Tablets, which approximately one-third of Americans now own, have forever changed the way we consume information and entertainment. Our Los Angeles web design firm finds it interesting that a number of studies have been devoted to one specific niche of tablet usage: using the tablet while watching television. According to a report from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom, more than half of viewers are now “media multitasking” while watching TV. The numbers are similar here in the states, with Nielsen reporting that 43% of tablet owners use their devices as “second screens” while watching TV. More than two-thirds of tablet users say they do this multiple times a week.
What does this mean for marketers?
What does this mean for businesses who market on the web? They need to consider how to market to the passively viewing consumer. People who browse on a mobile device while watching TV are dividing their attention between two competing mediums, and brand that are aiming to engage with them from the tablet have to work harder to win that competition. After all, the tablet screen is smaller!
Right now, it seems those brands have quite a ways to go. According to Nielsen, only 20% of tablet users are buying a product or service while media multitasking (and typically, it is a brand they see advertised on TV). Activities such as visiting social media sites (53%) and looking up plotlines of the shows they are viewing (49%) beat out shopping for products and services by a longshot. So, what can brands do to capture the media multitasking audience more effectively?
Make the design of your tablet-friendly site more viewer-friendly.
Mobile sites can be made more user-friendly because of responsive web design, but they also need to be optimized for tablet viewing. Fortunately, some of the best practices for tablet-friendly design are also applicable to designing a site that is friendly for media multitaskers. For example, you can make your touch targets (such as buttons and links) larger for the fingers of users. If a user is already dividing his attention between the tablet and the TV, he needs touch points that are easily accessible in order to navigate the site. For this reason, some experts recommend enlarging touch targets to somewhere between 45 and 57 pixels on mobile sites. If you employ a high end web design firm, they can recommend the best size of the touch points for your tablet-friendly website.
Another one of the best practices for tablet-friendly design is implementing a contextual keyboard. For example, if your contact form has an input field that asks users for an email address and phone number, you can include a keyboard with all the characters they need: letters, numbers, the ‘@’ symbol, underscores and hyphens. Users who are viewing their tablets while watching TV are bound to appreciate this, because it doesn’t require enlarging the screen to type out their contact information. Little details like these make a big difference toward holding consumers’ attention.
Tablet-friendly design is more important than ever.
With so many Americans now browsing their tablets while engaging in other passive activities, it is incumbent upon marketers to make their mobile websites more tablet-friendly. To speak with a high end web design firm that can implement the best practices for tablet-friendly design, contact the Los Angeles web design professionals at Crest Media.
No comments yet