If you want to build a superb mobile-friendly website, you should start by assuming that the majority of your customers will reach it via a mobile device, as evidence suggests they already do.
So, while you shouldn’t ignore the desktop user experience, it makes sense to put your mobile consumers front and centre in your user experience and web design thinking given the large variety of devices and operating systems they utilise.
With that in mind, building a fantastic website that is mobile-friendly might not be as difficult as you think. Here are five points to concentrate on.
1. The importance of responsive web design
A responsive website is what? It’s a website where the items on a page and how they’re displayed adjust to fit the size of the screen being used to view the site. Anything from a phone to a huge desktop display might be on that screen.
There isn’t much space on a mobile or tablet screen, so it’s even more critical that the most crucial information go where mobile users can access it with the least amount of effort. On a phone, the user will need to scroll down to see all the items available when they see your website on a desktop. However, all the elements visible when users view your website on a desktop may still be made visible when users view it on a phone. Consequently, a strong responsive design will ensure that the truly crucial information on each page is displayed as soon as the user accesses that page, even on the tiniest of devices.
2. Users must be able to get the material they desire the most from your home page.
Although this has always been a crucial component of a website’s main page, developing for mobile devices makes it much more crucial.
Mobile users don’t often have the best patience. In general, they are aware of what they want and are eager to obtain it. Therefore, if your home page doesn’t effectively direct readers to the material they want most or if it doesn’t have a clear, noticeable Call To Action (CTA) that they can click to complete the task they came to your website for, they will give up and go shortly.
Users are likely to acquire their initial impression of your site from its main page unless they are coming from a specific landing page. They will also initially come across your site search if you have one, and your navigation there. Make sure everything on the main page functions properly and is actually necessary for it to be there.
Before restricting or interfering with users’ attempts to visit your home page or leave it, stop and think very carefully. Some websites use interstitial or “pop-up” panels that block visitors from seeing information and drive them to take actions they might not want to take, such as installing an app or subscribing to your newsletter.
3. Your website’s navigation should be straightforward and uncomplicated.
Information architecture is the process of determining how many items each level of your menu system should have, what those items should be, and what labels they should have.
In the era of mobile-friendly design, information architecture has become even more crucial since menus and menu item labels must be as concise as possible due to tiny screen sizes. Early on in the site design process, a few more hours dedicated to information architecture may save a lot of headaches for users later on.
4. Forms must be simple to complete on tiny displays.
For a very long time, a lot of the forms on websites were just online versions of the old print forms, with many too many fields and a lot of verbose, difficult to understand instructions. With the rise of mobile-friendly design, there is now a much-needed emphasis on making forms simpler so that they may be completed successfully on mobile devices.
You may employ a variety of strategies to make forms simple to complete on mobile devices:
- Use concise, basic, and unambiguous field labels.
- Label start and end dates clearly in date fields, and utilise calendar widgets if available.
- Apply autofill
- Advance to the next field automatically when the user clicks Return.
- Instead of waiting until the full form is submitted, if feasible, validate form field entries each time a user pushes Return.
A web development business must have skills in user experience, web design Wellington, web development Tauranga, and content generation in order to produce a fantastic mobile website. Fortunately, FreelancingWeb is knowledgeable in each of those fields. We invite you to give us a call if you want to ensure that your website functions on small screens, large screens, and every type of screen in between.