Ad Gab: Design with Mobile in Mind

 It has to start somewhere. It has to start some time. What better place than here? What better time than now?
 You're listening to the Radcast. If it's radical, we cover it. Here's your host, Ryan Alford.
 Hey guys, what's up? Wake welcome to the latest edition of the Radcast. This is the AdGab edition. I'm joined as always by Mr. Josh Hill. What's up Josh? Hello, hello, hello. Welcome to AdGab episode something.
 We've done them a few now, you know. It means you can't keep up and the numbers don't matter. It's the content matters.
 Living in the moment of AdGab. Living in the moment. Today it's an important topic. I have been on a soapbox about this. So I practice what I preach people. I practice what I preach.
 Josh can attest to this. I've been on this with even ourselves, our development teams, like everyone thinking mobile.
 We are in the, as I used Josh's phrase earlier, golden age of mobile, if you call it because we finally have gotten to this ubiquitous place where everyone's
 care to smartphone or almost everyone, you have high speed internet all the time between Wi-Fi and 4G networks, 5G networks, depending on where you're at. We're lagging here in Greenville, South Carolina a bit on the 5G, but it's coming soon enough.
 And we have to be thinking about mobile first. And so I think it's extremely important. I think yes, we were joking, pretty episode. It felt like a 2012 blog post, but the reality is enough brands, people and content creators.
 And I'm not talking about the 19 year olds because they're well ahead of everyone, but everyone else out there. We're not thinking enough in that mobile mindset.
 No, definitely not. A lot of people are still just lagging. It's still like the TV commercial or the TV sides, this thinking that that horizontal landscape, you know, and not thinking vertically with the phone with the way we were holding it.
 And it really covers more than that. So let's talk first, specifically Josh, about how people should be designing or thinking about mobile first content.
 Yeah, so I mean, content is kind of a lot of times what comes first. And especially when thinking in social media or content for your website, I know a lot of people are designing on desktops, they're on, they're on their laptop, they're on their second monitor, and they've got it blown up.
 And like, oh, yeah, I can read this. It's like, no, you probably should be making your, if you're on your desktop, your graphic design should probably be this small on your laptop.
 Like, you know, hold your phone up to your screen, like literally pick it up and say, can I still read this without having to zoom in? Can I read this out of glance too?
 I see a lot of people are doing that. I come across Instagram feeds from like businesses all the time, where it's like, I'm not going to take the time to zoom in. And if it's a story, I can't, you can't zoom in.
 Yeah, I'm not going to screenshot it, open my photos and get that. And the other one is either with it not being large enough, right enough.
 Or the image that you've chosen, being in the background that blurs out the copy or half of it. Yeah, I'm really into the reading this copy. You've got my attention for the five seconds. I'm reading that line.
 And I can't read it because it's over an image or something, and I didn't optimize for that experience.
 Yeah. And I see, I see on websites too, it'll be this huge, beautiful photo. If you're on your, if you're on your laptop, you're on your desktop.
 And then you open on your phone, they try to use the same image. And it's like tiny. And it's like, I don't even know what that is.
 Exactly. What are other ways people should be thinking about mobile first content?
 I'd say vertical video. I don't, I'm seeing a lot of people still shooting horizontal video. And then it's only taking up like a fraction of your screen.
 Yeah, it doesn't look right. It looks weird now because there's because companies have already joined in our doing vertical video. And like that, that just means people are going to expect that now.
 Yeah, the whole like expecting people to turn their phone on their side thing is over. Like unless you're on YouTube, that's the only place or maybe Netflix if you're traveling.
 Yep. Well, you know, you're going to watch something for 20, 30 minutes or 15, whatever that is. Yeah.
 But those incident experiences, those moments kind of come and go where you're kind of watching it, you're expecting an experience.
 And you know, I think with TikTok and everything else, people are getting used to that. But I think the key here is that that content that you're producing at a higher level.
 It needs, there's nothing that drives me crazy. And we've done this ourselves. We're guilty of it, but we're getting better. We're getting better.
 But you've produced this beautiful video. And then you've tried to crop it in for vertical.
 Yeah. And it's so obvious that you did that. It's like, oh, one minute, you're up on somebody's nostril the next minute. It's like there's seven miles away.
 Yeah. It's so obvious that you've tried. You've shared it as vertical, but it wasn't filmed appropriately for that.
