Be Responsive! Part 1 – Mobile Thoughts

Be Responsive! Part 1 – Mobile Thoughts
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Webmaster

Written by

Papa Whale

PUBLISHED ON

February 4, 2015

Category

Webmaster

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At the dawn of a mobile revolution, we have witnessed the uprising of mobile traffic. And while it may seem like the whole world’s been that way for a while now, it really hasn’t. In less than 3 years though, mobile traffic is poised to make up about 87% of all Internet traffic.

A sign of the times, one could say… and it’s not even October 21, 2015 yet!

The days of standing next to your phone waiting for a call are (mostly) gone as people seem to care less and less about that aspect, and more on surfing the web on 3 - or even 4G.

It’s no wonder everybody in the industry is constantly slingin’ money into mobile traffic optimization and responsive designs! With the cost of mobile devices decreasing by the day, more people than ever own one. These days having a smartphone is about as common as owning a pair of pants!

We’re now used to using our mobile devices to navigate on both sides of the screen… and that changed our expectations as well. So if you’ve been one of those people who’ve been reluctant to adapt, or surf that responsive wave, now would be a good damn time to start!

Today, let’s take a look at how we’ve adapted to a mobile way of life.

Menu, Please?

You don’t need an IQ of 160 to know that screen space is greatly reduced on a mobile device.

You don’t need to be a genius either to know that navigation to one’s site can prove to be a lot trickier than if one were browsing on a desktop: that’s why it’s paramount for your users to have navigation tools that are at a finger’s reach.

Is the navigation area easily identifiable? Are the areas visible, accessible?

There’s nothing worse than landing on a page that lacks the common courtesy in providing you — the mobile user — a menu that doesn’t shrink into something easily identifiable like this universal symbol for menus:

 

 

Indeed, menus are usually indicated by this 'hamburger' looking icon, or obviously, by a button called "Menu."

In fact, latest research has found that this last practice is even more effective, especially if the “Menu” button is clearly defined by a border.

Timing is the Key

Most developed countries have a wider range of Wi-Fi coverage which means not only do people access things on the web more quickly, but, if they have the 3 and 4G speeds we’ve talked about, people are growing used to blazing fast speeds even on their mobile devices. Don’t let them down once they visit your site.

We can all relate to the frustration of not getting information fast enough, or a site not loading properly… so why anger your visitors?!  People don’t want to wait; we live in a ¨NOW¨ society.  They want the information they’re looking for, they want to access it immediately!

Indeed, the time your page takes to load does have a huge impact on your revenue. According to Kissmetric, 40% of the people who visit your site  will leave your site if the content doesn’t load within 3 seconds, even if people are a little more “patient” regarding load times on their mobile device.

Connected Globally for Local Inquiries

Compuware research revealed that 95% of users seek to find local information on their mobile devices.

Can you remember the last time you were lost and used an actual paper map? We can't either. We’re living in a time when Google Maps and various other GPS providers take home the most trust.

When we apply this fact to our business, it means that your products needs to be geo-targeted as much as possible. Sounds familiar? It should, because we wrote about it last week! So if you’re still unsure why geo-wise products and funnels are so important, have another read!

Keep it Simple!

Here are our final words of wisdom, and probably the most important: Because screens on mobile devices are smaller and people often use these devices while “out and about” -- there’s a shortened user-experience time (maybe someone’s waiting for the bus, checking something on their phone while on break, etc.) before losing this person. Your stuff needs to be responsive and efficient, always.

Keep your whole site as simple as possible! This includes building a “responsive” site from the get-go, and not just adapting your content later on to work on a mobile device. This is called a Mobile First philosophy.

In any event, that’s usually what professional web marketers strive to do: keep the content simple to reach all audiences, everywhere.

Are you ready for the huge mobile tsunami that all the web-professionals have been predicting?

Don't forget to check out parts 2, 3, and 4 below....

Be Responsive!  Part 2 - Responsive Layouts

Be Responsive!  Part 3 - Media Care

Be Responsive!  Part 4 - Responsive WordPress Themes

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