Making Your Website Mobile User Friendly

A recent estimate on the growth of mobile web technology states that in about two year’s time, mobile phones shall overtake desktops as the most popular choice for browsing. It’s for time to decide if this prediction will come true, but the fact remains that mobile web browsing continues to grow in popularity. The smartphone market in the UK is about 25 per cent of its mobile market. But not everyone is enthused by this growth. There’s still a sizable majority that dismisses the growth of the mobile web technology. And they continue to do so at their own cost. And those who’ve made their website mobile friendly have done so for the sake of it. Most of these websites are marked by illegible print, slow connections and confusing navigation.

Mobile web users primarily use them to reference for quick information and not to read and browse. A website that is designed to be mobile friendly should be easy to navigate and consider the fact that they do not have the advantage of a larger screen and cannot continuously zoom and scroll around the screen to browse the site. When the site is too difficult to navigate people lose their interest and shall move ahead. It’s best to center your content to allow the user to enjoy your content without having to scroll up and down.

Another thing to remember when designing a mobile friendly website is that mobile web users are often impatient and wanting to do something rather than browse. This is especially true for ecommerce websites. Information should be readily available. Content too should be focused and in order of priority. Bore a surfer with too much of irrelevant content and he’s sure to lose interest.

Also remember to shrink your page size to a size that’s appropriate for mobile viewing. Every page should be kept to a smaller size, preferably smaller than 10KB to make the site easy to load and navigate. Images too have to be loaded with thought. Desktop sized images that time to upload should also be avoided. It’s best to avoid images unless they are absolutely required. And if you have to upload them, make sure that they are resized.
In addition to this some website designers have a system where the server automatically decides on what to serve depending on the browsers capabilities. Some companies use software that decides what the mobile device can do and serve accordingly. Thus the mobile web surfer gets what he wants quickly, and is encouraged to use the website often.