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The New Mobile Web Design Principals

Have you considered how differently web users behave on mobile as opposed to desktop? What about their expectations or red flags that cause an immediate bounce? Since the invention of the smartphone, web searches and web activity on mobile has continuously grown at exponential rates. Along with such explosive growth has been an evolution of user behaviour on mobile platforms. In this article, we help to bring you up to date with the latest mobile web design principals.

Optimise For Speed

The need for fast loading times of mobile webpages is not exactly new ground for the design community. However, it is worth noting that the acceptable time to load of a webpage continues to drop year-on-year. While there is no clear cut best load time to achieve, it is widely accepted that a load time of more than 3 seconds, results in a significant bounce rate. Yes, users are largely unwilling to wait for 3 seconds to get the information they need.

Fortunately, web page loading tools continue to improve, providing better insights and recommendations to improve page load times. Methodologies such as accelerated mobile pages or progressive web apps have also emerged to further guide designers. Many large websites have seen their page load times improve by 2 to 3 times faster when they have utilised the above mentioned tools and design methodologies.

Make Your Value Proposition Clear

The drastic reduction in screen space from a desktop to a mobile device means that website owners need to present a clear and succinct value proposition from the get go. If your users have difficulty identifying the value a certain page may bring to them, data on consumer behaviour indicates that they are likely to bounce. As such, being straight to the point as far as the value proposition is concerned, is your best choice.

Accompanying the value proposition should be an equally clear call-to-action that allows the user to take immediate action or guides the user to the next critical segment of the website. Such a call-to-action works hand in hand with the value proposition in ensuring that the user does not get confused or frustrated with the flow of the website.

Customise Key Fields, Immediate Feedback& Allow Guest Purchases

The cumbersome and less accurate nature of mobile keyboards makes form filling or data keying an absolute horror chore for users. Too many errors or simply too much time consumed is likely to lead to an abandoned user form. To combat this, designers should firstly have a CMS system that captures and automatically produces common information for users. A simple thumbprint or face recognition should be sufficient to allow the system to automatically fill up common fields.

Secondly, immediate feedback for errors when a certain field int eh form is filled, is encouraged. Rather than waiting to alert the user upon submission, immediate feedback lessens the perceived annoyance of the form. Lastly, instead of forcing users to go through such complicated procedures for a mobile purchase, a guest purchase function can be considered. Optional marketing emails can then be used to get the user to sign up for your notification when they are on a larger device.

Getting Professional Expertise in Web Design

Several recommendations in this article require in depth knowledge in web design and coding in order to produce a customised website that truly caters to web users. Professional web design services should be engaged here in order to ensure that your mobile website adheres to such design principles and is optimised for your target users.

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