Trying to improve the user experience of your mobile website?
Want to make sure you have a great mobile website design?
In this day and age, any people will only access your website from a mobile device rather than from a desktop computer. Because of this, having a great mobile website is crucial to business success. However, creating a great mobile site can be tricky because there are a lot of important nuances you’ll need to consider to get it right.
Luckily, we’ve got you covered. Below we’ll give you our best tips for creating a mobile web design that offers a great user experience.
1. Make Sure Your Site Is Finger-Friendly
When it comes to designing any part of your mobile website, you need to think about how well it can be used with the thumb or with a finger.
Navigation bars, buttons, and any links on your site should be able to be easily clicked on. Links that are too small can be frustrating for visitors. If multiple links are too small or too close together, visitors may click on links that they didn’t mean to.
Ensuring great navigation on your site that is easy to touch will make your website much easier to use. On the other hand, navigation that is hard to use will send visitors running away from your site quickly.
2. Improve Link Placement and Size
Mastering the placement and the use of links in your mobile website design is very important. If you make them too big there won’t be room for other things on your website, but if you make them too small they may be hard to click on.
As mentioned above, each link should be very clickable with only the thumbs or the fingers. Ideally, you should probably use more text links or button links in your mobile website design as opposed to images.
Additionally, you should ensure that there’s a distinction between which link is selected and which isn’t. Making sure that there is enough padding and variation between each link on your page can help with this.
3. Keep It Simple
When working on your mobile web design, it’s important that you focus on simplicity. Too many designers try to do too much with a mobile site and make it unusable in the process.
Focus on usability first of all, before adding a lot of advanced features to your mobile website. Cut out the excess and make sure that your design is minimalistic. Your site should be easy to read and it should be easy for visitors to navigate your site and find what they’re looking for.
When it comes to building a great mobile site, remember that simple is usually better. Don’t try to do too much too soon.
4. Give the Option to View the Full Website
No matter how great your mobile website design is, there are times when visitors will simply want to see the full desktop version of your site. Make sure that it’s easy for visitors to make the switch if necessary, by having an easy-to-find button on your site that allows them to switch between the two.
If there is a small feature or bit of information that you’ve left out of the mobile version of your site, it can be great to allow visitors to click through to the desktop version instead. Doing this will go a long way in improving the user experience of your website.
5. Optimize Screen Resolution
Screen resolution is also very important to think about as part of your mobile website design. There are many different types of mobile devices that visitors will be using to access your site. It can be tricky to optimize your site correctly so that it displays well on all of them.
Do your research on the current devices on the market to decide what the optimal screen resolutions will be. By making sure you have a responsive design and that you’ve chosen a good screen width to use, your site will look great no matter what size the screen is it will be viewed on.
6. Reduce the Need for Text Entry
With a mobile website, it’s important that you minimize the number of times that people have to use their keyboard. On-screen keyboards aren’t nearly as easy to type with as a real computer keyboard, so keep this in mind.
Look for ways to minimize the number of times people have to fill out forms or input data. If there are forms that people need to fill out on your site, see if you can convert it into a pre-filled selection box or a drop-down menu instead.
7. Avoid Pop-ups and Reloads
If you really want to improve the user experience of your site, you also need to make sure that you minimize the times that pop-ups are shown or that your pages refresh.
Both of these things can interrupt the use of your site and can frustrate visitors. This kind of thing can take away from the usability of your site and distract visitors from what they were trying to do, even more so than they can on desktop computers.
Pop-ups and reloads are necessary at times, but it’s best to minimize them on your mobile website. You want people to be able to use your site fluidly and effortlessly, so make sure you have this under control.
8. Bring It Up to Speed
While the same is true for desktop computers as well, it’s important to ensure that your website loads quickly on mobile devices. Each element of your site should load within seconds so that visitors will be able to find what they’re looking for on your website quickly.
Mobile device users are often on the go when visiting your site, so they’ll have even less patience for a site that takes a long time to load. Speed your site up by ensuring you have a great host and that you’ve optimized any images or videos that are featured on your pages.
9. Keep Important Information At the Top
One final tip you should remember when attempting to make a great mobile website is that you should always prioritize the most important information. Each page that you create for your mobile website should feature the most relevant information to the page at the very top, where visitors will be able to find it quickly.
Scrolling through a lengthy web page to find one simple piece of information can be very frustrating and will turn visitors off quickly. Instead, make sure you put the most important information at the top where they can find it easily.
Getting Started With Mobile Web Design
A great mobile design is very important and can make or break your website in the modern age. By creating a mobile web design that looks great and prioritizes usability, you’ll ensure that people who visit your site will eventually become loyal customers who will keep coming back again and again.
Ready to improve your mobile website design? Contact us today to learn more about what Infront Webworks can do for you.
Matthew is the President of Infront Webworks and is a New England native now calling Colorado Springs home. Matt attended The University of NH where he pursued a BS in Natural Resource Economics & Business Administration. Aside from Infront; Matthew has owned and managed two other online agencies based on the seacoast of New Hampshire and been a key player in multiple technology mergers & acquisitions. When he’s not bathing in technology, online marketing & business; he’s probably spending time with his wife and daughter, boating, skiing the trees, hiking or cooking..he is a foodie for sure!
