I recently had the pleasure of acquiring a MINI Cooper Clubman. The car is zippy and fun. One of the things I noticed was the way the controls in the car were thoughtfully designed, making the experience of driving the car absolutely top-notch.

For example, behind the steering wheel to the left, the paddle controls the headlights. The paddle to the right, controls the windshield wipers. On the steering wheel itself, the left buttons the CD player and cellphone interface, while the buttons to the right serve as the stereo system’s volume control.

While this seems like pretty simple stuff (that you can find on other cars), there is something about the way MINI has implemented these features that actually increases the net experience when you drive.

The MINI’s user experience got me thinking about the optimal mobile user experience, since mobile is quickly becoming a ubiquitous channel for directly delivering health-related content. For pharmaceutical companies, mobile offers a much wider reach and anywhere/anytime interaction for the 65% of all physicians carrying mobile devices on their hip.

To create an optimal mobile user experience, companies need to be aware that development for mobile is not always straightforward because of a variety of devices (BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm, etc.), number of browsers, platforms and a number of networks that may or not be compatible. In other words, merely adapting desktop applications to mobile devices isn’t going to work.

Mobile users want faster, shorter transaction times, a secure environment and a user experience that is simple and positive.

There is no question that developing for mobile can be a challenge, but one approach is to develop a personalized user experience that takes into consideration the device being used, where it will be used and how.

That means, one size does not fit all, but – with a little investigating – you can uncover one best approach that works specifically for your target audience.

And here I thought we were talking to ourselves…people in pharma have actually been listening!  It was an exciting week – we have corporations (yep, the whole shootin’ match) that are looking to mobile optimize, brand/franchise sites that are seeing the light and even a cutting edge (not to mention world leading) marketing research company that has realized mobile marketing provides another DIRECT channel to their customers and will catapult them over their competition.  We’ve been discussing really interesting and helpful mobile apps – that speed up the paperwork physicians must complete in order to prescribe some products.

It’s been a good week – thanks for listening.

I have no intention of this blog being a crapfest on pharma. Au contraire, I (and I am speaking on behalf of my team – we) want to bring truth and light to pharma…really. So, here it goes…truth and light. No one, I mean no one, has mobile optimized their sites, not brand, not corporate (OK, we did – go to oneeleven.mobi) – even the guys who have drunk the Kool Aid haven’t done it yet. One pretty smart guy I know reported that only 5% of people access his unoptimized site via mobile and thus he wouldn’t be making it a priority to optimize his site. His IQ dropped a few points in my mind. Um, if your site WAS mobile optimized, the people who do come via mobile – obviously their channel of choice, would be happy and clearly, more people WILL be coming to those sites, because smart companies/brands will ensure that their info is available no matter HOW people are coming to the site.

The moral of the story – build the content once and let it go across ALL channels – let your customer select their channel of choice and make it the best experience possible.