5 Things to Keep in Mind When Designing a Mobile Website

With the world of mobile getting increasingly more popular and mobile web browsing on the rise, it is essential to think about optimising your website for mobile use. Whether it be an actual mobile website, or making your current site responsive.

One of the main issues when designing a mobile website is lack of space on the screen. On a regular site you can have have a large amount of space to include your website’s content and images, but when it comes to mobiles it is very important to streamline everything so that you don’t isolate any of your audience.

Listed below are the elements you should take into consideration when designing a website for mobile devices:

1. Relevance

It is essential to bear in mind that your website’s content is most likely going to be displayed on a single column layout which takes up the full width of the screen. This means that you should cut out all the extras and things that do not get your most important information across. Text can also be hard to read on mobile devices, so keep strange fonts and small typeface out of the picture.

2. First Impressions

Because of the limited space on screen, it is advisable to concentrate the first page on being a content list so that the visitor can get to the page they need straight away rather than having to read down a lot of unnecessary information. It is also a good idea to put back buttons on nested pages and links to relevant further information wherever possible as good navigation will make your site easy to use no matter what device is being used to access it.

3. Familiarity

It is important to keep your brand (such as logos and colours) consistent across all versions of your website. People, in particular long-time customers, like consistency and want to feel that you offer a consistent service. You may have to play around and re-design elements to fit on mobile devices, but the end result will be worth it.

4. Quantity

Mobile websites need to be simple, that’s why it is important to keep the number of pages to a minimum. Visitors will not want to trawl through loads of pages to get to the content they are looking for. The process of getting from the start to the desired content should be simple and easy for those just popping on to your site.

5. Distractions

Keeping with the theme of a simple mobile website, you should not be using pop-up windows, Flash (which Apple does not support) or Java. A call to actions should be easy to tap and remember that on a touch screen small icons/links are easy to miss.

Mobile browsing has exploded and is still expanding at a seemingly unstoppable rate. Building a mobile website or making your current site compatible with mobile devices should be high up on the to-do list for anyone wishing to not get left behind. Get in touch to see how The Web Taylor can help you.