With most of the people now accessing the internet using mobile phones and it has become a part of the day to day life, websites should focus on providing a better mobile-friendly experience.
Here are some key techniques and tips to design a mobile-friendly website to make sure that you’re doing it right.
What is ‘Mobile Friendly’?
The meaning of mobile friendly stands for the ability to perform well on devices like mobile phones or tablets.
Here, the regular website shrinks into a smaller version that fits into the display of small devices. This is the same website with the same features. Just the tiny version with all the functions.
The experience might be a little reduced than the desktop version but it is simple and viewable.
Mobile-friendly sites have features like,
- Speed page loading
- Readable text without zooming
- Contents fit to the screen without sideway scrolls
- Easily clickable buttons
Why it is important
As more of the viewers check websites on mobile devices, it is important to give them a positive experience.
These types of websites boost sales due to the easy to use interface. People like to interact with hassle free websites that will allow them to engage with the brand completely.
This easy accessibility will create more customers while keeping them for a long term.
Anyone likes to have brands that they can access anytime they want. And the trust has to be built that the website is reliable and credible to use.
A mobile-friendly website can be helpful in building trust between the customers and the business. The innovation, upgrades, offers and adaptivity have to exceed the expectations of the customers so that the loyal customer base as well as the newcomers will be impressed with the brand.
Mobile-friendly websites also increase sales and conversions. The seamless mobile experience is an important point in digitized marketplaces.
These websites also increase the google rankings. Google’s ranking gives priority to the mobile-friendly websites. The speed of downloading, easiness of using, and the content contribute to the ranking of a website. So if you need to keep the SEO ranking high, a mobile-friendly website is a must.
Tips To Create a Mobile Friendly Website
The Responsive Layout Of A Mobile-friendly Website
The design of a mobile-friendly website should make sure that the content of the website and the user interface are well optimized to be used in almost all the devices available. This is known as the responsive layout.
Here, the settings of the website are automated to get adjusted according to the device it’s being viewed. This allows the user to comfortably access and look into the website.
The responsive layout should have some key features for its success.
Scalable images- images adjusted automatically according to the dimensions of the viewing screen. This provides a high end experience.
Easy to navigate menu- an intuitive, easy menu is important and useful for touch screen devices.
Grid system- a flexible grid system enables the content to arrange in columns based on the screen size.
Quick loading- quick and efficient loading of websites are also important.
Call to action- having a direct and a clear call to action button is important to promote the engagement of the users.
Avoiding Pop Ups
Avoiding pop ups in a mobile friendly website is essential as it can interfere with the experience of the users.
Pop ups are specially designed to be displayed in desktop sized screens. These are sometimes not so responsive to the mobile screens. This will be challenging for the user to interact with the website without having trouble.
The pop ups block the content that users are focused on. It will be difficult to watch. This will result in impaired website usability.
Google will subject a penalty on websites that will block the content and obstruct the view with pop ups. This will negatively impact the website’s SEO.
People will bounce from websites where pop ups will appear and become annoyed. This will increase the bounce rate.
Users get frustrated when the interest is interfered. Therefore, avoiding pop ups can help in saving the viewer as well as negatively impacting the above features.
Decluttering The Web Design
Decluttering the web design helps to improve the user experience. There are some areas to focus and develop in this process.
Using a simplified and straightforward menu without many tabs will let the users find things easily.
Create a clean and an uncluttered layout that has a white color background. Avoid using too many colors, textures or patterns.
Using large and easy to read fonts will make the users read the contents comfortably.
Use low resolution pictures and optimize them to reduce the time of page loading. Remove anything that does not add value to the website and make sure it contains only the important contents.
To give users a seamless experience, keep consistency throughout the entire website. Make sure the website is optimized for various devices and use the same design, branding, and layout for all pages.
Avoiding flash
Flash is not compatible with some devices and browsers. This will result in a poor user experience if the website heavily requires flash.
Flash can also slow down the pages sometimes that will affect the mobile users significantly.
The content that uses flash is not accessible for the visually impaired people. This will negatively affect the website.
Flash also comes with security issues that will sometimes compromise the personal information of the users and other sensitive data.
There are other options and alternatives which are safe and optimized that can be used instead of relying on flash.
Optimize Website Speed
For a seamless user experience, optimized website speed is crucial. Here are some tips that can be used to do it.
Reduce and compress the images without compromising the quality. Use appropriate images formats.
Minimize the HTTP requests by combining javascript and CSS into a single file. This will decrease the page loading time.
Remove any unnecessary codes and reduce the number of codes per page that will prevent the slowdown of the website.
Allow browser caching to store information. This will avoid the content reloading when the users visit again.
Use a content delivery network (CDN) to distribute the content of the website across many servers around the world. This will help to reduce the server response time.
Compress Images
Specific softwares are available to help out on this task. These help to compress images without lowering the quality.
Using the correct format to upload can also be helpful in compressing images.
The images can also be resized before uploading. This will reduce the size of the file while improving the speed of the website.
There are applications such as Adobe Photoshop which can be very helpful.
Change Button Size And Placement
Buttons should be larger in size so that they are visible and clear. It should also be able to easily tap.
In order to save the customer base, offer them a variety of payments. The preference of payments differs from one person to another. Therefore consider the most common payment methods and add them up in order to give the customers a secured and a seamless payment experience.
Make the payment process as simple as possible. Refrain from asking customers to fill in forms with a lot of information. Try using auto fill forms in order to make the work easy for both parties.
Large and Readable Font
The readability and the user experience can be enhanced by using large fonts which are readable on a mobile phone or a small device.
It is recommended to use 16 pixels for the body texts and large fonts for other boxes.
To prioritize significant pieces on the page, use typographic hierarchy.
Choose The Better Colors
A big difference in a mobile-friendly website can be made through the visual appeal of it.
A good color scheme which can give an aesthetic feeling throughout the website, that can please the customers.
Use high contrasting colors to improve the text reading. Limit the colors to reduce visual disturbances. This will help the viewers to focus on the important parts.
Use bold and bright colors to highlight the key factors such as call to action (CTAs). Don’t use this method too much since it will impact the overall effectiveness of the website.
Always test the colors with the fonts, different screen sizes, and light conditions. This is the most important part as this varies from device to device.
Be mindful about different cultures as the colors sometimes have a large impact on different cultures. Therefore the color combinations that are being used have to be appropriate.
Creating a mobile-friendly website is so important in the modernized world. It requires paying attention to all the details. By focusing on all of the above steps and using the given tips, it can be ensured that the website is optimized for all types of devices.
The website will then be able to cater any of the needs of the users and improve the whole experience.
Contact Tectera who provides web design in Toronto to develop mobile friendly website.
Editorial Staff at Tectera are experts on web design, SEO, Social media, App and Software.