mobile website

Chances are you’ve encountered a mobile website in Jacksonville — you had to, if you’ve used a smartphone or tablet for internet browsing. Most Jacksonville companies and organizations offer online content that is optimized for you mobile device. Any time you open a website in your mobile browser, “mobile websites” appear automatically.

According to Statista, in 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide was generated through mobile phones, up from 50.3% in the previous year.  It was only in 2016 worldwide mobile internet use surpassed desktop use, but the trend had been clear – mobile internet use is on a rise. More and more consumers are using their phones for all of their web browsing instead of desktops and laptops.
 
Mobile is the battlefield on which today’s businesses contend. You can no longer afford delaying getting your content to your Jacksonville mobile consumers on their phones and iPads. If you’re not on it, you’re sitting on the sidelines. 
 
Are you a local Jacksonville business? This one is for you.
 
According to Google, 76% of people search for local businesses on mobile devices. 76% of people who visit a local website, will visit that business within 24 hours. Can you deduce who they visit if you didn’t show them what they want on their phone?
sweet edelweiss responsive website

Mobile Web vs Traditional Web

As mobile web browsing becomes more common, it’s increasingly important to design websites for mobile use as well as for desktop browsing.  It helps to start out by thinking about how the mobile browsing experience differs from desktop browsing.

1. Smaller screens.
Small Screen – Comparing to the smallest-screen MacBook that has a 2304 x 1440 pixel resolution, an iPhone 6s retina display is only 1332 x 750 pixels. Smartphones and tablets in Jacksonville present a challenge: not only they come with a range of sizes, they also have an ability to rotate content to fit their landscape or portrait orientation. A smaller display means that the user can see a lot less information at once. Most modern mobile browsers compensate for this by allowing the user to zoom in and out easily, as well as adapting font sizes to make text more readable. Typically, though, the user will need to zoom in if they want to read the text in your page.

2. Slower Speed.
Although the speed of mobile internet is catching up, a typical 4G mobile device gets a 5-12 Mbps download rate, compared to an average of over 50 Mbps for broadband internet users. Jacksonville mobile users have limited patience when it comes to waiting every extra second for your pages to load. It is important to make your Jacksonville mobile site as bandwidth-efficient as possible. According to Google, more than half of users with move on to another mobile website if it takes longer than 3 seconds to load. To improve your site’s speed optimize the images, minify code, and reduce redirects.

3. Tabbing, touch input and keyboards.
Even though some tablet and mobile phones have tab functionality, with smaller size and clumsy navigation, it is challenging to brows through more than one mobile site.  One important aspect of many mobile devices is touch-based input. Rather than using a mouse, the vast majority of mobile users work with their devices using their fingers. It means that without a mouse pointer, there is no concept of “hovering” over a page element. Tapping a small link with a big finger is a hit or miss. So, creating larger touch-friendly buttons and links can help with the navigation.Typing on a mobile devices can be far from pleasant. So, using shorter URLs, adding an autocomplete function to the search fields can help smooth the search process. Customers don’t want to have to scroll or load new pages unnecessarily. They want something very clear to click on when they’re on a mobile device. This takes them to the next step.

4. Other “Flashy” Things.
On the desktop, Flash is almost ubiquitous, with over 90% of browsers having the Flash player installed. No iOS devices run Flash. Android devices using version 2.2 or later can run Flash, although many users choose to turn it off since it can cause performance and stability problems. Add to that Java or cookies, large photos and animations and you might compromise your mobile site’s user friendliness.

In conlusion,

When designing a Jacksonville mobile website, it is important to keep these differences in mind.  Make sure you provide a great experience for your online audience.

Additional reading:

Mashable: 10 Key Considerations for Your Mobile Web Design Strategy http://mashable.com/2011/03/24/mobile-web-design-tips/

UX Matters: 10 Ways Mobile Sites Are Different from Desktop Web Sites – http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/03/10-ways-mobile-sites-are-different-from-desktop-web-sites.php