap, and if you’re adding a mobile version to it just adds more time, money, and effort to the process. What’s more, there just weren’t any good tools available previously to help do so. Many site owners previously didn’t consider shipping a mobile version for these reasons.

Being able to install and configure a mobile version with little to know development time or cost is a great stop-gap solution for many, and perfectly suitable as a permanent solution for others. WPtouch accomplishes this gracefully.

The Wave

These people venturing into the mobile arena with regular websites are intrepid explorers; the first wave of small and medium-sized website owners adapting to a space that previously could only be occupied by large companies, or those with the cash/business need to deliver mobile web experiences. Now, there are different tools to harness web traffic viewership that make it easier and more affordable to offer “tailored for the mobile web” solutions.

The Wave Redux

At present, a growing number of those explorers in the mobile web publishing world are growing more savvy, and want more custom mobile solutions that better reflect the style and brand that their desktop sites/services offer.

As more and more people join the mobile revolution, postered by similar solutions to mobile web presentation of content like WPtouch, this wave of mobile exploration will grow strong, yet not everyone will follow.

This marks the point of divergence.

Two Schools

With the rise of social networking services which collect information and serve vast amounts of people, together with the “app-ification” of the web ( the tendency for ubiquitous interface styles to serve content), users are increasingly demanding this ubiquity- simple solutions like WPtouch Pro which offer a compromise between customization and ease of use.

The divergence is created not by the explorers, but rather by their users— much of the feedback we see and hear is often from those who are asking website owners to install WPtouch for them to use to access content. The growing want for a familiar, easy interface is a by-product of the increasing complexity experienced by web users on all web and technology fronts.

The High Horsers

Conversely, those that advocate and prefer completely custom mobile solutions are either a) in the web industry and are savvy, preferring to distinguish themselves from others and have the skill to do so, or b) have the resources to afford the cost of such development.

It’s been our experience that the majority of mobile web users prefer something like WPtouch. That may not be true of website owners, but the demand for WPtouch by visitors says something powerful that you just don’t see on the desktop.

Idealism vs. Reality

As a content publisher, it’s ideal to deliver completely custom mobile solutions- similar design experiences on the desktop + mobile web is really (what seems at first pass) the most natural. But the differences between them are vast, like those between the workings of quantum and relative mechanics; with time and examination it becomes clear that completely custom mobile experiences might not be the best solution for a great many sites.

The medium of the internet is heavily influenced by the ways it can be presented. As desktop displays got larger and the tools for web development smarter, the web grew in a way that was directly opposed to the restrictive nature of small mobile devices and the “information without decoration” needs of mobile web users (oh, the dreaded WAP).

Then came the iPhone, and with it an explosion of touch-based smartphones that aimed to put the real web in your pocket.

But the real web in your pocket just didn’t feel right. Native apps showed that web content presented and tailored for the device and touch interface proved far more popular than the websites they were culled from.

That App-Like Experience

That’s why we chose to go the route of separating the presentation of mobile web content in a user interface from its website’s presentation, and instead tailor it to the devices it would be viewed on— at current the iOS and Android devices that make up the bulk of the mobile web traffic today.

These touch devices have interface requirements and interactive interactive prepositions which either do not exist on the desktop or have no corollary. We thought it was more natural that a mobile user, becoming accustomed to the way their mobile device worked and behaved, be presented with a similar interface that they would instantly recognize and understand.

We worked to match expectations for the behavior of how content + navigation were seen & interacted with. The goal for a user being (when presented with a similar layout on another website) that they would focus less on the layout itself but more on its content.

Bold-ly Forward

Some people think WPtouch should also have backwards, non-touch compatibility on devices like the BlackBerry Bold, Curve, etc. While these devices are still popular in many business environments, they don’t represent much of the mobile web traffic today, and the direction these browsing statistics are going. What’s more, the browsers on older, non-touch mobile devices make it quite difficult to offer rich, engaging experiences, dampening the cause to create them.

That’s an important distinction: The popularity of mobile devices themeselves in the wild doesn’t necessarily mean you should invest in web solutions for them; rather, popular mobile devices which account for the bulk of mobile traffic should be your concern.

And in that regard, WPtouch and WPtouch Pro cover well over 90% of that traffic.

Philosophy

So we look forward to what’s next, and instead of working with the mobile web today exclusively, we see the future of the mobile web when we consider what we do with the WPtouch/WPtouch Pro plugins. We’re not prophets and have no crystal ball when it comes to where the mobile revolution might take us all, but we are tuned to the needs of users and content creators, and hope to remain a leader in providing tools for accessing WordPress on the go.

Not sure mobile is important? Take a gander at these stats:

That’s why we believe strongly in WPtouch Pro and the future of the mobile web. A quote from that video that summarizes the future nicely is:

In the next five years more people will connect to the internet via a mobile vs a PC

Based on some statistics I collected prior to my presentation at WordCamp Portland, I wholeheartedly agree with that assessment.