Mobile computing is the next frontier of digital democracy, but a new study suggests that browsing the web on the go is still too clumsy to really get thru, say, the 1,000-page healthcare bill on your iPhone. Which is too bad, because your Congressman isn’t likely to read it for you.

The study released on Monday was conducted by “user-experience” research firm Nielsen Norman Group. It found that cell phone users only had a 59% success rate when tasking on the Internet compared to an 80% success rate for PC users. At that rate, reading the massive healthcare bill will take a few extra bus rides.

“The phrase ‘mobile usability’ is pretty much an oxymoron,” says Jakob Nielsen, principal of the Nielsen Norman Group. According to the researchers there are four major problems that create the low level of success by mobile users: small screens, awkward input, download delays, and mis-designed websites

“The first two problems are inherent to mobile devices, and as for connectivity, it’s going to take many years before mobile connections are as fast as even a modest cable modem,” says user experience specialist Raluca Budiu. Mis-designed websites are sites that are user friendly to PCs and they don’t follow guidelines for mobile access. Budiu says the best chance we have for improving the experience is “websites designed specifically for better mobile usability.”

Mobile-friendly websites couldn’t come fast enough. In March Google announced that it had seen a big increase in Internet activity by mobile phone users. “We have very much hit a watershed moment in terms of mobile Internet usage,” said Matt Waddell, product manager for Google mobile.

Amazon’s Kindle reader and Apple’s iPhone and new tablet computer are leading the way in creating larger portable screens for mobile computing, though there are physical limits to how far this can go in the short term. Battery life and the heat given off by larger surfaces impose constraints for designers trying to increase the usable area of mobile screens, while our own desire to carry only the smallest device necessary puts pressure on designers from the other end.

There are other innovative technologies in the works to improve mobile phone users access to the Internet.  Last week Google launched a voice-based Internet search ability for their customers in India. The technology was built by Google’s Indian engineering team and will help eliminate the awkward input hurdle. The new service being offered to customers in India is still limited to English only and to people who have a Blackberry. Problems include the variegated accents from different regions in India (sounds a bit like the U.S.). “Accents are indeed a problem, and we are working towards improving the application,” said Vinay Goel, head of products, Google India.

The work being done by Google in India proves that we can overcome some of the barriers that currently exist in turning mobile Internet use from irritating to satisfying. It may be a stretch to think that we can solve all the limitations cited in the study before the next holiday shopping season. But it’s coming. Innovation in information technology is exploding here in the U.S. and around the world, so anything is possible.

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