Mobile Web Design – What web developers need to know

Ilan Patao says:

In reality, most platforms now display sites on mobile browsers just as they would look on a normal desktop; with new pinch and zoom technology more content can be pushed on to web sites and viewed on a tiny screen just as if it were a large monitor. You don’t have to create a mobile friendly site with the newer phones; technology had already resolved this headache. Creating a mobile map for some sites really depends on the nature of the site, what type of site we’re talking about as far as content, sections and other features. Not all sites utilize the m.domain.com or domain.com/m versions and now continue to use their regular sites for both mobile and desktop. With newer technology the need for the mobile versions will be extinct as browsers on smartphones now eliminate the need to specially format sites, but allow you to view them as if you were in front of a desktop.

26. 9. 2011 at 2:23 pm

Eonic Web Design says:

Interesting to see the spikes on the visits graph above.
There are increasingly some really cool themes designed for mobile sites you can run along side your own main site.

26. 9. 2011 at 2:29 pm

Brian Sullivan says:

Depends on the site and whether it is worth the additional expense. With some sites, it is less than 1% of traffic, others, over 10%. Of course, what is that compared to your total visitor count? The decision would be different if you only do 20 visitors a day vs. 1000. Also, are smartphone users really your customers? Is someone researching metal fabrication companies on a smart phone really serious? Are they your type of customer? Naturally, with CSS3, we developers can do some things to help, with a nominal increase in price, if the design is flexible enough to handle it. As always, it comes down to ROI.

26. 9. 2011 at 2:51 pm

Writing Web Pages for Mobile Devices « Silicon Beach Training Blog says:

[...] This post is mainly about text and code, for more advice on other design considerations read Mobile Web Design – What web developers need to know [...]

26. 9. 2011 at 4:01 pm

heather buckley says:

Brian

Thats true, but if you are talking about small businesses, some of these will have a word-press site already. Getting something online for mobile users can be as simple as downloading a plugin.

“Are Smartphone users really your customers?”

Yep I think soon enough everyones customers will be smartphone users because most people will be smartphone users in the very near future.

26. 9. 2011 at 4:30 pm

Heather Buckley says:

Yes Bess,

Whilst I do agree that there are exceptions, I think it is important to understand that we should be designing for the future. I believe that the biggest percentage of users will be viewing web content on mobile devices, more than laptops and monitors. I also think that this transition will happen a lot faster than many realise. We are talking about designing for the future, designing for what will be the majority rather than the minority.

We have several niche wordpress sites that we update with subject specific quality content, see our SEO training site http://www.seotraininguk.org.uk/, to download a plugin to allow mobile users to see a different layout to PC and Mac users took about 5 minutes. As these sites are blogs, we can get away with a standard theme because users of these sites are just interested in content. No budget needed there. Our main site, however is more complicated, we have a custom CMS which talks to our database so this will involve more investment and time, that is why many businesses need to think about time investment and need, also bigger businesses like us need to think more carefully about brand and design, so I do understand. Bigger businesses like us though, should just get on with it, I don’t think it is an option not to future proof your website.

We are launching a new training programme this week, allowing developers to update their skills to enable them to design mobile friendly websites.

27. 9. 2011 at 12:11 pm

Dave says:

Two points;

First, the stats are great in gegards to the growth of various mobile platforms, but what is missing is the contextual “what percentage of the overall pageviews are coming from mobile devices”.

Secondly to the question “should all designers aim to optimize their websites for mobile phones” I will respond as I did on a similar LinkedIn post;

“‘All’ is a big word, and there is no answer that fits ‘ALL’ situations.

Any good web development should be concerned with its target audience, both current and projected audience before the next refresh cycle.

Frankly most sites would benefit from some good web re-design in general to trim the useless eye-candy and make the content more navigatable… chances are that would encompass accomodation of mobile clients as well.”

I think this resonates with the spirit of this article. Would love some solid stats on PC vs Mobile browser usage though to flesh out the context.

27. 9. 2011 at 2:55 pm

Dave says:

Some quick (unvalidated) information pulled from only a single source – http://www.netmarketshare.com/

Desktop Marketshare = 93.2%
Mobile Marketshare (including tablets) = 6.4%

Personally I would say the two winning points in this article were;
“Go minimalist” and “Functionality is key”… after that the rest are all considerations that one should weigh based on the target audience.

27. 9. 2011 at 3:12 pm

Josh says:

These days with the mobile market as important as it is, not to optimize for mobile would be a gross error. Know where your customer base is – help them find you – make it easy for them… and with a web optimized page, make it convenient, too.

27. 9. 2011 at 4:21 pm

Dawud Miracle says:

Short answer – yes! if not now, then on your next redesign.

All roads point to mobile. And while it’s not necessary, I feel, to be on the cutting edge of technology, mobile is quickly becoming a standard and not cutting edge. Mobile web traffic tripled in 2010 for the third year in a row. Not increased 33% – increased 300% – each year for 3 years in a row.

By all forecasts (like the one below) mobile will overtake hardline (desktop) users in 2014 or 2015 at current growth rates (that’s current rates).

iPhone continues to grow and remember that Google just bought Motorola – by far their largest purchase ever.

All these stats are great. But the biggest question to ask yourself – your company – do you want your site to be easily accessible across the major platforms that people are using or not. Mobile today accounts for about 25% of all web browsing. On my own sites, I see increases in mobile visitors every single month. So this isn’t just about 2 year from now – it’s about now.

Keep in mind last year’s mobile traffic was 3x greater than the entire global web traffic in 2000. I think that says something.

27. 9. 2011 at 6:40 pm

In House Web Solutions says:

This is some really great information on optimizing your site for mobile content.

I personally hate websites that are impossible to navigate on a mobile phone.

Thanks a lot for this information as I will start implementing it on my clients sites.

Cheers!

27. 9. 2011 at 7:52 pm

Matt Pollitt says:

I think it really depends on the site / product it is promoting. The mobile market has been exploding over the last 4 years, and the new range of devices has changed the way many people access content and information. What is more interesting , is the type of data (slash content) that is relevant to people on the move. Taking all the content from your site and shoe horning it onto mobile is never a good idea, and probably not worth the money or effort.

The key is to take the content from your site and make it relevant to the mobile platform. Devices have a completely different input (ie gestures, touch and d-pad) and as such navigation paradigms have to be changed to suit.

A great example of a web based business that really thought about the value of a mobile proposition was rightmove. They distilled the key things that would be relevant to their clients (i,e map based searching of properties based on your location) and made it a really focused and targeted offering. They went down the app based route for this, but you can just as easily make a web based version that is optimised for tablet or mobile.

In summary, look at what is relevant to your users in a mobile environment, and decide what to surface and functionality to push forward. Not looking at a mobile alternative to your standard site in the ever increasing world of mobile devices could be to your peril!

29. 9. 2011 at 10:18 am

New Mobile Web Design Training Package « Silicon Beach Training Blog says:

[...] Most phones can access the web now – and the use of smartphones with proper web browsers is exploding. Browsing from mobile devices is set to outstrip desktop browsing within the next couple of years. Our own Google Analytics reports show that our mobile traffic is up 230% in the last year – for more detail on this read our latest post on Mobile Web Design. [...]

29. 9. 2011 at 3:14 pm

Roland van Ipenburg says:

Should all websites be optimised? Most websites could use some optimisation even on a classic desktop environment, so why bother with mobile phones? If your website sucks, making it also suck on mobile isn’t going to solve anything.

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