What are mobile audiences looking for in your mobile product?

After more than a year of studying our mobile web and app usage statistics, and comparing those to the metrics for tablet and desktop users, I built this chart of mobile user content needs. The idea is based on Maslow's chart. The needs are not really prioritized, but the bottom - in red - are the most common mobile needs and at the top - in blue - is the least common mobile need.

What are these subjects?

Be alerted: The most common thing people expect from a news agency on mobile is to be alerted to the most relevant content to them - as close to immediately as possible.

Find answer: When a helicopter is flying overhead, or a park is crowded with people, or someone is talking about something they heard about happening in the city someone should be able to quickly find it in your mobile product. The key thing to remember is how people will query: they are unlikely to look for "One man dead in robbery" they look for "Shots fired in Santa Ana."

Check-in: People who read news are actively participating in the community by checking-in to see what is going on in the topics relevant to his or her personal communities. This leads people to browse your mobile website or app for the latest content in certain topics before moving on to the next task.

Participation: Mobile users didn't sign up for a limited experience. But they do want a simple experience. When reading a story on the state budget they might want to vote in a quick poll on what they would cut or keep in the budget. They might enjoy swiping through the photos taken at an event. They might want to listen to the 9-1-1 calls related to the crime story. Do not assume mobile users just want a headline and first paragraph. At the same time, don't bog down your mobile products like most desktop websites. Think about how simple, yet comprehensive, the experience is on an iPhone.

Create: Social network use booms on mobile phones because all smartphones contain a camera, sharing is fast and engagement is pushed to most users by notifications. Think about the small circle of information your organization can cover compared to how many people have smartphones in your community.

Research: Sure, most in-depth reading and discovering of related content is done on a tablet (not the desktop web, unless you are talking about unproductive workers who visit your site). But remember that a desktop computer is left at work or at home, and an iPad doesn't fit in most purses. Sometimes all someone has, or needs, is a smartphone and they'll want to not just spend 3 minutes with a story but instead 30 minutes. A very limited mobile product is what was built in the 90s when PDAs and Razors were on the scene. Today's phones are quite powerful and tomorrow's will be able to handle even more.

Does this chart help you think about your mobile audience? Do the priorities seem off or in the wrong order? What would you change? Do you think this is the same for most mobile audiences - or different for each community? What are your top priorities as a mobile content user?