On the 19th of November we were fortunate to partner with The Movember Foundation to host a fantastic panel of mobile experts with knowledge that ranged across development, user experience, engagement, acquisition and design.

Held at The Kelvin Club, Mo’s & Mobiles: Growing & Cultivating Mobile Customer Engagement was under the trusty guide of Josh Guest from b2cloud and we heard from our panel of Alice Porter, ANZ; James Noble Carter Digital; David Smith, Movember Foundation; and Mark Oliver, Tigerspike followed by audience Q&A.

Some of the questions that featured were:

What has shifted to make mobile such a focus?
When should an organisation focus on responsive web, mobile web and native?
In your experience what are some effective ways to drive traffic to a mobile app?
Should there be apps focused specifically those with accessibility needs, or should all apps be accessible?
What does UX mean to you, and why is UX so important on mobile?
What do you see the biggest trends in mobile being in 2015?

Among the many great insights delivered by the panel, the stand out questions were those surrounding accessibility, responsive web and future trends.

For me the topic of accessibility was a really interesting one and it was great to hear the various viewpoints especially in light of the recent case against Coles Supermarkets. A good point that was to think accessibility first and design the mobile experience with this as the main focus. This would therefore meet the needs of those with accessibility challenges and more likely than not provide a good experience for those without this barrier.

When discussing the benefits of using responsive vs. mobile vs. native app there were intriguing points and cases made for and against each, all valid and warranted but what stuck out for me was Mark from Tigerspike’s suggestion of testing the waters with responsive and using this as a chance to collect data to help direct the approach going forward.

What is in store for mobile in 2015 according to our experts? There was talk of mobile payments still needing to flip the switch, better accessibility and the continued emergence of beacons and micro location-based technology.

What really hit home at the end of it all was that mobile is such a hot topic with so many layers and depth, as a result we were unable to finish all the questions we wanted but have managed to get those and additional ones answered by the panel here for further reading.

We also had the legendary team from 90seconds TV film the event and create a recap video which can be viewed above.

Author

Matt Smith works in MitchelLake’s Melbourne office and leads the Australian team for MitchelLake Consulting, working with an awesome team of humans who source talent across emerging technology, experience and service design, product, digital marketing, growth, data science and analytics.

Matt’s domain expertise leans towards hiring senior roles in experience and design and he enjoys the balance of working with fast growth, early stage organisations and larger scale companies going through digital transformation and the unique challenges they both bring.

Originally from New Zealand, Matt spent time living in the UK before moving to Melbourne where he enjoys playing basketball, rearing indoor plants and incredible access to some of the world’s best coffee.