With the ongoing proliferation of mobile devices in Africa and around the world, it goes without saying that if your business website isn’t mobile-ready your online strategy will be cutting out the vast majority of people who may be accessing your website.
So today we will take a look at 4 practical tips to help your business create a website that replicates the same awesome user experience for the mobile platform.
1. Optimise your website to load quickly
For a mobile website it’s important to keep the number of pages to a minimum in order to ensure faster load times. Plan your layout and include pages that are a must-have and contain critical information for web visitors.
2. Have consistent branding across both your mobile website and your standard website
Ensure that when users visit your website on a mobile device, that they know immediately that they’ve found the right website. Your mobile website is an extension of your brand and therefore its branding must be consistent with what people are familiar with. This will go a long way to ensure that your brand identity is preserved and established.
3. Avoid the use of Flash and Java
Most mobile devices, particularly iPhones don’t support the use of Flash on their platforms. As such it is advisable that you stay away from using it on your mobile website. Using it may damage the user experience for some visitors and it could have adverse effects on the load time of your site. Many phones do not support Java either and again using it could increase the load time of your website.
The growing standard is HTML5 which is compatible with most phones so model your mobile website around it.
4. Reduce the need for text entry
Most people don’t enjoy typing on their mobile phones particularly because the keyboard is smaller and therefore they are more prone to make errors and will have to keep erasing. Use drop-down menus, checklists and pre-populated fields as much as possible.
In addition to the above, make sure to include a link to the full site for anyone who may want to view it on mobile for more information.
Let us hear your tips for optimising websites for mobile in the comments section below.
