This is how Professor Ad Man looks on a smart phone.


You can hold it vertically or horizontally, but the one thing I hope you quickly realize is that this is not a mobile site. Just because your phone can read it it, doesn't make it a mobile site.

You're going to have to expand pages and scroll to check out the content. That's not a bad thing. The phone's ability to surf makes it a valuable marketing tool. It's a bad thing if you and your client believe this is an acceptable mobile experience for your audience.

A mobile site is designed to the specs of a phone's screen and usability. Meaning, the navigation and experience is contained to the screen with minimal scrolling and basically no need for expansion (unless you have poor eyesight).

For example, take a look at Lacoste. This is their web site:

Not only would this entire screen not fit on the phone, it would also be too small to navigate with the small icons above. Here's their mobile site:

Very simple. Fits on the screen. Large clickable buttons. An easy shopping and sharing experience. But this is a different site. Also, your mobile site shouldn't have all the bells and whistles of the regular site. It can't. Even with 4G, it's still a slower device than computers and tablets. No one will wait forever to download content on a phone.

Still the mobile site is valuable, because we are quickly approaching a time when the majority of us will do most of our surfing by phone. With younger audiences, African Americans and Latinos, many studies show we are already there.

So when you propose a digital experience, it's important to include mobile. I once read an article about a Coca-Cola executive wouldn't even look at a campaign if it didn't include mobile content.

It would be dumb to rely on a smartphone to create the content for you.