Speaking of being overwhelmed, I really meant to blog about Alatto a few months ago. Nothing to do with the fact that their corporate blog (this is a good initiative, guys) claimed that my blog was the best on mobile
But prompted by a really excellent analysis of mobile phone navigation and usability at The Feature by Alatto’s CEO, Neil Flanagan, I thought I’d better take another look.

The point Neil makes so eloquently (I really recommend you take a moment and read The Feature’s article) is that most navigation for websites viewed on mobile phones, is based on the principles of web pages designed for viewing on a PC. Clearly, the usability issues and experience are entirely different, meaning that browsing via WAP is cumbersome, at best.

It actually is testament to the power of WAP that people are prepared to ignore these usability issues and still use it (1.82 page impressions a month in the UK now). It’s the same as SMS - you couldn’t have designed a less usable messaging system for phones if you’d really tried.

Neil also looks at some rules, which if you have anything to do with WAP page design should be carved into your forehead in mirror writing, so you’re reminded of them before you start work every day.

- If anything takes more than 4 clicks on a mobile, it probably isn’t going to happen.
- 10% of mobile content gets 80% of hits. The long tail doesn’t get traffic via hierarchical navigation.
- People can’t/won’t change their phone settings.
- Usability issues don’t go away because you have faster access.

Neil also points out that some companies have tried to make the site navigation more understandable by publishing little maps of the sites. Can you imagine having to follow a paper-based map to successfully navigate a web based site? If websites were that difficult to use, I’m not sure the web would ever have taken off at all.

So what happens if you look at navigation for WAP using the limitations of a mobile, but from a completely fresh perspective? If you abandon hierarchical navigation altogether, one solution certainly looks a lot like Alatto’ Tribes product, which they license to mobile operators.

So effective is Tribes that they claim it doubles data traffic, as browsing explodes among the target audience. So what’s it all about?

The basic approach is to encourage content snacking. In other words, people have their mobile and want to do cool stuff with it. This includes discovering new content. But WAP isn’t much fun to use, to the point of actually being pretty boring. So you might use it for functional stuff - what time’s the next train? is my flight delayed? but rarely just for the hell of it, like you would on your PC.

Also note that successful mobile phone applications involve the ability to dip in and out, as you go about doing other things. In the past, I’ve called this mobile sushi, in comparison to turkey and all the trimmings feast that the PC browsing experience can be.

Tribes promotes this behaviour by working with three key features:

1. Smart Navigation

The more you use it, the better it understands the sorts of content you like. This means that this type of content will be more readily presented to you and makes it easier to discover.

It claims to be able to also present content according to your mood and time of day.

The basis of this is that for each site it sends you, you’re invited to give it a rating (a simple choice between “cool” and “fool”).

2. Content Preferencing

Artificial Intelligence uses weighted collaborative recommendations to match the user’s needs.

3. Viral

The phone is, above all, a communication device. They’ve built a viral element into the heart of Tribes, meaning that users can share sites they like, with their friends/family, vote on favourites and even write reviews.

A simple couple of clicks enables you to send an sms with a site’s link to a friend, if you think they’ll like a site. On receipt of the SMS, the user simply clicks on the link and goes straight to the site in question. She then gets a chance to rate it and so Tribes starts to learn her tastes too.

The result, in my view, is about 1000% improvement in navigation, from the look of it. I haven’t played with it in the wild on a phone, but it looks like it’s an entirely new user experience. And well overdue it is too.

Now the challenge is for all of us to optimise our websites for the WAP user, which is going to keep a lot of people very busy for the next few years.

Russell
PS Sorry about the truly execrable pun in the headline. I just couldn’t resist it.

UPDATE: John Whelan of Alatto says that Tribes is curently giving one operator average user sessions of 48 pages. Impressive!