Usability is a very important issue while developing mobile websites as there are many aspects that require proper consideration and necessary actions to make the website usable over mobile devices. Developers and designers need to understand that mobile users don’t have the luxury of conventional keyboard and mouse as available for desktop and laptop users. Users who surf internet over mobile devices are usually looking for something specific and that too urgently. The design should be done while keeping these things in mind.
Mentioned below are 7 tips that will help developers in creating mobile web apps that provide enhanced usability to users.
1.) Determining The Most Effective Screen Resolution: There are numerous mobile devices working on different operating systems and having different specifications. Devices have varying screen sizes and resolutions which makes it very important for developers to choose the proper screen resolution for their solution. One of the most challenging parts of mobile web development is to create mobile solutions that are displayed properly over a wide range of screen resolutions without requiring page creation for each platform.
2.) Display Small Segments of Pages At A Time: It is hard to read long text segments over mobile devices therefore you need to break the web pages into smaller segments that can be easily viewed by mobile users. Use only vertical scroll as horizontal scroll is very frustrating. You can get rid of all the content that falls under low priority and display only the most relevant and important content.
3.) Keep the Design Simple: Mobile web developers should remember that simple apps and mobile sites are most easy to use. This requires them to avoid usage of tables, frames or any other sort of formatting.
4.Full Website View: While it is always good to provide a well optimized mobile website, but you also need to provide a link that can take users to the full website. You should provide back to top links on pages to make their experience a little less painful over the full version.
5.Links Through Text: Irrespective of how you provide links on your main website, you need to provide text links on your mobile website as a mobile browser is unlikely to support fancy gadgetry that you use on main website.
6.) The Selected Links Should Be Distinct: There will be textual content on your website along with text links. You need to make some adjustments to make the clickable area visible to users. You can change the font, the background color or use some padding to make the links visible.
7.) Minimal Requirement Of Text Entry From User: Entering textual content over mobile websites is not easy for users as they don’t have access to conventional keyboard and mouse. This makes it important to reduce the required text to be entered by the user. Instead of asking them to enter the text, you can provide radio buttons or lists to select the desired option.
Developing mobile websites require expertise, experience and proper skills as you have to present all the information on a mobile screen. Integrating proper usability into it can be a really tough task. However, the above mentioned tips will definitely help you in making it usable to a great extent. Rest of the margin should be covered through your own experience and creativity.