Mobile Moment Monday: Under Thumb Blog

Mobile Awesomeness Logo courtesy of Mobile Awesomeness

I started looking at some other blogs focused on mobile design and came across a interesting website that shares some of the same ideas and concepts that I do called Mobile Awesomeness (MA). They take what I have been doing here on Mobile Moment Mondays a step further by dedicating their entire website to "ranking" mobile design and apps.

MA has invented their own rating system based on three categories: UI/UX, Design, and Concept.  You receive a numeric score in each category, in which 100% awesomeness is the goal to achieve.  A few of the things that they base your score on include easy of use, load time, innovation, user-flow, first impression, creativity, imagery, look and feel, content, complexity, problem solving, and application.

Screenshot of rankings from Mobile Awesomeness project rankings

The homepage is MA's Mobile Gallery, which is a gallery of links to mobile projects that they have critiqued and ranked.  They have a link that explains their rating system, an about section that explains their purpose (quite well I must add), and then their blog.

Screenshot of Mobile Awesomeness website goals.

Since I am in the blogging business, their blog is what I mostly wanted to reflect upon since they are kind of like my competition (in which I am more like their competition because they already have a well established website and been around for a while).  Their blog goes by another title called Under Thumb, with a catchy little blog description that simple states "Your source for all things mobile" (already impressed me).  What I like about this blog is how it is set-up a lot like my own.  In the right side column of the page there are category links, recent posts links, and then the archives.

Each post leads with a image, then the title, and then the date of the post at the bottom of the article.  The main blog page is actually a feed of all the blog articles and when you click on the blog title, or "Read more..." link, you are taken to the article page, which is styled with larger fonts and then the title is placed above the leading image.

Much like my own blog, their blog has "theme days," such as the Mobile Monday Roundup and Friday Link Dumps, and then they have regular posts of interest.  Thier blog started in August 2013. Most articles are titled wittily and a majority of the images catch the viewers attention.

What I do not like about the MA blog is that there is no real "About This Blog" section explaining the purpose, the writer, or anything.  There is a blog post back in August of 2013 that welcomes the user to Under Thumb, but there is no link to it.  There are no labels for SEO purposes or to benefit the viewer in finding key terms.

There is also nothing that tells me who the author is for all these articles. I searched through and read a lot of the articles and not once did I feel like the writer was interacting with his audience, in which it showed at the bottom of each article because not one person has wrote any comments. There are sharing options for each, but not many of the articles have been shared either. What surprises me about this is that their website shows up at the top of Google's search ranks, so I am assuming that they have an audience.

Of course my blog does not get a lot of commenters either (hint, hint).  This makes me think that the viewers of my blog, which could essentially be the viewers of the Under Thumb blog, are not that many by volume, or no one has any interest in reading about mobile design concepts. Let me know if I am wrong below! And check out the blog at Mobile Awesomeness, let me know what you think, and let me know how I can do to improve my own.  I am always up for content suggestions.  Thanks for reading again this week.

Mobile Moment Monday: The New Era of the Mobile Internet

I have said this already many times before, but the Internet is not what it used to by in the 1990's.  The first computer I bought was a Gateway back in 1997. It was top of the line, with about 512MB of memory and a 80GB hard drive, and a 17" CRT monitor.  America Online was the most popular Internet provider with their 56k dial-up connection.  How awesome was it to realize that you could search and look-up just about anything on your computer sitting in the comfort of your own home? No one even complained that it took 10 to 15 minutes to download one song on Napster; it was free, it was cool, and it couldn't get better than this, right?

Back then, "good" web design was done with HTML tables and small, compressed images, such as GIF's.  Then along came JavaScript, CSS, and server-side web programming languages, RSS feeds, and all sorts of different technologies were released to make webpages more interactive, dynamic, and entertaining.   Then social media; everyone had a MySpace page.  I thought it was funny the first time I heard MySpace, or Facebook referenced on television. I think it was Law and Order that I was watching.  You realize then just how big and important these things have become when you see it on television.

Now, everywhere I read they are saying, "If you are designing a website, design for mobile first."  Mobile webpages and mobile apps are the biggest thing since...well, Facebook.  Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and all the biggest names on the web are buying as many companies and stocks as they can that revolve around mobile marketing.  Check out this Pinterest page with about 82 different mobile design and smartphone infographics.  The above YouTube infographic video also has some unbelievable mobile facts and stats.  A Mobile Design Presentation, also on YouTube, explains why it so important for a business to have a mobile webpage today.

Whether you are an entrepreneurs who is trying to create the next best app, or just a small business owner trying to connect to your customers, you need to start thinking "mobile first." Once you have a mobile website ready, optimize it for the desktop so everything is seamless on all platforms.  The best way to do this: RESPONSIVE DESIGN.  I know I am preaching it, so you better just start believing it.

With all these facts being thrown around, I would like to find out for myself what my reader's preferences are for viewing the web.  If you look to the right of this post you will see a survey asking, "What device do you user most often to view the web?" It would good to see if these stats and facts are true. If you scroll down, you will also find that I have added links for your convenience to subscribe to my blog, or share it on your favorite social media platform.

If you can think of any other great videos or infographics, feel free to post a link. By the way, infographics are another form of media that is growing in popularity on the web also. Why? Because they display a lot of information quickly, are visually pleasing, and keep the viewer hooked until the end.  Many are also optimized to be viewed on mobile devices. I am definitely a strong supporter of infographics.