Mobile is it.

(Really.)

Matt Frehner | @mattfrehner | Some reading

(Swipe or press SPACE to check out the slides)

Why should you care?

Act your age.

- Brian Stelter, last night

60 per cent of cellphones in Canada are smartphones
Smartphone owners are on average younger,
smarter,
and better-looking than dumb-phone owners

Only one-quarter of CUP members have mobile websites.

(Usage stats from ComScore MobiLens September 2012 data)

And people use their phones. A lot

39 per cent of people admit
to using their smartphones
while going to the bathroom.

- TechCrunch

FAB

Started 18 months ago

38 per cent of sales are from mobile

56 per cent of Christmas Day sales were from mobile

Also for the articles.

Readability's data shows that users are even more engaged in reading on their mobile devices than on desktop – and, surprisingly, on the iPad.

- Content Strategy for Mobile by Karen McGrane

And newspapers, too

In November, 37 percent of all visits to the Times ... came from phones or tablets. That’s up from 28 percent in 2011 and 20 percent in 2010.

                - Fiona Spruill, New York Times's editor of emerging platforms

When big news happens

The Globe News app broke traffic records on the night of the U.S. election – and then again the next day

Redesign

Build, test, repeat

Know your reader
Know your goals
Build something, see if it works
Profit

Who's your audience?

Learn how to use Google Analytics, or similar software

Do one thing well

(Rather than lots of things not-so-well)

                Reeder             Weather Dial      Twitteriffic 5

Iterate, iterate, iterate

Always test on the real thing

Or, if you can't, fake it

Paper prototypes of The Globe's Android app

So: what matters in good mobile design?

Speed

Legibility

Simple navigation

If you need instructions to use your app, you lose.

What doesn't matter?

Spending hours building that super-awesome flashy interactive graphic that isn't readable by 30-40 per cent of the people who come to your site

Resist the urge to take your newspaper and stick it on the Internet.

Permission to start over

When you consider the amount of useless navigation, content fluff, and irrelevant promotions that litter a typical web experience, you realize why the mobile diet can be good for both business and customers.

- Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

Compare, for instance

Focus on design

If you design for mobile first, you can create agreement on what matters up front.

- Mobile First by Luke Wroblewski

Read/Write

(Responsive design)

Mashable