It’s estimated by mid 2013 more people will be 
accessing the internet using mobile devices, overtaking
those using the traditional office or home PC.
This is because sales of these new devices overtook sales
of PC’s in 2011 and 12 and continue to outsell as the typical
user becomes more mobile using Smartphones tablets,
even smart TV to access the internet.
Today’s Smartphones support the latest Internet browsers
With advancements in mobile device technology, today’s
Smartphones support the latest Internet browsers, but due
to their screen size and processing capacity traditional websites
that were designed for larger desktop computers tend not to display
well on these new small screen devices providing a poor user
experience for mobile internet users.
This fact is also re-enforced by a survey conducted by Google in 2012, where, out of
more than 1000 Smartphone users who were surveyed, 67% stated that they
were more likely to do business (purchase a product or service) with a website that was mobile-friendly.
Further, study has indicated that mobile owners primarily look for speed
and clarity when it comes to browsing websites on their phones.
You may be wondering about the costs and complexity involved in
creating multiple websites for different types of mobile devices.
But, you need not worry. Latest technology allows you to build
what are called “Responsive Websites”. With a few plug-ins and
additional code, the same website can be used across multiple devices.
The code helps the website to determine how it needs
to display on a particular device.
So, when you look to make your website responsive, there are some finer
points that you need to look at –
Reduce the content – Naturally, if you try to fit in too much of text on your site, on a mobile,
either the user will have to scroll a lot or the text will be too small to read. Both the factors
will reduce the probability of a user visiting your site.
Adjust the layout of the page – If the web page is too wide, it will be difficult to fit it on a mobile.
A broad page will again force a user to either scroll or zoom in and out,
which is not a good experience at all times.
Keep the design and navigation simple – If the navigation is too complicated with awkward
drop-downs or not easy to comprehend, the user is not going to be able to view all contents easily.
Ideally, you can have navigation at the bottom, so that the user can move to another
page once he or she finishes reading the text.
Reduce requirement of data entry – If you need to ask for user inputs,
reduce the mandatory fields, because typing on mobile devices can
be difficult and time consuming.
Reduce heavy images – Images can take longer to load and may occupy unnecessary
space on the screen. So, naturally, reducing images for mobile devices
is a good option to reduce mobile speeds.
In addition to these factors, you need to cater to different types of
devices as well for touch-screens and non-touch screens,
as well as QWERTY keypads or the lack of them.
Taking care of these factors using appropriate coding technologies can help you
create a responsive website for your mobile users to use and enjoy.
