The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/27607
BEST PRACTICES • Talk to Your IT Department – Find out what device(s) your firm uses and supports, as well as what devices IT is asked to support, but doesn’t. This will help you understand what your colleagues are using and how they’ll be viewing your mobile website. • Understand Your Audience – Research your current website statistics. You will be able to examine mobile device usage on your website, including usage per section. Use this to determine how to tailor your mobile website to meet your most active mobile visitors’ needs. “Make sure you are always balancing the need for content with ease-of-navigation, so you provide a content-rich and easy-to-search experience for your users.” • Research and Understand the End User Experience – Take the time to browse your website on a variety of mobile devices, including a tablet. Make sure you are researching the experience your customers and prospects will have as they visit your mobile website. You can also use emulator software to view and test the iPad or iPod experience via the Web. However, for ongoing testing, it is better to use the actual devices. • Balance – Examine the onscreen content that your visitors will want and determine how many page clicks it takes to get to that information. Make sure you are always balancing the need for content with ease-of-navigation, so you provide a content-rich and easy-to-search experience for your users. 18 www.iltanet.org Peer to Peer • How to Think Small – When it comes to mobile websites, you need to remember to think small. Consider memory and screen size limitations for devices when planning content and layout. Think about data plan overages and the possibility of providing caching. As a consideration to your visitors, divide lengthy articles into multiple smaller pages and compress videos. There is no escaping the fact that your customers and prospects will increasingly come to your website through a mobile device, rather than a laptop or desktop computer. Forward-thinking law firms are taking the necessary steps to make their websites mobile-friendly and readable on a variety of popular devices. Legal marketers need to consider how to move forward with a mobile-ready website when reviewing their online marketing budget for 2011. This is a big undertaking, but one that will keep your firm’s website accessible to the increasing group of on-the-go customers and clients. ILTA Alicia Russman is the Director of Creative Services for Hubbard One, the premier provider of marketing and business development solutions for law firms. In this role, she’s responsible for the delivery of strategic interactive web solutions for law firm clients. Prior to joining Hubbard One, Alicia spent five years as the Assistant Director of Marketing for a large, global law firm, where she oversaw the firm’s marketing technology and communications. Alicia also served as Creative Manager for MCI WorldCom and spent several years in creative and marketing management roles in the architecture and engineering industries. She can be reached at alicia.russman@thomsonreuters.com. Jeff Hirner is the Services Director for Hubbard One, the premier provider of marketing and business development solutions for law firms. Jeff manages Hubbard One’s technology services, client services operations, and international services operations. He has more than 8 years of experience in managing and overseeing the delivery of complex website and business development solutions to large law firms. Prior to joining Hubbard One, Jeff was a senior consultant in the financial services segment at Accenture. He can be reached at jeff.hirner@thomsonreuters.com.