Following all the excitement over Apple‘s iOS7 and new iPhone releases across the media and Twittersphere this week, it seemed even more timely to head down to my first Conversion Thursday – where the hot topic was ‘Optimising e-commerce conversion across devices’ – as this mobile madness momentum doesn’t look like slowing anytime soon.

Firstly for those of you not in the know about Conversion Thursday it is a multi-city movement to improve t’web and online business. In Manchester this bi-monthly event is hosted by online user experience specialists PRWD, last night in association with Optimizely (which looks like a bit of kit I’d love to get my hands on).

Presenters and presentations on the night were:

• Stuart McMillan (Deputy Head of Ecommerce, Schuh) – Single site to three device specific sites back to single responsive site
• Matthew Lawson (Head of Conversion, AO.com)
• Craig Sullivan (Conversion Optimiser) – Why does my mobile conversion suck?

So on with the show then here are my top takeaways from the evening:

1) Reasons for responsive design:

• No single screen size has more than 20% market share
• Improved search performance
• Consistant look and feel
• Developer efficiency
• Service and content parity for all devices

2) Steps in the process for moving to responsive design:

• Stop, collaborate and listen
• Understand the customer journey
• Look at screen sizes
• Design a customer focused information architecture
• Create the same HTML for all variations
• Apply usability best practice
• Plan analytics in from the start
• Undertake speed testing

3) Use the saved development time from multiple sites (i.e. desktop, mobile, tablet) to improve the time spent on optimising your responsive site.

4) Key lessons learnt during the Schuh shift to responsive design – fully understand the customers, avoid scope creep, ensure robust communications between teams.

5) Think about the why.

6) Embed a UX culture across your organisation, it’s not down to one person or team.

7) Invest in the instrumentation and get your analytics set-up correctly – avoid such problems as dual purpose goals, missing analytics code, errors not tracked etc. See 10+ ways to destroy your Google Analytics implementation.

8) Walk in the shoes of the customer and experience the experience.

9) Don’t forget your copy and images – still using images like these headset hotties?

10) Useful tools, resources and platforms:

• EyeQuant – see what your customers will see.
• ClickTale – heatmaps, usability and web analytics.
• SessionCam – session replay, website heatmaps and conversion funnels.
• iPerceptions (formerly 4Q) – website feedback
• Kampyle – feedback forms.
• Qualaroo – behaviour insight surveys.
• Usabilla – website feedback.
• Mr Tappy – filming for mobile device usability testing.
• UX Recorder – iOS screen recorder.
• Reflector – airplay to mirror your iPhone or iPad.
• Feedback Army – website usability testing service.
• Forrester: Get Ready For The Consumer Mobile Revolution
• Luke W: Ideation and design

Oh and a big thanks to @optimiseordie for bringing awkwardstockphotos.com  into my life *cringes*

Image c/o jfingas licensed under Creative Commons.