If you recently created a website for your small business, finding out that you need to change it up to make it mobile-friendly can cause a major headache. The key to creating a great mobile-friendly website is simplification, as your visitors will need to be able to find the most important information without clicking on a ton of links or spending a lot of time scrolling. Fortunately, there are a variety of easy ways to simplify your mobile design layout, and a professional web designer can help.
Keep Your Content Short
An average mobile visitor isn’t going to take the time to read long articles from their tiny smartphone, so cut back on the content for your mobile design website.
Boil your message down to just a few short paragraphs, keeping each paragraph at 2-4 sentences each. These shorter chunks of information will be easier to read and digest when viewing them from a mobile device.
Make Navigation Easier
When creating your mobile design, it is important to make the navigation process as simple as possible.
If viewers are inundated with dozens of links, they might just become overwhelmed and give up rather than going through them all. Instead, consider which of your links are the most important, and then cut them down to about 4-5 essentials.
When it comes to simplifying navigation, there are several other important tips to keep in mind:
- Reduce the number of levels of navigation and categories, and then rearrange them based on priority. The most important categories should always be presented first.
- Use clear and consistent labels for navigating across your site.
- When designing for touch screens, ensure the tap size is a minimum of 30 pixels.
- Make sure that links are obvious, and provide immediate and clear visual feedback to show that a link has been selected.
Reduce the Amount of Text Entry
It is important to remember that your visitors won’t have access to a mouse and a conventional keyboard, so it can be difficult to enter in text when viewing your mobile site.
If your desktop site has tools in which your users will need to input text, consider replacing these options with a list or radio buttons so that they can choose the appropriate value with ease. Your web designer can help you to make use out of drop down menus and checklists to make the mobile design more user-friendly.
Give an Option to View Your Full Website
If you have returning customers that have previously viewed the desktop version of your website, they may be interested in an option that allows them to switch to this site. By providing this option, your customers can view the other features and content that will only be accessible on the desktop version.
Since they’ll likely be doing a lot of scrolling, make the mobile design process easier by adding “Back to Top” links that will allow them to jump back to the start of the page when they’re ready.
Conclusion
While mobile platforms are different, the design process is relatively similar to traditional web design. The most important element is to simplify your mobile design so that you can create the best possible experience for your customers.
Cultura Interactive is a full service, Fort Lauderdale web design agency that strives to not only create unique and attractive websites, but also helps businesses improve their internet marketing strategies in a less-complicated way.
Our team of professionals specialize in web design, logo design, WordPress development, eCommerce, responsive web design, mobile apps, SEO, social media marketing, pay per click advertising and more. Learn more about our services or contact us for a personal interview.
