My library’s web developer, Nathan Pauley, shared this article with me: The Mobile Moment, by Luke Wroblewski. In the article, Luke discusses how processes, priorities, and product thinking change when the majority of your web traffic shifts from desktop to mobile devices.
Probably a good thing to start thinking about now, rather than later. Why? Well, in my library’s case, we are getting closer all the time. For example, the image included in this post shows mobile visits for my library’s website for December 2013:
- Blue = desktop website visits (67.4%)
- Green = mobile device visits (20.3%)
- Red = tablet device visits (12.3%)
So … add the mobile and tablet percentages together, and you get 32.6%. Almost 33% of web traffic coming from some type of mobile device! What was that percentage a year ago? A whopping 17.6%. If that rate continues, we’ll be around 50% mobile traffic in another year. Wowser!
What should we be thinking about when we hit 50% mobile traffic? Here are some thoughts – please add yours!
- Responsive website, or at least some form of mobile website. That’s why my library is going responsive (our redesign should be live by the end of January!).
- Mobile-friendly content. It’s not enough to have web-friendly content. Think about making that content mobile-friendly, too.
- Easy ways to share, like, and interact with social media sites.
- Quick ways to connect to library staff and to library content directly from a customer’s mobile device.
What else? Let’s get this mobile thing figured out!