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Mobile web usage in U.S. growing dramatically
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Mobile website usage has grown larger than many researchers imagined possible. Las year mobile devices downloaded 10 billion gigabytes of data. That’s like every man, woman, and child downloading more than 31 gigabytes each, or enough data to fit on more than 6 DVDs. That’s a lot of data per person. Considering that some part of the population, such as newborns babies are not yet downloading data, this means that others are more than making up the slack and downloading enormous amounts of data.
While the amount of data being consumed is large, it’s also growing at a significant pace of more than 125% year over year, which is five-fold increase in mobile data consumption from the previous year. These types of changes make learning UX design more important than ever.
The increase in mobile data consumption appears to be driven in part by users that are only using mobile Internet connectivity for personal use. This is coupled with users becoming comfortable watching and streaming long-form video on small form-factor devices such as smart phones. In fact, on most evenings more than half of the traffic across the Internet in the U.S. is digital video consumption according to research firm Sandvine. Online mobile usage has pushed spending on mobile devices along with related data and phone services to new heights. Last year the total revenue for mobile carriers in the United States has increased to approximately $200 million.
Case for Responsive Design
With Americans spending so much time on their phones, consuming such a vast amount of data, it becomes clear that websites built for mobile devices are essential and not optional. Learning responsive web design has become essential for web designers and web developers. Users expect to be able to access and navigate a website easily on smartphones. Responsive web design makes this possible.
Importance of Web Analytics
With 10 billion gigabytes of data being consumed on mobile devices, it’s useful for site owners to understand what content is being viewed along with the level of engagement. Designers and developers need to learn Google Analytics or other web analytics tools makes it possible for organizations to understand more than what content is popular, but also who is consuming the content. By understanding the devices and web browsers being used, sites can be tested and optimized based upon users’ needs.
About the author
Christopher Smith is president of American Graphics Institute. He is the co-author of Adobe Creative Cloud for Dummies and more than 10 other books on design and digital publishing. He served as publisher and editor of the Digital Classroom book series, which has sold more than one million books on topics relating to InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro and other Creative Cloud apps. At American Graphics Institute, he provides strategic technology consulting to marketing professionals, publishers designers, and large technology companies including Google, Apple, Microsoft, and HP. An expert on web analytics and digital marketing, he also delivers Google Analytics classes along with workshops on digital marketing topics. Christopher did his undergraduate studies the at the University of Minnesota, and then worked for Quark, Inc. prior to joining American Graphics Institute where he has worked for more than 20 years.