MassHousing’s Mobile Website Communications/IT Joint Session: Is Your Website Mobile friendly? NCSHA Annual Conference September 29, 2015 Presented by Eric Gedstad Communications Director, MassHousing

 64 percent of Americans own a smartphone Source: Pew Research  Between 2013 and 2019, there will be a 10x increase in amount of data accessed by mobile Source: Ericsson Mobile  44% of smartphone users have used their phone to look up real estate information, and 40% to look up government services or information Source: Pew Research

Smartphones are the primary -- if not only way -- to access information online for o 15% of users age o 13% of households earning less than $30,000 annually o 12% of African-Americans o 13% of Latino-Americans Source: Pew Research

Why a mobile website? Regular website on small screen can frustrate users Smartphone users are impatient and move on if website can’t be viewed

MassHousing’s experience Our process began by envisioning a mobile app An app developer persuaded us that a mobile website was simpler and less expensive Apps must be developed for each platform (iOS, Android etc.) and require expense, maintenance and third-party participation We chose to build the mobile site for homebuyers as opposed to the rental side of the business The full site is available with one click We were able to do it in-house

Technical Challenges How to determine if a visitor was coming from a mobile device, PC or tablet? How could we stay current and test with new devices and browsers across different carriers and operating systems?

Device Detection The company 51degrees provides lists of more than 28,000 mobile devices and also code to detect devices to make sure content is delivered in the right format We use the premium version that distinguishes between phones and tablets $499/year per server Testing and Support The company BrowserStack offers emulators so you can test your site using multiple devices, operating systems and browsers $179 per month or $2,148 per year

The mobile experience for those visiting masshousing.com on a mobile device Mobile users automatically directed to mobile site Content has been condensed, fonts enlarged for easy scanning Content speaks to consumers at different stages of the home buying process, same as full site Key links are right there: lenders, homebuyer educators, income limits etc. Included are links to view the full website and a link to call a MassHousing staff person

Samsung S5 – via BrowserstackHTC One – via Browserstack iPhone – via XCode

Results Site launched in August 2014 First three months Today 50 % Increase 276 average page views per day 185 average page views per day 93,000+ page views since launch

Analysis so far No technical issues so far Rewarding and cost-effective to do it in-house Good collaboration between Communications and IT Lessons Learned / Advice for others Everything takes longer than you think it will Decide on tablets: mobile vs. desktop site Prepare for discussion on what content to offer on mobile, what to leave off Mobile sites are so small, only room for so much Is your IT infrastructure capable of hosting mobile? Browserstack was sometimes sluggish

Thank you! For more information: Eric Gedstad Communications Director Deepak Karamcheti Portal Administrator / Communications Specialist