Mobile Phones Are Taking Over the Internet And Your Website Audience
The use of mobile and smartphones for Internet browsing is rising quickly thanks to technological advances in both mobile phones and web design capabilities that can now provide a meaningful experience for mobile web users. Mobile Internet browsing is the future of web that has already started and you have to keep up, or better yet, run ahead of the pack!
Creating a mobile version of your current website will give you an edge over your competition. Customers no longer have to wait to get home to their computer to access your website. E-commerce is growing and offers fresh and innovative ways to interact with your customers, such as location-based services, time-based offers, mobile coupons. Consider creating an App for a specific user function like class schedules, quick ordering, item/project tracking, etc. You have to be able to communicate the very essence of your business with little text and without the support of extensive graphics. To reach a broader audience, ideally, the mobile version of your website should work both on the small black & white screens of older phones and the larger, color screens of the newest feature-rich smartphones. User-friendliness is paramount for mobile websites (and for standard sites as well), because your audience is only a click away from a competitor's website that offers a better web experience. Due to severely limited screen real estate, you have to re-consider many elements of your site, both in content and visuals.
Here are some points to consider if you are thinking about building a mobile version of your site:
- Scrolling on mobile phones is cumbersome, so content has to be short & to the point, or at least broken into easily digestible sections.
- Heavy graphics slow download speed, so be sure to remove extra pictures that serve no purpose other than being pretty.
- Navigation has to include more space around buttons and links to accommodate users with touch-screen devices.
If you want to expand your business' reach through a mobile website design, consider hiring a professional mobile web designer. A mobile web designer will take into account both design and technical specifics of the mobile medium, know limitations for the various cell phones currently on the market, list your mobile site in the mobile website directories, and help integrate your mobile site with your current website.