Even at 3G speeds data retrieval on a mobile phone takes significantly longer than we are accustomed to on a desktop PC. It doesn’t take long for users to become frustrated with lengthy sequences of retrievals, and give up. So getting this right is extremely important. In the mobile context it is especially important to structure information as simply as possible. Placing the right information in the right place is an important part of providing a usable experience; getting it wrong means providing a poor experience.

On the other hand, a user presented with a clear goal and intelligent ways to reach it, may tolerate latency issues and the time taken to reach the goal. This is best done by setting user expectations. Every link should use clear labels to communicate to the user what to expect on the resulting page, thereby lowering the risk of click disappointment.

Keep It Simple

The best advice for creating a strong mobile information architecture is to keep it as simple as possible. The following two approaches work well when structuring your IA for mobile presentation:

• Limit choices. Take the content that’s relevant to a mobile user and discard the rest. This results in a simple and focused IA that cuts down the risk of the user getting lost. This approach works well with small, focused sites.
• Create a simple site drill-down architecture, nesting content into well-labeled categories. While this sounds straightforward, it’s necessary to plan carefully before taking this approach. A typical Web site has sub-pages – users follow a link to reach the sub-page. This is drilling down to find the information the user seeks on the Web site.

Drill-Down Recommendations

Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind when considering a drill-down approach for your site:

• Limit categories as much possible: Users become increasingly disoriented as they go deeper into a site. With a Mobile Web site, their tolerance often stops at about five levels – the fewer levels the better You should adjust this number upwards when targeting more capable devices.
• Attempt to limit links to ten per page unless you know that the device can present more information well: You should code your links with accesskeys, so that the user can use the phone keypad to navigate links. We recommend a assigning up to ten accesskeys to any page (0–9) to ensure compatibility with older devices. You should adjust this number upwards when targeting more capable devices that can display this information better.
• Provide at least one content item with each category page i.e. avoid empty links: Giving users at least one sample of the content within a category is a good way to make sure that users get to the right place. Consider placing a link to the featured content with a one or two sentence overview. The shorter, the better.
• Prioritize links by activity or popularity: This is often referred to as “deck placement.” Sorting links in order by frequency of access ensures that the most sought-after content appears first on the list. You improve a user’s chances of getting to the right destination.

The Web has revolutionized how we interact with and publish information, but up to now it has only been accessible to people with desktop devices. Web-enabled mobile phones now extend the expected global reach of the Web to three times that of today, touching one-third of the population of the planet.

Some of the more important benefits of the Mobile Web are:

• It can enable access to information, any time and anywhere there is cell phone coverage. By freeing information from the restrictions of a desk or search for a nearby WiFi hotspot, people can quickly retrieve and exchange information.
• It provides vast connectivity. One-third of the population currently has access to the Internet through a mobile device. This number is twice as many as the number of Internet-connected personal computers (PCs).
• It enables services to take advantage of mobile device capabilities such as clicking on a phone number to call it or add it to the device address book.
• It can provide location-based content. Location technologies can enable location-based information be provided to a user. This can reduce the steps required for the user to reach useful content, and so makes it accessible with the least amount of effort.

In a fast-growing mobile society, businesses, organizations and individuals need to reach and interact with their customers while mobile. For content providers, it opens a new and more profitable revenue stream, without having to rely on mobile service provider portals.

When should I start?

You should start a mobile project by defining the overall goals for the site. Consider grouping these into the following three categories for easier management and using their related questions to define goals:

• Business: These come from your project’s business goals and should be clearly defined before you begin. What are your organization’s goals? How does a mobile presence help your organization achieve its goals? Does it improve my current business reach? Does it provide new business opportunities? Is there an opportunity for innovation? Depending on your business case, you could choose anything between providing a great experience on all mobile devices, or creating a basic web site with free tools in a short time.
• User: User goals (and sometimes constraints) reflect your audience’s goals. How does your audience benefit from a mobile presentation? What tasks will they accomplish with your mobile content? Does the immediacy of mobile help the user? How will they interact with your content? Context is big in mobile, so the key is to understand your users’ wants and needs. Ensure that you value the attention, time and money of your audience, i.e. value your customer.
• Technical: Technology and resource opportunities and constraints. Look at these goals as a triangle or three-legged stool. When making decisions, try to find and maintain a balance on all three sides: business, user and technical. If you lean on one side too much or too little, then the other sides suffer.

User goals usually make a great place to start, and this is especially true when considering mobile.