Mobile Content — A Monitoring Challenge.

One of the most important differences between mobile and desktop-based Web content is the need for mobile content to be tailored for the various characteristics and capabilities of a particular device. This added level of complexity affects development of monitoring strategies, and it must be taken seriously in order to truly understand how the full spectrum of end users accessing mobile content will experience it.

Clearly this expansion of the scope of content monitoring is one of the major differentiators from a  desktop-based Web monitoring strategy. With literally hundreds of device types in circulation and more coming on the market each day, attempting to understand the end-user experience by manually testing content on each device is cost—and time—prohibitive; automated monitoring strategies are required.

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Managing the mobile end-user experience with mobile monitoring

Measuring performance is not a new concept to mobile either. However, until recently performance in mobile has been synonymous with voice quality. When network coverage and dropped calls were the only metrics that mattered, it wasn’t surprising that mobile performance monitoring was mostly a concern for the mobile network operators. Data performance was less of a concern when mobile content, applications, and services took a backseat to voice. However, with the mass consumer popularity of advanced smartphones and SMS, the accurate delivery of content, applications, and service over mobile data networks has become increasingly important to content owners.

Companies with a more mature Web presence are now embracing mobile channels and making them a key part of their growth strategy. However, for companies making the move from Web to mobile it is important to understand that performance-monitoring solutions that worked on the Web cannot be simply applied to mobile. Managing the mobile end-user experience requires an understanding of how it’s different from the Web end-user experience

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User Expectations and Mobile Performance

Performance is critical for this mobile portal. Explained a company executive, “End users are accustomed to high speed downloads when they access our Web site from their personal computers. However, mobile
connections have long offered slower response times. While newer 3G networks offer larger pipelines
that enable quicker response times, many end users still use older devices and are unable to download
mobile sites quickly. This can leave them frustrated with our service— and can ultimately harm our brand.”

Because of the disconnect between user expectations and mobile performance, it is critical for the company to monitor the performance of its mobile site and fix problems quickly to ensure that it offers the best performance
possible.

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Improve Performance Of Third-Party Components

A slick-looking Web site is ultimately of limited effectiveness if all of the its bells and whistles are an impediment to system performance. Hence, the monitoring of system performance at the end-user/UI level is extremely important to ensuring a consistently excellent user experience. By using the proper website performance tools in a targeted manner, both business managers and developers can effectively monitor the impact of third-party performance both on the individual component level and in the aggregate.

The more complex your Web site is, the more likely it is that its performance – and possibly your profit margin - is in the hands of third parties and their components running on your site. Ideally, we want to improve the performance of these third-party components (aka “widgets”), so that a page loads just as fast with these widgets as without them.

If you are the owner of the Web site, there are at least two ways to improve overall site performance. One is to optimize the Web site itself for each widget so that those widgets running on the page will be more efficient, a method that is not cost-efficient. The other, more cost-effective option is to use continuous and focused website performance monitoring. Breaking down performance by time and by component category allows you to pinpoint the components that adversely impact Web site performance. 

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