Desktop vs. Mobile
Whereas many businesses are still refining their desktop sites, many often ignore mobile spaces entirely as a project for “down the road.” Studies have shown that mobile users perform better and access more easily on mobile-optimized sites than on their full-functional desktop counterparts. In most cases, a mobile version of a current desktop site is an investment best made sooner than later.
Proper mobile website design should start by surveying how visitors use your site, what information they’re most often looking for and how they intend to interact with your site with their mobile device. Focus on what a user would find useful while “on the go.”
Resist the urge to “cram it all in.”
Every feature and functionality on your desktop site may not make it to the mobile version. Attempting to bring in every feature and function of the desktop site often leads to disorganization and content overload.
Prioritize web content and menu items based on your customer’s needs, with the most in-demand information being the easiest to access. This preplanning is crucial when designating what parts of the desktop site are accessible in the mobile version.
As a part of the planning process it may be beneficial to place a polling question on your site asking, “What would you like to see in our mobile site?”
In regards to mobile, less is often more.
Avoid crowding out key content with too many promotional and marketing “bells and whistles.” As always, content is king.
Be sure to break content into short paragraphs, much like a newspaper article. Distill longer paragraphs into one or two sentences to make it easier to read on a mobile device. Users like to see the beginning and end of a paragraph on one screen.
Forms should be kept to a bare minimum of fields. This will greatly increase the submission rate on a mobile device that are notoriously more difficult to type with than a standard keyboard.
Is it time for action?
There are of course many more factors to consider, but these starting block guidelines deserve consideration during the mobile planning phase of site development. Don’t alienate the millions of mobile web users. The mobile web isn’t coming. It’s here.
“But the image looked great on my screen. Why does it look terrible when I print?” Most likely it was designed specifically to be viewed on the a computer screen and not on paper. Still confused? It all comes down to resolution.
comment