mobile – ACHUKA Children's Books UK

e-Reading on Mobile Phones is on the Rise

October 27, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

According to a new report from the United Kingdom, 50% of readers tend to use their mobile phones [for reading] books. This research is quite telling because e-reader and tablet sales are quite robust and have a high rate of availability in the retail sector.
Overall, 50% of UK mobile reading consumers used the Amazon Kindle app to read on their mobiles, followed by Apple iBooks with 31%. Reading platforms Kobo and Nook are in third and fourth places with 9% and 6% respectively. Among younger readers, iBooks is closing ground on Kindle. The study found that 41% of 18 – 24 year olds who use their mobile to read are using Kindle, versus 39% who are now using iBooks.

via e-Reading on Mobile Phones is on the Rise.

Anthony McGowan’s New Site

September 1, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

Anthony McGowan has a new site.

Anthony McGowan’s new mobile-friendly site is now live. I have worked closely with Tony over the past few weeks to achieve a user-friendly design that works on all devices. Our aim was to have a site that firstly looked good on a handheld mobile phone and also scaled up to look fine on a large screen. The result we hope is a clean, simple easy-to-navigate design.

Too many author websites (and this was the case with Tony’s previous site) do not have responsive design. This means that the site just condenses down to fit the viewport making text too small to be readable and links too tiny to select. Or the design does not condense at all and overspills the viewing screen making awkward horizontal scrolling a necessity and spoiling the user experience.

In redesigning his old site we wanted to make the new site:

responsive/mobile friendly – looking good on all devices/screens
simple, with only a small number of landing pages that will be easy to manage and keep up-to-date
easily and instantly up-date-able on the fly, on the move, from wherever Tony may be
image/illustration light, but neveretheless visual, with photos and graphics looking good on both a smartphone and a big display screen
standalone and easily maintained by the author (using WordPress)
social media-friendly with blog content that visitors can easily share on Twitter etc.
an online buying portal for readers, with both Amazon and LoveReading links

The process consisted of a face-to-face meeting and photo session to talk about requirements, select a WordPress theme to base the design on, and to take some author portraits. I then worked on adapting the theme, and adding the content to the site. Tony looked at the work in progress and gave feedback, till we arrived at the finished design.

Those who follow Anthony McGowan on Facebook know how hilariously self-ridiculing his accounts of everyday life can be and by sharing these accounts on the blog more people will be able to appreciate this aspect of his writing.

I am grateful to a friend who works for Google who has tested the site on various Google devices including Google glass. Here are some more screenshots:

But visit the site and see for yourself. Hopefully you’ll find it a user-friendly experience whether you’re viewing it on phone, tablet, laptop or large screen. If not, let me know!

If you have a site that needs updating or want to launch a new site and are looking for someone to work with, I’m now available for a new commission.

http://anthonymcgowan.com

‘Mobile reading revolution’ takes off in developing world

April 24, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

Alison Flood reports for The Guardian:

Unesco is pointing to a “mobile reading revolution” in developing countries after a year-long study found that adults and children are increasingly reading multiple books and stories on their phones.
Nearly 5,000 people in seven countries – Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Kenya, Nigeria, Pakistan and Zimbabwe – took part in the research, the largest study of its kind to date, which found that 62% of respondents are reading more, now they can read on their mobile phones. One in three said they read to children from their mobile phones, and 90% of respondents said they would be spending more time reading on their mobile phones in the next year.

via ‘Mobile reading revolution’ takes off in developing world | Books | theguardian.com.

The report also highlighted an interesting gender divide. More men have mobile devices, but the smaller number of women who have them spend more time reading…

The survey also found that mobile reading is a “huge tool of empowerment for women”, said Worldreader’s Nadja Borovac. While 77% of mobile readers in developing countries are male, women spend an average of 207 minutes per month reading on their mobile phones, compared to men’s 33 minutes. Unesco’s report points out that in sub-Saharan Africa, a woman is 23% less likely to own a mobile phone than a man, with the gap widening in the case of data-enabled phones. “Men use mobiles for reading most, but the most active readers are women,” said Borovac.

Children’s Publishers Look Toward Mobile as Next Frontier

January 15, 2014 By achuka Leave a Comment

There isn’t a single trend that will have a bigger impact on our business in the next year than the move to mobile…

“There isn’t a single trend that will have a bigger impact on our business in the next year than the move to mobile,” said Kristen McLean, founder of books analytics start-up Bookigee, speaking at Launch Kids at Digital Book World 2014 in New York.
McLean cited several data points to support that readers are moving to mobile devices versus desktops for their media consumption. According to data from research firm eMarketer, more time was spent on mobile devices last year than on household computers for the first time ever.
“Mobile strategy is essential for the future of our business,” said Deborah Forte, president of Scholastic Media, also speaking at the conference.
Scholastic recently launched a mobile app that is meant to help parents and kids connect with print books at book fairs. In its first two months, the app was downloaded 55,000 times, according to Forte.

via Children’s Publishers Look Toward Mobile as Next Frontier | Digital Book World.

Some really interesting web usage statistics from StatCounter

December 18, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

Some really interesting web usage statistics from StatCounter here!

Apple iPad dominates total tablet internet usage with 74.5%
Global tablet internet usage was just 4.8% in November compared to 19.1% for mobile. Desktop usage still dominates with 76.1%.

“The perception is that tablets are proliferating and replacing traditional PC and laptop machines so we developed our research platform to isolate tablet usage stats,” added Aodhan Cullen of StatCounter. “In reality we found that tablet internet usage globally at less than 5% is still relatively small compared to desktop and mobile.”
In the US tablet internet usage share stands at 6.8% or about half the mobile number (15.2%) with desktop on 77.9%. In the UK tablet is stronger than in the US on 9.6% behind mobile (14.8%) and desktop (75.4%).
Out of all tablet internet usage in the US, Apple generates 80.3% followed by Amazon with the Kindle (7.4%) and Samsung (4.2%). In the UK Apple also dominates with 80.4% followed by Samsung (6.5%) and Amazon (4.4%).

via New StatCounter data finds that tablet internet usage is less than 5% globally | StatCounter Global Stats.

Mobile On The March – Infographics Tell The Story

December 4, 2013 By achuka Leave a Comment

from Josh Dreller’s commentary on those telling Infographics:

For example, in November 2012 through Cyber Monday, marketers spent 79.5% of their paid search budgets on Computers (i.e. laptops, desktops, notebooks, etc.) with just 11.8% going to Phones and 8.7% to Tablets. This year, the rate of change is astounding. Although paid search advertisers continued to spend a majority of their budgets on Computers in 2013, they dropped it by 24.1% YoY to just 60.3% of total spend for Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Phone budgets grew by 79.1% YoY to 21.2% of total paid search spend while Tablets grew a whopping 113.6% YoY to 18.5% of total paid search spend.
“It’s clear that the story of the shopping season to date is the mobile migration,” added Goldman. “In fact, this isn’t just a migration we’re seeing, it’s a full on revolution. With phones and tablets accounting for nearly 40% of all paid search ad spend on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, it’s clear marketers have multi-device strategies in place to lure consumers wherever and whenever they’re shopping.”

via Mobile Paid Search Pops on Thanksgiving and Black Friday | Josh Dreller | Kenshoo Blog.