Mobilising big brands properly - how one size does not fit all

The Site: EntertainmentAfrica.com is South Africa's definitive guide to local and worldwide entertainment. It boasts an unrivalled repository of unique editorial, audio and video content and features not only extensive music and movie coverage, but games, gadgets, events, gossip, charts, movie schedules as well as exclusive competitions. The site is the largest of its kind in South Africa, and boasts an average of 50 new stories and features being written and published daily and a repository of over one million pieces of content.

Why Mobilise?
The meteoric rise of African's accessing the internet using their cellphone presented EntertainmentAfrica.com with a large untapped audience who are starved of African and International entertainment related content. The very nature of the content coverage on EntertainmentAfrica.com which spans a large variety entertainment genres, appeals to people of all ages and diversity who are increasingly accessing their information ‘on the go' via their mobile handsets 24/7.

The Prezence Mobi Approach
The general misnomer is that mobile sites have to be cut down versions of their online counterparts. With the development of EntertainmentAfrica.mobi, Prezence has proved that with the very latest in technological knowhow, coupled with extensive mobile user-experience expertise, comprehensive mobi sites can be developed to easily rival, and often out-perform, their online counterparts.

The biggest challenge of developing a comprehensive mobi version of a well known brand or online publishing property is the need for making the mobi version a recognisable brand experience within the constraints of the smaller browser size and the limited navigation tools available on a cellphone.

Taking a well known online property such as EntertainmentAfrica.com into the mobile space, therefore comes with its own set of extra challenges. The approach needed to take into account the existing personality, flavour and flow of the online counterpart, providing a seamless transition for any user accessing EntertainmentAfrica.com via their cellphone or online.

The similarities between the two properties need to be a lot more sophisticated than simple design cues, so it was incredibly important when developing EntertainmentAfrica.mobi that the structure and user flow of the site's comprehensive features were retained. Natural content relationships, search and ‘you might like' functions within the music, movies, games, gadgets and events sections also needed to be applied to the mobi version within very limited screen ‘real estate'.

The Prezence approach to Mobi user experience design is similar to how someone might organise themselves at a very small desk. Firstly, they ensure that the essentials such as their 'screen and keyboard' are directly accessible in front of them. Then they ensure that their ‘coffee cup', ‘phone' and ‘pen' are close to hand. From there, the development team continue to work outwards in concentric circular zones, with the less used items still reachable but on the periphery, but always ensuring that the user's workspace is kept very tidy and key information in view.

In order to ensure effective usability on EntertainmentAfrica.mobi,, Prezence needed to ensure that the small ‘desk space' optimally positioned all of the essentials to be just as effective and accessible as the online version. This approach is vital when working with all mobile deployments and requires extensive user-experience expertise within the Prezence development team as well as a comprehensive understanding of the brand or property being deployed.

Further adding to the challenge of advanced mobi development is that there are currently over 5500 mobile handsets and portable devices in the market, each with a variety of features, capabilities and a multitude of possible screen sizes. Handset Content Adaptation is therefore a vital layer in the Prezence Mobi development process and, unfortunately, a step missed by most mobi developers. Prezence have been fine-tuning this highly specialised methodology over the past four years. It enables them to instantly recognise the browser's phone, and then render infinite different versions of the mobi site automatically in order to display perfectly on the individual user's handset regardless of screen size or phone capability.

Handset Content Adaptation enables the perfect visual experience and prevents any ‘dead-ends' for the user by automatically hiding any features that their phones cannot handle, as well as enabling advanced features for those mobile handsets which are more sophisticated . Prezence also build all of their mobi sites with strong future-proof elements to cater for larger screen sizes and capabilities not yet released by manufacturers. Ultimately, through this sophisticated methodology, Prezence are able to individually tailor the mobi site experience specifically to the user's browsing handset whatever it might be. In essence, every mobi site they develop has approximately 300 possible iterations (and growing). One size certainly does not fit all!

Touch-enabled phone enhancement is also being catered for by automatically enabling better spacing and larger clickable areas for ‘big fingers' as well as GPS positioning and mapping capabilities, both of which are currently being employed on prezence.mobi and will be ported to entertainmenafrica.mobi soon.

How Mobilising has enhanced EntertainmentAfrica's offering
EntertainmentAfrica.mobi now offers a content hungry African market 24-7 access to breaking entertainment news and information on the go.

News and entertainment content is updated in real time, providing users with fast access to breaking entertainment news and celebrity stories. This breaking news is supported with a wealth of in-depth information not available on any other news or mobi site in South Africa.

EntertainmentAfrica.mobi effectively now services two very distinct target markets, with considerable overlap: those looking for quick ‘snacking' entertainment information and breaking news; and those ‘aficionados' wanting to find out a lot more from the huge entertainment information repository. EntertainmentAfrica.mobi has now opened up to a potential 12 million more South African users and many millions more in Africa regardless of what mobile device they have, a figure that is growing rapidly. In South Africa, Mobi outstrips online 2:1.

What's to come
The ability for streaming music and video to be played via Entertainment Africa.mobi across a variety of compatible handsets already exists within the system and will be deployed when permission is granted from the respective content owners. Prezence's comprehensive CRM profiling tools will also be plugged in shortly, enabling users to automatically customise their view and user experience on EntertainmentAfrica.mobi based on their entertainment taste preferences. Geo-location and enhanced user-generated features currently being added to the online portal has undergone substantial redevelopment will also be deployed to the mobi site to enable users to write their own reviews, comments and editorial from their mobile device.

In Closing
EntertainmentAfrica.mobi has raised the bar considerably for mobile portals and has already achieved the accolade of being showcased at ‘dotmobi' (the organisation tasked with the promotion of outstanding mobile development). The new portal provides a comprehensive mobile experience, supported by over a million pieces of informative content.

EntertainmentAfrica.mobi is making a very bold statement in proving that mobi can rival web, and has helped define a new benchmark for a quality content mobile portal development in South Africa.

Mobi development is highly specialised and encompasses multiple advanced technologies, user experience methodologies and dedicated R&D. What's more, it evolves all the time. Brand owners need to be cogniscent of their agency's accreditation if they wish to achieve cutting edge mobi sites which deliver the ultimate user experience. Mobi sites are not small, cut down versions of a website.

Mobi development is the future in Africa (more so than anywhere else) and Prezence is committed to working with brands and agencies to help make South Africa a leading force in Mobi development. Look out for EMI music, Seventeen Magazine and Eye Witness News mobi sites launching very soon.