The growth of mobile devices has greatly affected web design; smaller screen sizes and touch interfaces is just the surface of designing a mobile website. If you do not have a mobile version or app of your site, you need to make on right now. Whether you want a mobile-specific site, mobile app or responsive app, here are 6 tips on designing for mobile.
1. Design for thumbs — Perhaps the most important thing to remember when designing a mobile website is that users will use their thumb or index finger to click, highlight and scroll, and not a mouse cursor. This means that your menu items, links and call-to-action buttons should be large enough for users to easily press using their finger or thumb.
2. Avoid using long forms — Filling out forms in mobile devices is tedious for a number of reasons. Because of these issues, keep mobile forms as short as possible. Make the fields big enough so they are easy to select with a thumb, but not so large that the on-screen keyboard will hide all subsequent fields.
3. Make text readable — Readable text might seem like an obvious part of the mobile design process, but many mobile sites still use small text. Also, small text means small links which would be difficult for smaller touch screens. Pinch zooming might cause other site elements to display incorrectly, giving you less control over the design of the site.
4. Consider drop-down navigation — If you need many navigation items, consider using a drop-down list. This will let you save precious mobile screen space and easily make menu items big enough for users to access without hitting the wrong link. If your site or app only has three or four links, large buttons or icons may be better for your design.
5. Use a linear site layout — Large displays work well with multi-column layouts, but mobile devices will not. Instead, stack all your content in a single scrollable column. Aside from letting you easily prioritize your content in an ordered hierarchy, this also prevents users from having to side scroll to view more, saving them time and lets them focus on your content.
6. App styling — If you are designing a mobile site, emulating app design can provide convenience and familiarity for users. App style buttons and icons on your mobile website can make users feel more at home on their mobile device. Take your cue from Etsy that uses 4 large app-style icons for menu navigation at the top of its single column layout.
With all these tips above, you should now have an idea on what a good mobile website design is all about. If you need more help in designing your mobile website, or you just want to hand over the job to someone who is guaranteed to give you a good mobile site design, contact a reputable website designer in your area now.