Mobile-only users?

Nice piece in HBR by Karen McGrane: The Rise of the Mobile-Only User, pointing out that mobile use isn’t just a secondary use case or a killing-five-minutes use case. Money quote:

“Mobile-only users aren’t some strange new breed of customer, signaling their desire for different messages, content, and services through their choice of screen size and form factor. They’re just your customer. You can and should speak to them in same way you address all your other customers. They just want to engage with you on the device that’s most useful and convenient for them.”

Karen makes a great point that your users want the same access to the same content when they’re using a mobile device as when they’re using a laptop/desktop. They’re trying to do the same tasks..they’re just using a smaller device. So don’t equate task and device…in many cases one doesn’t define the other. And…it doesn’t make sense to create a lesser site for mobile users that cuts out functionality.