Our web analytics tell me that most of you are reading this blog post on your desktop. Probably at work. But a growing percentage are reading our articles from the browser on their mobile phone. I expect that trend to steadily increase.
We spend our time on the internet browsing from website to beautiful website. Almost every webpage we visit now is responsive, adapting to whatever device we are using. Content is easy to read, the layout is intuitive and easy to navigate. Take this website for example!
If you’re like most of our clients, you work for a large organization that has a fancy corporate website. Try pulling that website up on your desktop, then on your phone. Looks good, doesn’t it? (Okay, so this won’t apply to all of you.)
Now, try pulling up some recent required training you or your employees had to complete on your mobile device and compare that experience to the company website.
Don’t worry, I’ll wait.
The Web Is Pretty. Your Training Is Not.
Why the discrepancy between the consumer web and internal company training? There are plenty of obvious answers: consumer websites are marketing vehicles that help generate revenue and acquire customers. Training is viewed as just another expense. Training is proprietary to an organization and must be delivered securely, not available on a public website for all to see. And then there’s the graveyard of old, outdated training modules that need to be updated or simply deleted!
While learners will obviously appreciate a mobile-optimized experience, the steps required to get from where your training is today and where it needs to be are not so simple.
How to Adopt a Mobile Mindset
Jake Huhn and I gave a webinar called The Mobile Mindset: How to Wow Your Learners. In the session, we covered:
- Recent stats on the growth of the mobile web versus corporate mobile learning adoption.
- Proprietary research from our contacts and customers on mobile learning adoption.
- A summary of the common challenges organizations face when trying to shift to mobile.
- A broad overview of responsive web design and Gestalt theory and how these principles can be used to improve training design.
- Examples from three mobile training apps we have created for clients.
- A simple solution for turning a simple web portal into a SCORM-conformant LMS.
- Six practical tips for adopting a mobile mindset
View a recording of The Mobile Mindset: How to Wow Your Learners and learn how mobile design can help you create better training.