Making a mobile website as user friendly as possible is a great way of ensuring its success.
Go through any of the ‘latest trends in the internet’ brought out be experts, and there is one point that comes out starkly – It is the time of the mobile internet and it’s mobile websites that are going to determine whether a company’s or an individual’s online presence is going to be a success or not. It’s always a good idea to take such pronouncements with a pinch of salt but there is absolutely no doubt that mobile usage of the internet is growing and will keep evolving.
So, it makes perfect sense that mobile websites are the in-thing today. More importantly, the experts seem to be on the right track and it’s increasingly looking as if mobile websites are going to emerge as force to reckon with. As the name suggests, mobile websites can be accessed through hand held devices; and it’s but logical that the more user centric it is, the more its chances of success.
Is a mobile website something that you really need?
It all begins with this simple and silly sounding question? The answer to this question lies in your target audience. If a large part of your audience are mobile internet users, then your need for a mobile website is perfectly justified. But, if a major portion of your target audience is not going to access your website using mobile devices, it doesn’t make any sense for you to build such a site. Clarity on this aspect will help you design a mobile website that is perfectly in tune with the needs of your target users.
So, now after closely scrutinizing your needs and requirements, if you have decided that you do need a mobile website, it’s time to focus on making it user centric.
Start by focusing on the User
Right through the design process, you need to keep the attention focused on the user. This will help you develop a website that a user expects and will love to use. Being user focused means gathering a sound understanding of the target users and their interests and preferences. You need to be able to zero in on their expectations regarding a mobile website, which helps you design a mobile user experience that perfectly aligns with their needs and requirements. You will need to build a detailed picture of the user, wherein you have a clear idea about the kind of features and functionality that will be appreciated by the user.
Underline your Priorities
By focusing on the user, you will be able to clearly define the kind of features that you would want your mobile website to have. These features will not only be aligned with your business requirements but also with the requirements of the user. You will need to prioritize the kind of features that you want to offer; more often than not, it’s impossible to integrate all features into a website. So, prioritizing ensures that all the important features are a part of your mobile website.
Designing for a smaller screen size
Complications are bound to arise while designing for smaller screen size, and add to that the range of screen sizes used by your target users and you have a real challenge on your hands. It’s important that your website design guarantees an engaging user experience, with the kind graphics that make the best use of the smaller screen size of the mobile website.
Simplifying Navigation
Your target users won’t have the luxury of a mouse to point and click but will have to use tiny keypads, trackballs and touch functionality for the purposes of navigation. This means the navigation of the mobile website is crucial to making it more user-friendly. Clarity and intuitiveness are two important qualities of any good user-centric mobile website navigation. One of the better ways of ensuring the clarity of site navigation is reducing the levels of navigation and making sure that navigation labels maintain a certain degree of consistency across the mobile website.
By no means are the four pointers mentioned above, the be all and end all of a mobile website that is user friendly and very efficient. But they are enough to ensure that the website design begins on the right track and leads to a solution that has taken the needs and requirements of the user into consideration. Not every designer is able to design a mobile website that comes good on all user expectations. For this, you need to work with a designer who understands the significance of a user centric mobile website design.
At PLAVEB, our design team is perfectly attuned to fact that the needs and demands of the user are the starting point for any website design, mobile or otherwise. An in-depth expertise across all popular mobile platforms and proven proficiency on all the latest designing software give us the necessary edge when it comes to mobile website design. With us, you are assured of a website that is not only in line with your requirements, but also the expectations of the end users. This guarantees a successful innings for your online mobile presence.