Engage your plan members with mobile technology
Of the seven billion people on this planet, two billion are connected to the Internet, six billion use mobile technology, and one billion have smartphones. From these statistics, it’s hard to imagine a world where mobile technology won’t be a part of the way providers and plan sponsors communicate and connect with their members.
In the world of benefits and pension plans, these statistics represent an opportunity for those who are interested in building a stronger social and mobile presence. If the industry is willing to think ahead, stay focused and persevere, it can positively improve the user experience and increase plan members’ knowledge and influence their behaviour patterns.
Since the early 1990s, websites have been developed as a cost-effective way to distribute information to the public. Increasingly, it became mainstream in the late 1990s for service providers, advisors and plan sponsors to populate websites with content and resources targeted at plan members. Brimming with data, a plethora of websites surfaced with ways for employees to increase their financial literacy, access claims forms and learn about the benefits of healthcare spending accounts. The problem isn’t the lack of content. The problem is plan members’ lack of interest and motivation to go to a website and stay long enough to find the content relevant, useful and memorable.
Those who owned a mobile phone before 2007 couldn’t easily view web content from their device. When the iPhone made its debut, web pages were finally worth reading on the device that was always with them: their phone. In the years since then, mobile players have added powerful mobile browsers to their offerings and everyone, independent of device brand, can now access web information at their most convenient time and location. The addition of larger form factor devices (think size of screen) has further improved viewability to the point where modern tablets are replacing desktops and laptops completely. Given the progression, there is a compelling need to change the design of websites to optimize them for smartphones and for tablets.
Designing Mobile
With the global PC markets showing significant rates of contraction (according to International Data Corporation, worldwide PC shipments were down 13.9% in Q1 2013, compared to Q1 2012), smartphone and tablet use is skyrocketing, and this trend is crossing all demographics. If, as a plan sponsor or provider, you haven’t begun to consider designing for mobile, it’s time to start.
For some providers and sponsors, the idea of designing for mobile seems daunting, but it doesn’t have to be that way. There are many ways to approach mobile-optimized experiences for plan members. This varies from simply improving the look of your existing website to creating native apps for each major mobile device. The right answer depends on your site’s present state, your audience and the availability of technical resources—and, of course, your budget.
It helps to regularly review the current state of your website. The simplest and cheapest approach is to alter the design of your existing site to make it render better on a small screen—it doesn’t mean you have to develop a new website. If you have a busy home page, it may be time to revisit and unclutter it. You’ll also want to ensure that touch targets—elements that you want plan members to click on—are simple. Keep enough space between stories and ample space between links. Make it easy for users to view content on a small screen, and provide room for chubby fingers to have an easy tap experience.
Take a good look at your website. Does it have dense interfaces? If you think about the need for focus and simplicity, you’ll likely want to make these changes even if mobile optimization wasn’t on your radar. The good news is that refreshing your website doesn’t require a big spend, as you’re not reprogramming or testing for all the new devices. Simply review your site with the most popular devices used by your audience. If you find your designers have used coding techniques or technologies (e.g., Adobe Flash Player for interactive media content), you’ll have to factor these out of your website by using alternatives that work in the mobile world.
At the other end of the spectrum is developing native apps for mobile devices. As of early May 2013, the Apple iOS platform hit its 50 billionth download. There’s no denying that users do love apps. While building apps is a large development effort, it is the best strategy if the ultimate user experience is critical to your success. Better usability, managing complex applications easily, better security and taking the best advantage of the features of a particular device are leading deciders to creating a native app. Which devices and platforms to target is another consideration. Here, knowing your audience and biting off this objective into pieces is the best approach.
Alternatives in between looking at your website and developing native apps for mobile devices include building a true mobile-aware website.
This method is growing in popularity for being less expensive than building a suite of native apps but still creates a much better mobile experience by having your website make significant adaptations depending on the device being used to view the site.
Mashable (a website for top social media news) has called 2013 the “year of responsive web design” (RWD), which creates a better viewing experience by detecting the mobile device size and the type you’re running on and renders to optimize for the smartphone, tablet or operating system you’re using. No longer is there a need to tap or scroll; RWD resizes, pans and scrolls automatically. If you’re doing a major refresh of your website, consider RWD, as it can greatly enhance plan members’ experience. Users will be able to focus on the content and the message rather than being distracted by the challenges of navigating the web pages from their mobile device.
The compromise with this method is that it does add significant effort to the building and testing of the website, as all target devices need to be thoroughly designed, and reviewed, for quality. Many major websites have gone down this path but ended up with a result that didn’t measure up to being the best mobile experience. Lagging response times and compromised features are common attributes of a less than successful attempt. At Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company wasted two years with this strategy before finally deciding to focus on native applications. Still, this method can be more efficient if the ultimate user experience is less important than the budget, and it avoids having to deal with platform app stores.
What is best for your company depends on where your web presence is today, what backend services are available for consumption and your access to technical resources with the relevant skills. When considering mobile-optimized websites or the development of native apps, you also need to be mindful of the availability of technical and financial resources. Regardless of the level you are at with your website design, it’s important to think about the audience, the message and the goals. Even when you’re using an engaging medium, the message more readily reaches plan members when it’s authentic, relevant and memorable.
Susan D. Cranston is assistant vice-president, marketing promotions and communication, group benefits and group retirement solutions, with Manulife Financial. susan_cranston@manulife.com
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