In the old days of the internet, before the mobile website existed, web designers always had to make sure that their pages weren’t too heavy and could be displayed on all screens. This meant doing without one or the other technology, but also that the page width was based on the width of the screen resolution 800 × 600 still used by many servers and had to be very careful that not too many and not too many large images were used.
Now that web designers have been able to create more opulent websites for several years, there is now an opposite trend: As more and more people have smartphones and other mobile devices, websites are being viewed more often with such devices. Since these are less powerful than today’s standard PCs and laptops and their associated screens, the designers of Internet sites now have to worry about whether their work is displayed correctly and, above all, legibly for all viewers.
Table of Contents
Smartphone or Laptop: How Does The Visitor View Your Website?
First of all, you should determine whether the visitor uses a smartphone or a similar mobile device. In this case, he can then be forwarded to a version of the website specially optimized for mobile devices, which can then be explicitly optimized for such without any lazy compromises.
Advantages Of An Optimized Version Of Your Website:
- Visitors from mobile devices can access all information
- Visitors to desktop PCs or laptops are offered a website that uses the current technical possibilities of landline access and modern desktop computers.
Short Loading Time: More Critical Than Ever!
The low transmission speed, which is de facto available, is incredibly annoying with mobile surfing. The providers of mobile tariffs advertise smartphones with quite decent transmission speeds. However, on closer inspection, one finds that the specified high values only apply to a certain – in many cases, minimal – data volume, which of course is quickly used up. It continues for the rest of the month at a pace reminiscent of the days of analog modems.
Since smartphones have a tiny screen, they must select the dimensions of images and be chosen correspondingly smaller. This will automatically make the files smaller. Besides, with a smaller image, the deterioration in quality due to higher JPEG compression is less noticeable.
Google Test: How Fast Is Your Website?
Google Tool: “Test My Site”
This free offer from Google checks your website’s speed on mobile devices and gives tips for optimization.
Who Reads Long Texts On The Cell Phone? – Nobody!
While the text is not a significant factor in the amount of data that must be transferred to display a page, it optimizes a smartphone website. Most people are reluctant to read long texts on the screen. This is, of course, especially true for the small screen of a smartphone. Therefore, you should make sure that the size of the characters matches the size of the screen and that texts are not too long. Therefore, you should also avoid sound effects and background music on pages for mobile devices.
Are Usability Functions Used Sensibly?
Many of the technologies we use on websites today don’t work on smartphones. Above all else, Flash does not work on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod. If this technology is used; for example, to display videos, Apple users are automatically excluded.
It must also be noted that mobile end devices are typically not operated with a mouse but with a touchscreen. Therefore, for example, Hoover’s effects are pointless. The drop-down menus that are widespread today are also unsuitable for mobile devices. Instead, use traditional link bars.
- Don’t forget to adapt the layout!
- Different screen formats of the end devices
When it comes to the layout of the pages and the navigation, mobile devices tick differently: While the screens of modern desktop PCs are wider than they are tall, the display of a smartphone is portrait format. Therefore, the three-column layout that is widespread today is by no means suitable for such end devices.
The latest technology standards
As far as interactive pages are concerned, one should stick to the old rule for technical systems, which says that the complex technology should always be installed in the control center to get by with the simplest possible devices. This means that PHP or CGI should be used instead of JavaScript or Java if scripts are required.
Conclusion: The Mobile Website Is Not A Trend
Designing websites for mobile devices do, indeed impose several annoying restrictions on network users. Nevertheless, as a web designer, you can hardly avoid checking sites to see whether they also reach mobile surfers, since surfing with mobile devices has become very important. A version that is correctly displayed on both a desktop PC and a smartphone will always be minimal.
