Keynote announced that WebEffective, its SaaS-based customer experience management platform for conducting large scale task-based user experience research, now offers iPad and Android smartphone support, to complement existing support for the iPhone.

WebEffective combines market research, usability labs and Web analytics providing usable data from virtually any website and supports large user samples to provide reliable information on their attitudes and behavior.

The WebEffective iPad platform is now engineered to provide a task-based study experience that is intuitive and familiar to an iPad user. Users are free to scroll and rotate, and interact just like any other tablet application without losing the familiar Keynote task bar reminding them of the current task they are attempting to complete.

"We found quite a few of our customers had tested and optimized their websites for desktop and smartphone users, but then realized they had a blind spot when it came to the iPad," says Vik Chaudhary, VP of product management and corporate development at Keynote Systems. "As the need for awareness on 'three screens' (desktop, mobile, tablet) has grown, so has interest in closing that gap, performing usability studies on the market-share leading iPad. While optimizing for the iPad, we've also taken this opportunity to ensure the very best experience on Android phones as well. Providing specific support for the Safari browser on the iPad helps lead to more completed studies."

The Pew Research Center recently reported that 19 percent of U.S. adults own a tablet computer and that between 65 percent and 75 percent of those tablets are iPads. With the rapid consumer adoption of tablets, it is critical for online businesses to strengthen their tablet strategies and improve the usability of their websites on the mobile devices. Internet Retailer's March survey showed that 63.3 percent of merchants are already considering redesigning their websites to render better on the iPad and other tablet devices. Usability, speed and reliability are key pain points for mobile consumers.