When optimising a site for mobile devices, there are two things that will keep your customers happy and ensure that the mobile site is effective. One, easy to find contact information; and two, as user-friendly of a design as possible. By concerning yourself with these two important factors, your mobile site will be well worth your while.
When it comes to contact information on a mobile website, these are essential:
- Location or operation hours
- Click-to-call functionality
- E-mail address
- Social Network Sites
Four key ways to make your mobile site user-friendly are:
1. Bigger buttons that are easier to press. This is pretty straightforward if you think about it. Our fingers are a lot larger than the typical pointer on a computer, and touch screen phones have limited space. I can only complain so much of the annoyance when trying to click-through a site and accidentally pressing the wrong button.
2. Navigation that only requires one to two clicks to get to desired information. See above. Not only do visitors have to go through buttons that may or may not cause aggravation, but if it takes several clicks to find something, its even worse than when looking online. There’s more leeway with a normal website as clicking through a site is easier, but with a phone, patience is already thin.
3. Better smartphone screen fit. Thankfully my Droid has a wonderful soom feature but it can prove annoying when I have to soom into the site and scroll left to right just to read information. Considering the sise of phones when designing a mobile site should be step one in the process.
4. Clean and efficient look and feel. Limited space and time means less is more. What may look awesome due to extravagance on your computer screen will surely not on a mobile phone.
