The success of a website is directly proportional to how well you have presented information to the user and whether you have been able to impact the visitor’s psyche. With the emergence of smartphones and tablets as the devices of choice, the demand for mobile websites is increasing daily as more and more people use these devices to access the net. This, in turn, is changing the contours of website design, and while the formula of success mentioned in the first sentence remains the same, the considerations will change.
These considerations relate to how website designers must rethink their priorities, conceptualize the website’s look and feel, and design the website to align with the interactive experience of modern-day mobile devices.
So, let’s take a look at five considerations. A focus on them will help you design a great mobile website:
Designing for Mobile Doesn’t Mean Miniaturizing
Most newbie designers entering the mobile website design business think designing for mobile means simply reducing size. They believe creating a miniature version of the desktop website will suffice, assuming that fitting the website into mobile display parameters is enough. But that’s not how it works! Effective web design involves more than resizing; it requires a deep understanding of user experience and interface adaptation for various screen sizes.
Yes, designing for mobile is all about minimizing, but it’s not about rehashing the existing design of your desktop website. You must focus on mobilizing your design techniques rather than just shrinking the design. Do a design rethink. Prioritize your design elements and offer only those that are a perfect fit for mobile. You resize, but not rehash or minimize.
There will be many occasions when you will find that a design element you have placed on your desktop website doesn’t fit into your mobile website because of space constraints. This is when you will need to rethink your design so that the design quality of your mobile website is as high as that of your desktop website.
Design for Quick Understandability and Impact
How much time do visitors spend on your desktop website? Well, whatever the average time your website visitors spend on your desktop website, they will spend even less time on your mobile website. Yes, whatever steps you take to make your mobile website as responsive and intuitive as possible, the ‘comfort factor’ with respect to browsing will still be less than that compared to that of a desktop website.
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So, you have very little time to make an impression; time, as they say, is of the essence. So, you must create a website that can be understood at first glance. Even desktop websites are being configured for quick scanning these days, so why not adopt the same approach for a mobile website? You must only use visual design elements that can convey information quickly. The time to view, assimilate, and assess the information must be minimized as much as possible when it comes to the design of your mobile website.
Design for Ease of Association
If you are designing a mobile website, chances are you already have a desktop website accessed by your target audience. What you can do is work towards achieving some sort of visual consistency between your desktop and mobile website. Using the same background texture and color, the exact visual characterization, and infusing the mobile website with the same personality as its desktop version will help draw an immediate association with your brand. After all, it’s all about the brand.
Brand visibility is not just about replicating your website for the mobile platform; it can also be accomplished by triggering the user’s design experiences. But it’s not about your desktop website alone; you can even link your mobile website with your real-world footprint, as well. Whatever it takes to improve the user experience of your mobile visitors must be done.
Design for Portrait and Landscape
Contextual design is not the core focus of designers creating a desktop website. But this is of paramount importance when designing a website for mobile. A mobile device is used on the move, typically when the user is in the midst of a specific activity. So, you are not sure when, where, and how your website will be used.
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This is why it must be designed for both landscape and portrait orientations. More and more smartphones are being designed to automatically adjust how the user holds the device at a given time. This is why, irrespective of how they are holding the device, your design should never confuse them. So, if the user starts by accessing your website in landscape mode and then the orientation shifts to landscape mode when browsing, there shouldn’t be any error.
Easy does it
Design considerations concerning mobile have to be clearly understood and only then followed. Any half-baked efforts will just fall flat and won’t deliver the kind of results you are looking for. So, the fifth consideration is a bit general and asks you not to put yourself under tremendous pressure while designing a mobile website.
Design fundamentals remain the same, and these don’t change one way or the other. You are designing a mobile website with user experience in mind, and that’s about it. If you can provide your mobile website visitors with one hell of a user experience, you have a successful website on your hands.