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In-Brief: An evaluation of U.K. portals underlines the critical importance of keeping it simple.

Regular readers will appreciate that MSG often trawls blogs and sites for important snippets that somehow got lost between the cracks. Such is the case with this analysis from Strategy Analytics that sheds some light on the key success factors for a satisfactory portal experience and identifies the mobile operators that made the winners circle.

The end-user research report, UK Mobile Portals: One Click Access and Simple Layout Enhance Experience, evaluates the portal experience provided by leading U.K. network operators and gives Vodafone and 3UK high marks (more accurately 4-star ratings) for discoverability and usability. O2, Orange and T-Mobile all received a 3-star rating. Even though I’ve read the release, and equivalent of the exec summary (thanks to Strategy Analytics, which was kind enough to provide me with access), I can’t say I’m clear on the difference between a 3- and 4-star rating. Maybe an analyst from the firm will circle back and fill us in through a comment at this site…

In short, Vodafone and 3UK performed “particularly well” with regards to portal discoverability, while Vodafone also “excelled” for its News & Info service. Orange and T-Mobile also performed well for News & Information. David Kerr, VP of the Global Wireless Practice, tells us: “In the U.K. mobile portal benchmarks, Full Track Music Download and Games downloads remain significant areas of weakness in terms of user satisfaction. 3 was best-in-class for Mobile TV; and Vodafone has the best news application in the U.K. T-Mobile’s portal needs updating in terms of color, font and iconography, as well as significant additional music offerings.”

The report findings also underline the importance of “straightforward access” and point out that most users prefer simple lists to graphics-intensive menus. Read between the lines and there is also a clear message in these findings for the converted who preach that mobile ads targeted to Web browsing behavior are a sure-fire bet. In fact, some schemes don’t stop there; they lay the groundwork to insert ads when users are searching content and apps stored on their phones or buried in device core functions. The report doesn’t warn against it in principle; it simply confirms the cardinal rule of mobile (well, all technology): Keep it simple.

BTW: Strategy Analytics evaluated U.S. mobile operator portals and produced a similar eye-opening report last year. I covered it here while I was tracking mobile search & related topics for MoCoNews.

• Posted in
• Mobile Research, Mobile Search, Mobile Advertising, Content Discovery

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