The whole world seems to go mobile. The biggest mobile phone and web giants affirm that this fad indeed cannot be a passe. As the use of mobiles has radically augmented in recent years, it has become paramount for the businesses to mull over developing mobile friendly websites for their company. More and more people are now hooked up with mobile phones thus businesses have to earnestly focus on creating mobile websites to connect with their targeted customers and boost the sales. In fact, according to a latest report, companies can be at huge risk and may witness a downfall in their business, if they do not posses mobile-based websites. Designers all over the globe are now extensively undertaking projects for developing mobile friendly websites. Generally, as a designer if you are newly developing website for mobile phones, you may think that it is totally a different game to create websites for small screens but in reality there is not much difference. The basic rules of designing are still the same but you may have to pay special attention on some elements for mobile browsers.
Navigation tool:
To make a meaningful and enjoyable experience for the users, navigation tool plays an important role in mobile based websites. Navigation can be one of the biggest hurdles to clear off while developing websites for the small screens. It can be a fun ride if the users are easily able to navigate through the website. First and foremost, make an effort to make the navigation, visually clickable. Do not keep the boxes too small or else users may keep on tapping the screen and may exit from the site with aggravation. Give proper and understandable labels to the navigation buttons. You can also make use of meaningful icons for navigation. This graphical representation is not only easy to understand but will generate a good visual balance too. A clear navigation path is very important for small screens or it may create confusion and infuriate the users.
Make use of sufficient white space:
Just because the screen space is limited, doesn’t mean you have to ignore white spacing. In fact white spacing is extremely important to make the site look shipshape and uncomplicated. White space will make the design look more effective and usable. You will be easily able to read the content and view images. Smaller screen requires better User Interface planning than large screens. Use clear grid, allowing plenty of white space between each element. Use smaller but clear fonts to make the content readable.
Focus on branding:
Why are we creating a website? It is simply for making the business recognizable. If the brand elements are not properly utilized then what is the use of the website? Most of the designers forget to focus on branding while designing websites for mobile phones. Due to limited space, they just create brand awareness on the homepage and overlook it on other pages. Logo may not require much space so you can include it on your web pages. If the logo is big then you can use the watermark on each web page or you can also use the color scheme of the company logo. Following a color scheme throughout the website can be a good branding exercise.
Generate some kind of audio or visual reaction:
More than desktops, response from the browser is much important for smaller screens. How long will the viewer keep looking at his mobile phone or tapping the buttons continuously? How will he understand whether the button or link has been clicked or not? Therefore reaction is quite vital, in case of mobile browsers. You can either generate some kind of physical noise or any message to show that the button has been clicked and your request is being processing. You can even change the color of the button or icon to show that it has been clicked, effectively. You can use border colors when the button is touched. You can also use fade in fade out animation for the touch elements.
One golden advice – Less is more for mobile websites, so just stick to essentials while designing website for the small screens.
Remember, people are shifting their focus to mobile phones for an enhanced, comfortable and fun experience. It is quite evident now that the future of web-designing is comprehensively going to be mobile. So maintain the consistency and deliver better user-experience.
