We live at a time when the use of mobile devices exceeds the use of computers. Users are attached to their phones as “Red Bull” to “Jamison”. The reality is that 3 out of 5 companies have not yet invested in optimizing their mobile on-line presence. That is why mobile marketing and related services are a great opportunity.
This article will show you how to design and develop an amazing mobile experience for visitors, users and customers. You will find out how to explore specific consumer behavior, consider how to ensure that your development matches your brand identity, and explore other best practices and tips for design and development.
Follow these tips to make sure your mobile website will be rated with 5 stars.
Why should you pay attention to mobile devices?
Look around you. If you are in social environment, you’ll probably see someone using their phone. In a café, zoo or public transport. People are on their phones all the time.
Let’s review some recent statistics:
More than 90% of households in Europe own three or four phones;- Over 60% of European mobile phone users use mobile data on a daily basis;
- 90% of people under the age of 18 use their mobile phones to go on-line every day. (Google)
- In October 2016, the use of mobile devices, for the first time in history surpassed desktop devices. This says a lot.
We, the team of Design and Development Studio Global Consult Engineering Ltd, have invested time and money in mastering the mobile experience because our data shows that people consume our content on their mobile devices. We welcome the opportunity to give people what they want. That’s why we need to think about mobile devices to offer our customers and consumers the best experience and convenience when working with our products.
1. Use statistics from consumption analysis
Use of statistics from consumption analysis is a great first step for obtaining information on how people interact with your on-line websites through mobile device.
You can easily do this by using the Google Analytics tool to see what share of the traffic comes from mobile phone and what devices visitors use on your website. From the data, you can determine how many people visit your website using a phone, tablet, or desktop PC, and what operating systems they use.
2. Examine the behavioral pattern of your customers
Do you like when people say “Hmmm, this website is so intuitive and easy to work!”? Let’s talk about why this is happening and why the study of behavioral patterns of your visitors is important.
Your target market will vary depending on the product or service you offer. Is that correct? That’s why your page design should be tailored to your target audience. You agree, right? The design of your website will get your visitors to act in a certain way.
The key is to get to know your clients’ behavioral pattern so you can make your website “intuitive” and personalize it according to your visitors’ behavior.
For example, let’s take a look at a page that is primarily used on mobile devices and reports events and provides the opportunity to subscribe to them. On a non-optimized page, after the user sees the event announcement, he has to scroll through the menus until he finds the subscription tab. On condition, that you have learned the behavioral model and know that after checking out the events visitors are subscribing, then the correct decision is to place an interactive button in the announcements that leads the user directly to the subscription section.
Consumer behavior research is conducted through a wide range of tools and polls. Design and Development Studio Global Consult Engineering Ltd. recommends that this should be done by a team of specialists with experience in this field.
3. Page designed for mobile devices or an responsive design page?
If you are developing a new website from scratch, you have two options: You can create it specifically for mobile devices or make it with responsive design technology.
Let’s look at the pros and cons of each option.
Mobile Website
Mobile sites are specifically designed for mobile devices.
Pros: These sites can be highly personalized, especially for Android devices or iPhone, which allows them to play a part in the overall feeling of working with the page.
Cons: They can be expensive due to specific maintenance, update and modification. Also, the mobile site should have a different domain (usually m.domain.com) that can harm your organic traffic and links to and from other sites, as well as make it difficult for the content to be managed by the customer.
Responsive Design
The responsive design is suitable for any device and adjusts automatically according to the size and orientation of the device.
Pros: Google believes that responsive design is better while saving a domain and a permanent URL, avoiding complex redirects. Also, whenever you update your site, you will not need to update it separately in your mobile version. Overall, this is the better option with higher return on investment.
Cons: Designers often ignore the use of mobile devices when developing the site, and are functionally focused on the use of desktop computers. Your visitors can use mobile devices for purposes different from these on the desktop version, so mobile functionality may not do the work for them.
Conclusion: Design and Development Studio “Global Consult Engineering” Ltd recommends to its clients the use of responsive design, as the technology is much more modern and its cons can be avoided by the experienced specialists in the sphere.
4. Plan the development of your website in the future
What should you design first? Mobile view or Desktop view?
The right answer is: both. In the past, most web developers only designed desktop view, but now the process is two-way. You should consider how your layout will be organized for both desktop and mobile devices.
In terms of content, you need to keep in mind the reader’s need. For example, if you are designing a detailed desktop image, consider how it will looks like on a mobile phone, as it will be displayed a few times smaller than on a larger monitor.
We recommend that you sketch the location of the elements, images and paragraphs before you start writing the code.
A clear vision for the placement of elements of the website will help you build your website faster because you will not wander, trying to find out which is first and which is next. The established model will also help you keep the look and consistency of the items on your website in all sub pages.
Still, you do not have to worry about every detail before you start working. The important thing is to have the backbone of the page.
5. Follow the model of design that you choose
It is very important to follow the design you have chosen. If you have not clarified the design in advance, you will waste a lot of time remaking later.
Therefore, the overall look of the web site should be fully drawn up at the very beginning. Everything from the appearance, colors, functionality and overall feeling should be designed according to the target audience.
From the point of view of branding, do not use more than 2 or 3 different fonts to keep your website compatible. If you are using two fonts, apply one font to the main titles and a second for subtitle and text.
Your color scheme should be related to your brand and the psychological effect that will make the best connection with your users.
And finally, consider choosing the right colors for your brand.
6. Position the most important content first
Once you know your visitors’ behavioral patterns, you should have an idea of the content your visitors are most interested in.
If you deliver the most important content first, your users will have no reason to irritate, which will make them feel satisfied whenever they interact with your website.
Example:
- If you are in the restaurant business: the address, food menu, working time and reservations are more important than your chef’s biography.
- Let’s say you run a gym: information about organized courses and the purchase of passes must have priority over all photos of the gym.
- If you are a blogger, your articles should be easily accessible before asking people to subscribe.
Keep the spine, change the details
As I mentioned above, the perception for mobile device should be different from a desktop computer because your audience can use desktops and mobile devices for different purposes.
This also applies to the content of your website. Since you can show or hide different information for mobile devices or desktop computers, you need to store your most important content and change only things that serve particular micro-moments that the audience searches for.
7. Most Ignored Element: the Navigation (Menus)
Mobile navigation is extremely important. That is because our mobile screens are many times smaller than the desktop.
Keep in mind that on mobile devices you can have any navigation position and users can swipe to the side to get an extra screen.
The most important thing about mobile navigation is that it should be easy for use, well organized and that there should not be too many elements to create difficulties while choosing.
Conclusion
The world becomes mobile and there is no doubt about it. If analyzes show that visitors to your website use it on their mobile phones, you should consider whether your design is intuitive enough.
We, the team of Design and Development Studio Global Consult Engineering Ltd, hope that this article will help and guide you in the design and development of a website for your business that is created to meet the needs of mobile users. If you are not sure, you can take advantage of our services!