Loading ...Because people get so busy designing and maintaining websites, they tend to forget that the information age is quickly becoming the mobile age. With all of the advancements in mobile technology, there is almost nothing that our phones canÕt do and our computers can. Because most people do at least some business from a mobile device, it’s important to keep the growing number of mobile users in mind when you are designing a new site. Here are some tips and tricks for getting the most out of your mobile designs:
Touch Screens
The most necessary aspect of creating a mobile website is to make sure that itÕs touch screen compatible. With the sheer number of touch screen phones flooding the market, it is imperative that you are able to reach out to as many of these users as possible. This doesnÕt mean that you should ignore other aspects of the site, just that it is a priority with all of the phones available.
Geolocation
Here is another great tool to use. The GPS locators on most phones can be used (if not turned off by the owner) to locate where a potential customer is currently using their mobile device. Whether you have a brick and mortar store or are building a site that allows people to connect with each other, there are an endless amount of interesting things you can do by integrating geolocation into your design process.
Creating a Usable Mobile Site
In order for a mobile website to be useful to people, it has to be optimized so that they donÕt have to constantly zoom in and out in order to read the text or see the pictures. To do this, many applications have been developed for specific websites (WordPress and WPTouch or WPTap, which optimize the WordPress platform for iPhones and Droid devices) that allow you to create the ideal mobile site for your target audience.
Other tools include things like Mobify, which will help create an easy to use and follow compression of the site in order to make it more user friendly when accessed from a mobile device. Mobify in particular creates an environment that anyone with CSS or HTML coding can almost effortlessly make the necessary changes to their website.
Opera is a great browser to test all of your new mobile website configurations. You can use actually use a feature of Opera to see how your website will appear on a standard cell phone screen.
Conclusion
With all of the tools and information that are available to you, it is easy to get carried away in an attempt to reach out to as many people as possible. However, it’s important to remember that people still prefer clean lines and smooth functions over gaudy websites that degrade the speed and quality of their device. Keep in mind that this doesnÕt mean that you canÕt do new things and make a fun and interactive site; just remember that itÕs still a phone and has another, more important purpose. Nevertheless, by using one or all of the services that caters to your style website, you can easily increase traffic and (hopefully) profits in a short amount of time by harnessing the power of mobile.
