Nowadays we can see the ubiquity of cell phones and that is the reason why people prefer to browse websites on their mobiles. With the growth of digital smartphones and smart devices, it is the ultimate way to unfold your information vertically and horizontally. Also, smartphones make your content easy for users to access and read whenever they see it is essential, and thus having a professional mobile-friendly website design helps. However, automating testing allows testers to automate their test cases to find bugs if any and ensure a mobile friendly website across a plethora of devices.
Moreover, the number of people using web-based devices on smartphones and tablets is on the rise and will continue to do so. We must thus take the hint and make our websites more user-friendly for people surfing it on their phones and this can be done through testing web. From better designs to improved functionality to faster connectivity and much more, you can make your website a go-to destination for everyone who uses mobile devices for basic browsing or has developed an app for it already.
Website design has grown beyond the traditional look of a simple website in the past two decades. It is important to note that not all smartphone users would be able to access your website regularly. The major reason behind this is that they use smartphones. They come in different brand names and are of different features as well. This being said, to ensure that your mobile website is technically sound and attractive at the same time, you need to hire a responsive web designer who could help you design and launch a unique looking site for your business, in sync with mobile devices. A mobile friendly website design is simply a blend of your website and your branded mobile application that would not only allow your audience to interact more closely with you via mobile devices but also permit you to reach out to them anytime and anywhere they are. The simple tips in this guide can help you strike a balance between content, design and functionality while also giving users a pleasing experience.
Introduction to Mobile Friendly Websites
Mobile-friendly website design is what should be considered as the benchmark for all the websites that are being developed today and those to be made in the near future. Mobile has revolutionized e-commerce, social media, and entertainment. A mobile-friendly or responsive website design is being created to ensure that the website design works optimally on any type of smartphone device regardless of the size of the screen. When you visit a mobile-friendly website, it will adjust itself according to your screen size and allow you to browse easily through it. It makes use of CSS, HTML5 and other related coding languages that are used in designing a business website. However, when it comes to developers and designers creating a mobile-friendly website design there are a few points that need to be kept in mind.
(Image Source: ProiDeators)
- Easy and Simple Navigation
Navigation is a significant part of any website, especially in the mobile community. However, the standard navigation bar often pushes off too much space and makes the page appear confusing and cluttered.
- For starters, it’s not always practical to have a consistent navigation bar on every page of your website. Mobile-friendly website design provides the space to fit in several important buttons and links instead of just one giant menu bar.
- The appropriate way to keep your navigation bar is by putting it at the top of your page. And if you want to, you may place it on the side. In any case, it is vital for you to ensure that the menu bar doesn’t get hidden after a user has clicked on any link on your page.
- The aim of the navigation bar is to make things simple for the users so that they don’t find it difficult to access the website on mobile devices.
Good clarity in mobile-friendly website designs tend to attract customers. And the first step to achieve it is by keeping the navigation simple and this feature can be tested through testing the web to see how a user will get to see the website on their device.
- Readable Font Size
In addition to smartphones, every single mobile platform provides guidelines on the ideal sizes for fonts as well. Reading from a distance is not easy, which is why it is crucial to keep font sizes constant across all platforms.
- However, while designing a mobile app or website, remember that mobile screens are limited to a certain size. Well, adjust the content across the screen accordingly. However, don’t undermine the importance of font size amidst all this.
- The font size for mobile device screens should be in small, medium and large ranges. Big displays enable large fonts to be visible but this doesn’t pan out well on the small display of your phone.
- Be careful with the font sizes as you have to make sure that the text looks attractive and legible at all times. Fonts should be large enough to read without the need for constant zooming in and out.
A font size for readability must always be considered. To be precise, you have to clearly set the targets and then go with them to derive the necessary value out of it. Furthermore, the font size should be big enough to make sure that the readers don’t face any difficulty while going through it.
- Keep the buttons thumb-friendly
One of the defining characteristics of mobile interfaces compared to PCs is their small size. This means that the thumb is often better suited to interactions with mobile interfaces because it will cover a larger portion of the screen.
- The dominant interaction for mobile pages is with the thumb. It’s the largest digit, making it imprecise. When creating buttons, designers should use the largest size for important interactions because the touch screen will not register input if parts of the thumb are falling outside of the button.
- When designing for thumb-reach, the “One-Thumb” or “Rule of Thumb” is a fundamental principle that designers must consider. The One-Thumb rule states that all elements on the screen should be within thumb’s reach.
- Critical touch zones should correspond to basic tasks users would want to perform often, such as accessing a new feature on the website or more than that..
