Website Design Practices For a Better Mobile User Experience

Statistics show that mobile device internet usage increased to nearly 40 percent between 2012 and 2015, before which desktops monopolized nearly 90 percent of the online traffic. If the numbers say anything, it is that mobile site usage cannot be ignored. We tell you how to make your mobile website design favor a better user experience.

• Simplicity and minimalism are essential elements of a good mobile user experience. De-clutter your site and retain only what is necessary (because space is a constraint when it comes to mobile devices). Mobile users look to save time, and won’t take the trouble to ready through page-long content. Placing important design elements at the top, and getting to the point with your content will win you user experience points.
• Some businesses try retrofitting their existing desktop site to the requirements of a mobile site. While this may work, it is time-consuming, and requires you to work backward- which is tedious. What you can instead do is to start planning your responsive web design from the start. You want to start with the different pages on your site, and factor in content and tasks that are absolutely necessary. Make sure there is a good balance of design, text and functionality on your site.
• Keep the navigation simple. Multi-level navigation menus are best reserved for desktop sites. You want to have a single drop down menu for your mobile site, so users can find what they are looking for without going through different levels of the menu. That means you want to only include what is absolutely essential on your mobile site. At the same time, you want to leverage mobile-specific features on your site for a better user experience. The GPS can be used to display information that is relevant to the location, while you can let the users tap on a call button to directly place a call.
• You want to use increase font size to about 16px, so users can easily read what is on the site. Buttons and icons should be relatively large too, so users do not accidentally end up clicking on something else. You want to avoid using pop-ups on mobile sites, as they hog most of the space, and get in the way of usage.

For further assistance with mobile web design, you can get in touch with our Brisbane web design agency.