“Mobile devices are literally everywhere,” began Michael Wiggins in his recent talk with Zillow employees. “Sometimes in terrifying ways.”
Every time you search or visit a website on your smartphone or tablet, you have an experience with a service or brand. Unfortunately, those experiences are not created equal.
“Too many companies are sending customers to experiences that are frustrating and confusing,” he said. “There’s an opportunity to build trust with customers. You don’t want to squander that.”
As Google’s global product expert for mobile, Wiggins has gleaned a few best practices when it comes to connecting with users on the devices they use most.
Curious what he had to say? Here are 15 quick tips Wiggins shared at Zillow’s Seattle headquarters:
- Optimize your entire site for mobile.
- Keep calls to action front and center.
- Keep menus short and sweet.
- Make it easy to get back to the homepage.
- Don’t make users hit the “back” button 10 times to restart.
- Don’t bury the search function on your site.
- Use auto-complete for a smarter search experience.
- Ensure search results are relevant.
- Implement filters to narrow search results.
- Don’t allow filtering down to zero search results.
- Let users explore before they commit.
- Allow users to pick up where they left off when they switch devices.
- Streamline information entry with efficient online forms.
- Be clear about why you need a user’s location.
- Don’t let promotions steal the show.
To hear more speakers like Wiggins in person, check out Zillow’s job page; we’re hiring!
Photo: Adam Cohn
Recent speakers include:
- Jane Park, Julep Founder & CEO
- Christian Chabot, Tableau Software CEO & Co-Founder
- Arianna Huffington, Huffington Post Media Group Chair, President & Editor-in-Chief
See all Zillow Speaker Series guests here.