The thumb is active even when its owner is reading, which means the interface itself can be designed for the hand in use, not just the fingers used for information consumption. The design of the mobile friendly website should be according to the Critical touch zones.
- Take care of the Secondary Content
Collapsible content is a micro-interaction commonly used in mobile sites and apps to reduce the amount of redundant information. Its purpose is to provide explanatory text alongside the primary headline and support the micro-copy used to describe an action or interaction which are frequently visited elements on any given screen.
- Due to its dual functionality of both illustrating a concept and aiding navigation, collapsible content is one of the most influential design components in mobile design today.
- For mobile design, the popularity of this tactic probably stems from the small screen real estate that is the common denominator of smartphones and tablets. The limited screen space means less copy, which in turn requires the designer to have a razor sharp grasp on both audience and message.
- By using collapsible/expandable content, designers can ensure that users are only seeing what’s necessary. The downside, of course, is that they may miss out on additional information while scrolling past the collapsed section.
However, with the collapse of secondary content, this can be useful for the users who are looking to access just the main content that is relevant to them.
- Keep Portrait-Orientation as priority
Portrait mode, a narrow display format and the dominant mobile content orientation, works best when paired with long-form content. Any site will be easier to navigate if it has a set structure, rather than one that is laid out on the fly. A clean layout with ample whitespace and clear use of visual hierarchy will deliver an optimal user experience.
- Because mobile devices have fewer pixels than desktop webpages, web designers have had to confront the challenge of mobile user experience, creating sites for phones, tablets, and all sorts of other screens that require responsive, variable design.
- While it’s impossible to create unique content for every device without crippling your server or overloading your team, there are ways of creating a universal design that responds to different browser sizes.
- The nature of mobile websites is much different than that of full-size websites, and as a designer or developer, it is important to focus on the unique qualities of mobile design before you begin.
With this portable environment comes great responsibility, and designers and developers need to create mobile experiences that are as delightful as they are functional.
- Try using mobile-first approach from scratch
There is a growing trend of designers and developers adopting a mobile-first approach for their web development process. This means websites first and foremost are designed to be accessible on mobile devices, with all other resolutions then falling back to this basic standard.
- What the term specifically refers to is designing a website first for the small screen before dedicating time to the desktop version. In practice, this means prioritizing the interface for mobile devices and building features upon that foundation first, then working up toward larger screens, sometimes simultaneously.
- You can think of it as a waterfall model where things are defined and built from the ground up after much initial work has been completed. Mobile-first design has become increasingly important as the use of mobile devices eclipses that of desktops in most countries.
- It’s just a matter of ensuring you understand them for desktops, as well as for mobile. The same principles apply with interface consistency, intuitive gestural interactions and context sensitivity.
By taking a mobile-first approach to designing your web site, you’ll be better prepared to create the best product possible.
- Keep mobile optimized images
Visuals or video content can be a useful way to break up your text, add a visual element and bolster your content. However, the main thing that the developers should note is that the images and videos must be mobile optimized and hence are easy to load.
- Providing an image with each post helps new readers, and even old readers, better understand your content. If you have something specific to convey, such as a graph or map, add those images too.
- The more visual your information is, the easier it can be for other people to understand. Therefore, include images that are helpful and interesting to read your content.
- Furthermore, make sure that the images present in the website are easily available once the website opens on the device as soon as it is accessed. This will help the users to go through the content of the website easily and in a faster way.
Moreover, the images and the videos that are uploaded should be relevant so that the users can easily understand the content of the mobile friendly websites.
Create Best Mobile Friendly Website With LambdaTest
To ensure that our site is compatible with all devices, we must perform cross-browser testing and fix any compatibility issues. This will significantly improve customer satisfaction with our product and increase revenue. With LambdaTest, you can ensure mobile friendly websites by debugging responsive errors in a single click. LambdaTest is a cloud-based solution that automates your web and mobile tests that offers scalability, security, and reliability. Run Selenium, Cypress, TestCafe, Puppeteer, Taiko, Playwright, Appium, Espresso, and XCUITest tests on our robust automation cloud.
Final Thoughts
With smartphone usage constantly increasing and tablet devices becoming more affordable, mobile website browsing is here to stay. The difference between mobile and non-mobile sites is that the former often displays smaller versions of previously desktop-size pages, which can limit how much information you can get across. For those who are not surfers and live to catch the latest in website trends, mobile websites present some challenges. Since mobile phones were initially designed just to access phone services and products, websites did not get much attention from developers. In recent years, however, savvy surfers have been demanding more from their phones, including access to social media networking such as Facebook and Twitter. And now that smart phone technology is readily available and affordable, even many non-surfers have smart phones for purposes such as accessing email and Internet on the go.
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