Don’t do a Hoover!
Responsive design is something we have spoken about in past blogs. That’s because there’s importance to it! Desktops are being used less and less; mobile devices and tablets are being used increasingly. This could easily mean that half of your website’s traffic is coming from a device other than a desktop or laptop. Therefore, it’s important that those people aren’t put off by your clunky hard-to-navigate website from their device. Here are a few simple tips that’ll help you decide how you can make you website more responsive.
Think smaller
As most people will be operating their smartphone or device with one hand, it’s important that they can navigate round your website without having to employ the other. Once people need the other to pinch the screen so they can read the text easier, your website has instantly proved itself to be more difficult to navigate than it could be.
Shorten your content
When someone is seeing your website from a computer monitor, you can afford to add a little text for them to read. However, when you’re looking at your mobile website, there’s a considerably smaller space to cram in your message. Therefore, it’s best to cut down those paragraphs about why people should choose you, and be short and sweet. This way, people can glance at their devices, see what they want, and not have to sift through paragraphs of text.
Less is more
design-wise Simple designs are the way to go as far as mobile websites are concerned. Similarly to content; when you’re displaying your website on a PC monitor, you can afford to add the colours and the designs in order to impress your audience. However, when people are accessing your website through a smaller device; colours and wacky patterns will, ultimately, make it harder for people to find the links and text that they want to.
Keep your contact info as close as possible
People accessing websites from mobile devices are, more often than not, there for a very short amount of time. Getting all your contact information in full view, including number, email address, social media links etc. is essential. People don’t want to have to hunt to find your information so don’t make them. (NOTE: when displaying your contact information on your mobile website, using icons can be great. Phone symbols, Facebook symbols and email symbols etc. will be short, easily-understood and make your website look like it’s optimised specifically for mobile-viewing.)
Avoid the typos
When filling out forms on websites via mobile devices, you often find auto-correct decides to try and change your name at every given opportunity. This is of great annoyance to the user and often ends in some form of yelling. By turning off the auto-correct function in any fields of your website, you can ensure this doesn’t happen. Similarly, when people are inputting numbers and email addresses, an automatic number keyboard displaying makes it incredibly easy for the user or, in the email address case, @ symbol appearing on the keyboard without the user having to click “Shift”
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