Is it time to update and modernize your website? If your site hasn’t been redesigned to work well with mobile applications, now is the time to make those adjustments. As you do, you may want to consider a few key trends that have become popular with mobile websites today. Some of these features may help you to capture more sales and improve your customers’ experiences.
Be Sure It’s Time Saving
When a person turns to your website on their smartphone, they generally are on the go. For that reason, they want to be able to move through the site rather quickly without numerous steps having to be taken to ensure they can get the information they need. When designing your mobile website, be sure anyone – even someone not familiar with the site – can easily navigate it without any delays. Determine what your visitors’ goals are most commonly. Where are they trying to go? Make it possible for them to get there fast.
Location Awareness
A nice feature for many websites is location awareness. In short, it allows the app to use the location of the phone to make decisions about what to display. For example, if you have 10 retail locations and your customer is looking for an in-stock product, it can tap into the location on the phone to bring up results that are locally available. By auto detecting their location, it can speed up their success using your site and get them where they need to be faster.
Designed for Results
Another key factor to consider when designing a mobile site is anticipating what the consumer’s needs are. How is that a feature? It stems from a growing problem – decision fatigue. This occurs when a person has too many choices to select from and, as a result, just doesn’t decide on any. Your goal when designing a website should be to limit the number of decisions the user must make while on that site. By doing this, you can move them through the site efficiently and minimize frustration.
Called anticipatory design, it allows for the creation of a path of movement through a site that’s most likely what the user wants. It’s also about taking the decisions they do make and using that to prompt them for new opportunities, such as selling a related product.
Improved User Experiences Using Capabilities
Most smartphones today have numerous features built into them that can help enhance the way your customer views, interacts with and navigates your mobile site. Take advantage of those features when designing your site. For example, things like the camera, location tracking, and a touch sensor all create opportunities for you. Depending on your website’s needs, even things like biometric features can be used to add security and ease of use to your website.
Similar Experiences On and Off Mobile
Also, take into consideration your goals when creating a way for your customers to build their experience with your company. Branding plays a role in both mobile and off-mobile applications. For example, if your customer visits your website on a laptop at home, then does so again on their smartphone, it should look, work, and feel like the same company. Everything from color to navigation style should mimic the non-mobile version. When you do this, you allow the customer to gain familiarity with your company, but you work to build branding.
Be Fast
A big problem for some mobile websites is speed. This happens across the board and can be one of the most common causes of your frustration in converting visitors to buyers. Your website needs to be fast. It needs to load quickly to keep your customer on it. They can easily back out of the site, find another link, and click through it. Your page load time needs to be a key factor in any updates you do.
Other key things to consider when creating your mobile website include
- Ensuring a responsive design.
- Allowing buttons on your site to work with touchscreens – a critical feature.
- Ensure alignment of photos and text to ensure the website looks professional
- Avoid zooming or side scrolling for mobile use.
- Ensure video is used and easy to load.
When it comes to making updates, let our West Chester, PA web design company do the work for you. Our team is happy to take a look at your existing site and help you to make upgrades and adjustments to fit your goals. We encourage you to connect with our West Chester, PA web design team today.