Designing Your Mobile Website to Draw Visitors
Before going ahead and choosing one of these three options, it is important to understand your audience and their requirements and hence customize your mobile format:
1. Check mobile usage patterns:
You need to find out if your potential customers have mobile interactions in a rush while on the go or in a more relaxed fashion as this will impact your content, design, amount of text and calls to action. Most people now use their phones for the same tasks we do on desktops but knowing the specifics of your target audience will help in providing the content that they are looking for in the exact fashion they like.
2. Build for future:
Plan ahead and invest in mobile technology that can be evolved a year or two from now rather than going for complete redesigns. It is good to define your expectations from mobile websites in the current scenario as well as in the long run. This will help you weigh pros and cons of having apps versus investing in sites that work across devices.
3. Make functional mobile website:
Users expect mobile websites to fulfill their needs, primarily entertainment, productivity or communication. So more than great designs and artistic presentations, your prospects are interested in the functional aspects of your websites. Therefore, it is important that your mobile designs facilitate easy and quick website transactions. Confusing user interfaces or poor performance will result in bad brand images and render even the most beautiful designs ineffective.
4. Decide between mobile website and app:
Mobile apps are great for more focused and personal user experiences but they require complex management and involve many outside participants like carriers, handset manufacturers, operating system developers, store administration and others. Mobile sites avoid all of these things and allow for a much faster path to execution. If your goal is to offer mobile-friendly content to the widest possible audience, then a mobile website is the right choice as it offers broader accessibility, compatibility and cost-effectiveness. On the other hand, you can look at developing a mobile app if you plan to provide specific advantages to your customers such as:
