Almost every Mobile Operator, who are providing GPRS/Edge/3G etc services have their own mobile portal or they plan to have one as soon as possible. This operator mobile portal contributes a big part in that operator’s data service revenue. The user experience of this portal has to be very comfortable for the users. Otherwise the tendency of user visit will be reduced causing the drop in the revenue. Here in this article I will try to focus on some of my thoughts and planning which I have implemented in designing our (AKTEL, www.aktel.com) WAP portal (aktelspice.mobi). dotmobi guidelines helped me a lot and finally ready.mobi helped me to certify the portal standard.
Design Considerations
(a) Preparation of the Sitemap: Someone who is going to design the operator portal must at first finalize the overall sitemap of the portal. One operator can provide several types of services (news, downloads, weather, lifestyle, kidz Zone, Femal Zone etc) through their WAP portal. This is I think the most important before the development starts. When the sitemap is ready then work can be started.
(b) Graphics, Fonts & Color Scheme: Next step is entirely design related. One point to be noted is that: entire portal should maintain the same or similar design template (like Header Image, Icons, Navigation Style, Fonts and most importantly the color scheme) to generate a sense of branding.
And also there are some design considerations needs to be maintained which I will not focus in this article. But there are many guidelines in the net which you can go through.
User Experience Considerations:
(a) Bookmarking: The subscriber while visiting any Mobile Portal page should get the facility to bookmark that page. And later he or she should be able to access those bookmarked pages from a single location (Lets say from any link named My Favorites). This specific feature gives the user real comfort. Because the page he or she is interested in may be is Four Click down from the home page. So in the next visit that subscriber can reach the link in two clicks.
(b) Inboxing: Subscribers visit operator Mobile Portal and downloads several types of rich contents like wallpapers, ringtones, video clips, games etc. Most of the cases they pay both for the browsing as well as for the content. But the data network is not always consistent. Here in Bangladesh most of the customer dissatisfaction is caused by the fluctuating data (like GPRS/EDGE) network. Suppose any content of around 100KB will take some time to be downloaded into the requested terminal. Before the download starts the content price is deducted from the subscribers account. But it may happen that in the middle of the download the network is suddenly dropped. So the final result comes is: subscriber paid a handsome money but did not get the content. So this is why there comes the concept of providing an INBOX in the Mobile Portal where the subscriber may get the content links for the last 7 days (or whatever days the administrator think will be correct in their case). Most important point to be taken care of is: when the subscriber will re-download any content (for which he already paid earlier) from the inbox he or she must not be charged. But of course the operator is getting the browsing revenue. I think this feature will give the subscriber a great relief because it is better than nothing.
(c) Easier Access Mode: It is very important that the subscriber can easily remember the URL of the Operator Mobile Portal. This is logical and is recommended by W3C and dotmobi. But even then there comes the question to type that URL and browse. So it is also wise to provide the subscribers a short code and some keywords to access different portal pages. In case of aktelspice.mobi 8WAP(8927) is such short code. Subscribers just send different keywords (eg. email, weather, news, sports etc) in the message body and send to 8927. In reply they receives a WAP Push containing the URL of that specific portal page. They just click and visit that page directly. This gives the facility to any subscriber to reach any page in one click only. As this is a comfort to the subscriber so the subscriber may seta minimal charge for the MO (Mobile Originated) SMS. Then when this SMS based access mode is there the operator may put the portal page links in their USSD menu also. Believe me easy access mode increases portal hit.
(d) Be sorry the last ERROR: Errors may happen any time because no CODE is bullet proof. But sudden portal error creates a bad impression about the operator. But technically it is very easy to keep track of the errors and who (the MSISDN) faced the error. If the next time subscriber visits the portal and view a SORRY page saying something like Sorry that, you had got an error in your last visit. We want to give you a FREE content this time. Please click…to get it. then of course this will create very positive impression about this operator. And this will be a real positive user experience for this subscriber. So Why not take this chance.
End-to-end Interaction
(a) Subscriber Profiling: Subscribers can be requested to fill up a small form containing his email address, age group, gender, interest (eg. News, Sports or content downloads) or any other information that the operator things will be helpful for them to know and after they submit their information they can be provided a FREE content (eg. Wallpaper may be). The subscriber may be requested to fill these information when they try to visit any page but this should be one time. Meaning to say that once they fill up they should not be asked from the next time. This information set can be a great help for any operator.
(b) Subscriber Education: When an operator has a Mobile Portal then this can be used to educate their subscribers. Education about How to use a service (lets say how to access the portal pages using SMS request) may increase the service penetration. The education must not be boaring and continuous. But of course this is a channel through which the operator can reach its subscribers.
(c) Advertisement Channel: This is good concept and a HOT topic at this moment. Both the operator as well as the subscribers may be benefited using this Mobile Advertising. Please visit Mobile Advertising: New Revenue Earning Business Area for the operators for the detail understanding.
Backend Concentrations
(a) Data Compression: Customer First should be the main motto of an operator. Subscribers pay for the browsing in some operators. The more the data bytes the more the charge. Also the more the data size the more will be the download time. So if possible, the portal developer must include the feature to compress the data between the server and the terminal. Please go through the fantastic article “Fighting data cost” by John Arne which describes the data compression concept in detail.
(b) Service Monitoring: The portal planner should design some sort of alarming system so that if the system or the portal is down then he or she gets an automated SMS or emai to take necessary actions. This may also include checking database aliveness and other database related feedbacks.
Conclusion:
Planning and designing the Mobile Portal and the way it will be monitored will be varied from the planner to planner. Also it will be varied from the operator to the operator. But in this article I tried to write down some of my thoughts most of which I have implemented in aktelspice.mobi. This can be helpful for some readers.
Leave a Reply