Mobile Web Design:
Mobile websites, on any kind of device, are becoming increasingly popular every year. You just can’t beat statistics: by 2013, it’s forcasted that there will be 1.7 billion mobile web users. Billion. Consider the fact that there’s 6.7 billion people in the world.[...] Let’s do the math - ⅙ of the worlds population will be using some sort of mobile website. So, to prepare for this invasion, let me give you some quick tips (in no order) on creating a mobile web site of your own:
Mobile websites, on any kind of device, are becoming increasingly popular every year. You just can’t beat statistics: by 2013, it’s forcasted that there will be 1.7 billion mobile web users. Billion. Consider the fact that there’s 6.7 billion people in the world.[...] Let’s do the math - ⅙ of the worlds population will be using some sort of mobile website. So, to prepare for this invasion, let me give you some quick tips (in no order) on creating a mobile web site of your own:
- Keep it simple. (You thought I was going to call you stupid. You’re trying to learn! Why would I call you stupid?!) Keep everything to a minimum. You want to increase load times. You want to utilize the space that you have. This could possibly mean that you need to redo some menus. Photographs and graphics play a large part in this as well. If you need to get rid of some or break up text on multiple pages, that’s quite alright.
- Give your viewers the option of visiting the original website. Believe it or not, this can be a huge deal. If you keep it simple like you should, then there is a possibility that your original website has things that the mobile site doesn’t. For some of your viewers that can’t get to a computer, this can be a deal-breaker.
- It’s helpful to use a different theme for your mobile site. This can make it easy to essentially ‘start over’ to create a site that is nothing but mobile web site friendly. It can also be handy to have a separate theme for iPhone users and for standard and android users.
However, this isn’t always the case. If you’re creating a website and considering mobile web design for your website then sometimes it’s best to design your mobile site first and then go out from there for your standard site. It’s completely up to you though.
- Minimize your use of images. This obviously goes along with keeping everything simple. There’s nothing worse then sitting and waiting for one image to load on a tiny screen. If you don’t need the image - then don’t include it.
- Completely utilize your navigation. Keep in mind that a lot of devices will have touch screens so it’s important to think of the clickable area around buttons. Plus, no one likes to zoom in on an area just to click a button.
There are a plethora of mobile website creators to help you prepare for this invasion as well. Wirenode is one such website. Users can come and register for free to utilize and make a mobile website but custom domain names will obviously cost money.
Still lost? Maybe you just need a little inspiration.