 Yeah. I mean, maybe if you need to mark it on your viewfinder or something, maybe shoot it to where it fits for both and then crop it for both later or just re-shoot it.
 No one's going to go back and watch side by side and try to find the difference.
 So there's so many platforms. You've got TikTok, Stories, Reels, IGTV, all these opportunities for that vertical experience. And even the other chance linked in others, it still will work.
 Yeah. It's almost like think vertical first, think mobile first, then work your way into horizontal is needed. Because unless it's on a television screen, and then it's a connective TV ad or maybe obviously a TV commercial.
 But again, eyes are on mobile. They're in the mobile phone all day in a vertical perspective.
 Yeah. And I think on the side note, you don't have to shoot a 4K video vertical. You can shoot it on your iPhone.
 Because I mean, we've seen a lot of TV ads that are shot on iPhone, literally the shot on iPhone.
 And then Google is showing vertical stuff on TV commercials. Yeah. You'll see it with stuff on the sides now. They just show it.
 It's normal. It's here. It's been normal. And I think it's important to remember like Reels and IGTV will show up in your feed.
 So like it's still even more places where vertical works.
 So landing pages, websites, et cetera. Let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. You want to make it make sense on mobile. It sounds easy, but people don't do it.
 You want your loading speed. Check your loading speed on mobile. Don't like you can check it on desktop too, but like it'll look great on desktop. And then mobile takes 10 years.
 And that's the shortest time span you have is when you're on a mobile device. Yeah. That is a big one. And you know, develop with mobile and ID.
 Look at mobile first when you do a landing page or a full website start with mobile. You know, you'd be surprised that the number of development groups out there, other people that still all start desktop.
 And it looks beautiful because hey, everyone working in that corporate or agency environment is on their laptop or on their big iMac screen. And it looks beautiful.
 Yes. And so you have to really condition yourself to start with that mobile experience in mind and then work your way out.
 And that's a big piece of advice for you business owners and people who are approving websites that may be a different company is making for you.
 Like don't approve anything until you've seen the mobile version. Like check that out. Almost like I would check that out first.
 We've standardized it now literally where we are sharing desktop and mobile at the exact same time when we share concepts.
 We're sending them together so the clients see it. They may not even know to ask for it, but we want them to see it because it's important.
 Because it's not only where most of you know, 80% of traffic is coming through mobile on many of the industries.
 Some of your industries are unique, but you've got to build it for the traffic that you're getting.
 Definitely. And also part of that you want to think of your navigation, make your buttons chunky.
 You should not have to zoom in to hit a button like you should be able to like touch it immediately, get it easily.
 And also keep in mind your pop-ups because nowadays you kind of have to have that pop-up of like people think, oh, like get 10% off your first order.
 It's like it's just one pop-up. No, it's you're getting that you're getting the do you want to accept cookies one.
 And then like all of a sudden you're at two. Sometimes people have a messenger one pop-up.
 And if I'm on my phone, I don't want to have to click through four X's to get to what I'm trying to find.
 Yeah.
 So definitely keep that in mind. Put it in a banner if you can. Put it easily accessible, but not like a like you want to be just kind of aware.
 Like I know it's really effective, but I think you need to be aware of how much is like inhibiting the like the journey.
 Yeah. And you think about it from your website. Josh just said it, but think about images, text, buttons, content and videos.
 How they play when you click on them within it because there's nothing. Sometimes they'll have it all right.
 Yeah.
 And then you click on a video and it's tiny or it's like you cut off or something like the video player doesn't optimize for mobile.
 Yeah.
 Yeah. So you got to think about the entire experience. Yeah. You really want to ask yourself like is this providing information or isn't making a better experience.
 If it's if it's just working, if it's just to look pretty and it's like taking away from the other side aspects of it, it should probably cut it like I know it hurts.
 I know you worked really hard on that video. That little beautiful graphic, but if it's taking away from the experience, it's better to let it go.
 Cool. That's your 10 minute ad gab on the golden age of mobile and how to take advantage of it.
 Josh always a pleasure. Yeah. Happy to be here.
 All right, guys. We'll see you next time. You know where to find us the radcast.com. I'm at Ryan offered and you've got at Josh chill on Instagram.
 We'll see you next time.
 Peace.
 Yo, guys. What's up, Ryan offered here. Thanks so much for listening. Really appreciative. Do us a favor.
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