{
    "version" : "https://jsonfeed.org/version/1",
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    "title" : "2016 / 2017 Mobile Analysis: Mobile Device Trends on Government Websites |Digital.gov",
    "description": "2016 / 2017 Mobile Analysis: Mobile Device Trends on Government Websites",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2017/08/14/20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"2016 / 2017 Mobile Analysis: Mobile Device Trends on Government Websites","summary" : "Now that we have seen the top level shift from desktop to mobile, let us drill deeper into mobile device specific trends.","date" : "2017-08-14T12:00:56-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"freddie-blicher" : "Freddie Blicher"},"topics" : {
        
            "analytics" : "Analytics",
            "mobile" : "Mobile"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2017-08-14-20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2017/08/2017-08-14-20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2017/08/2017-08-14-20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2017/08/2017-08-14-20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites.md","slug" : "20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2017/08/14/20162017-mobile-analysis-mobile-device-trends-on-government-websites/","content" :"\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWe’d like to thank each agency and sub-agency for their partnership and participation in the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/guides/dap/\"\u003eDigital Analytics Program\u003c/a\u003e (DAP). The data below represents a view from over 4,500+ executive branch websites and the analysis we conducted wouldn’t be possible without you.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSince the introduction of the iPhone a decade ago, smartphone and tablet usage has exploded, with \u003ca href=\"http://www.ctia.org/industry-data/ctia-annual-wireless-industry-survey\"\u003e378 million mobile devices\u003c/a\u003e in use in 2015. In fact, \u003ca href=\"http://www.ctia.org/industry-data/wireless-quick-facts\"\u003e49 percent of U.S. households were mobile device-only\u003c/a\u003e and used \u003ca href=\"http://www.ctia.org/industry-data/ctia-annual-wireless-industry-survey\"\u003e10 trillion megabytes of data\u003c/a\u003e in 2015. This means that our primary way of accessing websites \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/10/21/gov-analytics-breakdown-2-mobile-is-bigger-than-ever/\"\u003ehappens on smartphone and tablet devices\u003c/a\u003e. Even Google reported that “\u003ca href=\"https://adwords.googleblog.com/2015/05/building-for-next-moment.html\"\u003emore Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the U.S. and Japan\u003c/a\u003e.” It’s also a sign of the times that Google recently announced their plan to create a \u003ca href=\"http://searchengineland.com/google-divide-index-giving-mobile-users-better-fresher-content-261037\"\u003emobile-first search results index\u003c/a\u003e to cater to the market shift toward \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/03/29/google-will-rank-mobile-friendly-sites-even-higher-beginning-in-may/\"\u003eGoogle searches on mobile devices\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMobile usage has changed people’s expectations of how they want to engage with and consume website content. This has spawned the mindset of “mobile first,” where developers exclusively create sites and apps for mobile users first. The shift to “mobile first” makes sense given that the smartphone \u003ca href=\"http://marketingland.com/digital-growth-now-coming-mobile-usage-comscore-171505\"\u003eis now the growth driver\u003c/a\u003e, while desktop device usage is rapidly decreasing among U.S. users.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"top-level-mobile-device-trend\"\u003eTop Level Mobile Device Trend\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eU.S. government websites are no exception to this trend. In December 2016, mobile devices (smartphone and tablet) accounted for 43 percent of all traffic vs. 36 percent the same time the year before. We already see the same trend through June of 2017 and it will likely accelerate in the second half of 2017.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2017/08/600-x-350-DAP-Smartphone-and-Tablet-Penetration.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Chart: Smartphone and Tablet Penetration.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWe should caveat that our year-over-year data is not a perfect “apples to apples” comparison because various government websites continually add our DAP web analytics code throughout the year. But analytics isn’t accounting—it’s directional, so we can still look at high level datasets and market share numbers to infer mobile device trends.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"mobile-device-specific-trends\"\u003eMobile Device Specific Trends\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow that we’ve seen the top level shift from desktop to mobile, let’s drill deeper into mobile device specific trends. What we discovered is that even though desktop users are switching to total mobile, when we dive deeper into the data we actually see tablet users declining and smartphone capturing the majority of the shift in users from desktop. This trend is already true halfway through 2017. We anticipate smartphone usage to increase more than today’s 37 percent share of total traffic in 2017.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2017/08/600-x-300-DAP-Device-Share-of-Traffic-phone-Tablet-Desktop.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Chart: Device Share of Traffic.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eTo better understand the shift away from tablets and shift towards smartphones, let’s look at the device types’ share of traffic since the inception of DAP in 2013. Below we see that while smartphones and tablets accounted for equal shares of traffic in 2013, smartphone share of traffic has clearly spiked, while tablet usage has languished. Smartphone usage now accounts for 36 percent of all traffic and is forecasted to continue increasing.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2017/08/600-x-336-DAP-Device-Share-of-Traffic-by-Year-Phone-and-Tablet.jpg\"\n    alt=\"Chart: Device Share of Traffic by year.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003ch2 id=\"how-does-this-impact-you\"\u003eHow Does This Impact You?\u003c/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eU.S. government websites saw a seven percentage point shift away from desktop to mobile devices, with smartphone devices accounting for this shift. This means that \u003cstrong\u003eour users have a strong expectation of being able to access government websites on smartphones, and they are increasingly expecting government websites to work efficiently and easily present information and services mobile device screens.\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo be able to better support and engage with our visitors, we need to consider how to develop and design government site experiences that cater to our ever growing base of smartphone users, or we risk frustrating—and even losing—many visitors on sites that don’t support them. This data reinforces that it would be beneficial to make data driven decisions to improve and tailor public access to government websites on smartphones.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is help available if you are not already doing work in your agency to become mobile-friendly. You can use resources like the Federal Mobile CrowdSource Testing Program to \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/10/21/gov-analytics-breakdown-2-mobile-is-bigger-than-ever/\"\u003etest to see if your site is mobile-friendly\u003c/a\u003e. You can also join the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/communities/\"\u003eMobileGov Community of Practice\u003c/a\u003e, sponsored by GSA, and work to help make anytime, anywhere government a reality.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFreddie Blicher is an analyst with the \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/guides/dap/\"\u003eDigital Analytics Program\u003c/a\u003e (DAP). For more information about DAP or to become a DAP participating agency, please \u003ca href=\"mailto:dap@support.digitalgov.gov\"\u003econtact DAP via email\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}