Sunday, August 29, 2010
Find Usability Issues Using Crowdsourcing
Find usability issues by using new crowdsourcing services like uTest.com. If you want to mimic the behavior of your site's users, there is no better way than to use a large pool of everyday Internet users. Crowdsourcing platforms like uTest give you the ability to send lots of users to your website and quickly see where they have problems and give feedbacks for improvement.
TIME Magazine Selects Kongregate as One of the Best US Websites of 2010
TIME Magazine has included Kongregate, Inc. on its annual "50 Best Websites 2010" ranking in the newsmagazine's current issue. San Francisco-based Kongregate is a leading social gaming destination and community for core gamers representing the fast-growing free-to-play gaming market. Currently www.Kongregate.com hosts 10 million monthly players who spend a combined 23 million hours per month on the site, which places it among the most popular online gaming sites.
TIME Magazine's complete 2010 top-50 list,includes Kongregate.com as one of only five game sites. Other categories represented on the Top 50 list include such topics as music and video, news, shopping, family, sports, finance and health.
TIME Magazine also recognized Kongregate.com for its Android-based mobile application that delivers more than 150 quick and simple mini games that are playable from an Android phone's Web browser.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Increasing mobile websites over apps
Some 80% of businesses across a wide range of vertical industries are planning to or already have developed mobile websites as their predominant vehicle for conducting mobile commerce in the next year, according to a new survey by Adobe Systems. A downloadable, application-only mobile commerce strategy was the preference of only 8% of respondents in the Adobe Scene7 Mobile Commerce Survey, released Thursday.
Businesses' mobile strategies were highlighted in four main areas: promotions, commerce, product information, and branding. The latter was deemed the core mobile strategy for 75% of respondents, reinforcing the importance of the mobile channel to drive traffic and support different types of commerce, Adobe said.
"Multi-channel shoppers tend to purchase more; therefore, companies must effectively engage customers by delivering consistent, rich experiences across all channels -- including mobile -- to maintain and fuel current double-digit e-commerce industry growth rates," said Sheila Dahlgren, senior director of product marketing at Adobe, in a statement. "The survey results demonstrate the opportunities that exist for companies to fully leverage rich visualization features to improve their emerging mobile presences and drive cross-channel sales."
Full-screen image zoom and videos are the most effective way for mobile users to browse or display products on their devices, Adobe said, citing 55% of respondents who called both "indispensable viewing features." In addition, the most effective visual merchandising features were catalogs and brochures, alternative images, and zoom and pan, according to 96% of respondents.
The survey also revealed that presently, rich visual merchandising features are used by 18% of respondents for mobile commerce, however, up to 81% said they plan to deploy these features, "thus implying richer mobile experiences will be created and offered over the next 12 months," the company said.
Source: Various websites
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Mobile Website makes travel easier
Commuters will find it easier to access public transport information on the go through Australia's most comprehensive mobile public transport website.
Transport Minister Rachel Nolan unveiled two new mobile phone compatible websites from TransLink and QR in response to customer feedback.
Ms Nolan said more than 100,000 people accessed TransLink's main website for public transport information every month via their mobile phone.
"Both mobile websites have been designed for commuters who have web-enabled mobile phones and want easy-to-read public transport information at their fingertips," Ms Nolan said.
"Both sites are free and easy to use so commuters on the go have all the information they need to travel on trains, buses and river services."
Ms Nolan said the TransLink mobile website included an improved mobile journey planner, timetables, service updates and disruptions, fares, information on go card top up locations, favourite links and a feedback section.
"One of the best features is that you can save regular journeys, timetables or even service changes - so you don't have to retype your home and work address each time you travel," Ms Nolan said.
"The new website is very easy to navigate, minimising clicks and allowing commuters to connect with TransLink via Twitter, under the contact us section."
Ms Nolan said both the new TransLink and Queensland Rail mobile website worked on most web enabled mobile phones made in the last five years.
"The Queensland Rail mobile-friendly website is being trialled and includes links to the TransLink journey planner as well as news, events and lost property," she said.
"Mapping and positioning technology will be incorporated into future upgrades of the TransLink mobile site.
"We believe a new group of go card users joining the network in coming weeks from the big go card giveaway will benefit from this new service for customers, showing where to top up their go card."
Ms Nolan said TransLink had also made its main website more accessible for multicultural communities by translating important travel information.
"Comprehensive travel information is now available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese at the bottom of each web page of the TransLink site," she said.
"Information about go card will also be available soon. This is all part of our community service obligations in making travel easy for all people in the community."
Access the mobile TransLink website at: mobile.translink.com.au or visit translink.com.au
Transport Minister Rachel Nolan unveiled two new mobile phone compatible websites from TransLink and QR in response to customer feedback.
Ms Nolan said more than 100,000 people accessed TransLink's main website for public transport information every month via their mobile phone.
"Both mobile websites have been designed for commuters who have web-enabled mobile phones and want easy-to-read public transport information at their fingertips," Ms Nolan said.
"Both sites are free and easy to use so commuters on the go have all the information they need to travel on trains, buses and river services."
Ms Nolan said the TransLink mobile website included an improved mobile journey planner, timetables, service updates and disruptions, fares, information on go card top up locations, favourite links and a feedback section.
"One of the best features is that you can save regular journeys, timetables or even service changes - so you don't have to retype your home and work address each time you travel," Ms Nolan said.
"The new website is very easy to navigate, minimising clicks and allowing commuters to connect with TransLink via Twitter, under the contact us section."
Ms Nolan said both the new TransLink and Queensland Rail mobile website worked on most web enabled mobile phones made in the last five years.
"The Queensland Rail mobile-friendly website is being trialled and includes links to the TransLink journey planner as well as news, events and lost property," she said.
"Mapping and positioning technology will be incorporated into future upgrades of the TransLink mobile site.
"We believe a new group of go card users joining the network in coming weeks from the big go card giveaway will benefit from this new service for customers, showing where to top up their go card."
Ms Nolan said TransLink had also made its main website more accessible for multicultural communities by translating important travel information.
"Comprehensive travel information is now available in Arabic, Chinese, French, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese at the bottom of each web page of the TransLink site," she said.
"Information about go card will also be available soon. This is all part of our community service obligations in making travel easy for all people in the community."
Access the mobile TransLink website at: mobile.translink.com.au or visit translink.com.au
Mobile Shopping by Tesco
Tesco, the UK’s largest retailer, is aiming to take the mobile commerce sector into the mainstream by launching its first transactional mobile app.
It has scheduled to launch the app on Nokia’s Ovi Store next week. It lets Tesco.com members browse a full store and update their shopping lists.
The retailer, which generated £136m in profit from online sales last year, is looking to lead the fledgling mobile commerce sector, which is seeing investment from rivals Asda, Ocado and Waitrose, while Amazon has also launched an online grocery service.
It has scheduled to launch the app on Nokia’s Ovi Store next week. It lets Tesco.com members browse a full store and update their shopping lists.
The retailer, which generated £136m in profit from online sales last year, is looking to lead the fledgling mobile commerce sector, which is seeing investment from rivals Asda, Ocado and Waitrose, while Amazon has also launched an online grocery service.
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