Best tips to Mobilize your site

Mobile Web has been a very dominating industry in these past few decades and it refers to the access to WWW or World Wide Web, i.e. the use of mobile browsers to access Internet services, which can be from a smartphone, a feature cum budget phone or a tablet, which is connected to a mobile network or some wireless network like Wi-Fi or dongle. Searches on mobile have grown 400% in the last two years but many blogs & businesses in the today’s scenario still don't have mobile optimized sites or mobile-friendly sites.

Just because you can see your site which was made for computer on your mobile phone, it doesn’t mean it’s mobile-friendly. Most of the mobile sites are made by experts, keeping in mind that the user will use it on a phone with small screen & in any circumstances which can be in low light or a fast moving train.

AN EXAMPLE OF BEST MOBILE SITE I’VE EVER SEEN

We all might have used Facebook Mobile (m.facebook.com) on our mobile phone once in life. Have you noticed that the site loads so quickly & never hangs our phone? The site is so well designed & also is vertical in nature. Every page of the site contains the Facebook home page button.

Ask yourself a question.

For what purpose did you open FB site on your mobile phone?

Possible answers would summarize the following-

For checking NOTIFICATIONS,

For checking NEW MESSAGES,

For checking COMMENTS ON A PIC or POST

But not for a long term or long time span.

No lights, PC crashed, NO internet access.

Here are tips to make your mobile site better after my research on internet-

1. QUICKNESS

Make your site load quickly on the smartphone's browser. Design it simple & unique yet user friendly so that the reader can access your site just like Facebook mobile.

Mobile users are often short on time. To help them, design your site to load fast and easy to read.

2. Contents

You should priorities the content and features of your site that mobile users use most. Use analytic to see what do the users want from your site?

Reduce big blocks of text and make the contents brief & understandable .Use bullet points for easy reading. Compress the images to keep them small for faster loading of your site.

TIP- .png images are great for using on mobile site.

3. Navigation

Make the navigation simple. Minimize scrolling & keep your site vertical, not horizontal. Simplify the Navigation because no one likes to be confused. Use a clear hierarchy in menus as users find it difficult to select from many options on a small screen.

TIP-Put a home button & search button on every page to make navigation easy.

4. Buttons

Use check boxes, lists and scroll menus to make data entry easier. As I said above, maintain key features of your site across all pages as much as possible. People use their fingers to operate mobile devices – especially their thumbs because stylus or pen is so uncommon these days. You should design your site so that even large hands can easily interact with it. Use large, centred buttons.

TIP- Give space in between each button to reduce accidental clicks.

5. DISPLAY

A mobile-friendly site or MOS (Mobile Optimized Site) gives its message across to the user without causing eyestrain. You should keep in mind to make it easy for your customers to read. Use contrast between background and text. Make sure that the content of your site fits on the screen of mobile and can be read without pinching and zooming. You can play with size and color to indicate link or button priority.

6. Use Mobile Site Redirects

A mobile site redirect is a code that can automatically tell the server if visitors are using a mobile device and send them or redirect them to the mobile-friendly version of your site. For e.g. When you use www(dot)f*acebook.com on your phone, it redirects to m.Facebook.com automatically. If you are the site developer, implement a redirect code so your users get the best version of your site for their needs. Give users a choice to go back to the desktop site, but make it easy to return to the mobile site. Let users choose which version they prefer to see for later visits on your site.

7. FEEDBACK

Good mobile sites are often user-centric, which means they’re built with input from their audience. Ask your desktop site users what they want in a mobile website and make testing and optimization an ongoing process. Also ask you users that what modifications they want in your site. Always refer analytic to understand how people use your site.

Also, keep these points in mind while designing your site for mobile-

Find alternatives to Flash – it does not work on some devices.

Use HTML5 for interactivity and animation.

Adapt your site for both vertical and horizontal orientations.

Keep users in the same place when they change orientation.

Ask me if you need any help