The world is now moving in to smart phones and mobile devices which led to a focus-shift from traditional web design to mobile web design. The rise of smart palm devices has accelerated the need for the designers to say fit in the web design and development domain. In order to survive in the mobile onslaught of websites, the web design should be flexible in such a manner that it should get adapted to cross browser and cross platform working environments.
Mobile web designing should target on certain unique set of modifications which should be addressed by the web designer for successful implementation of responsive web designing. No surprises that the process will be quite tedious in the initial phase unless the design and development teams fails to identify the problem ares .Another requisite is that the team should be able to differentiate between the design policies of traditional web design and mobile web design.
As it is quite obvious that mobile web design will be the most sought after service in the near future, its is highly recommended that you plan and devise better strategies of web design and development so that your sites will also be mobile friendly. The requirements of mobile web user will be quite different from the desktop user in may aspects like internet connectivity, speed, security issues, screen size compatibility etc. All these aspects should be given priority during the design phase because it is not wise to waster time, money and energy on redundant task for making the mobile version of the traditional website.
Main considerations for mobile web design
Here are some important things that should kept in mind of the web designer before implementing the design process for a mobile website.
Design for the audience
The main point to be taken in to account is the target audience who will be accessing the website in smart devices. The expectations of mobile web user will be different from traditional web user. Extra care should be put in to usability, navigational links etc. The user should get the same feel from both the medium while accessing the unified pool of informational content in the websites.
Clean semantic coding
The web site design should ensure smooth viewing which can be achieved by clean and semantic coding. The markups should be well documented for ease of use in the future. It is easily possible in traditional design but accomplishing the same task in mobile web is very challenging for the designer.
Differentiate Layout and content
Strong markups and CSS helps the designer to demarcate between the content and the layout in a proper manner. The mobile web users will be more interested in the content and informational aspect of the site rather than its presentation or layout of the web design.
Use of heavy graphics
The aesthetic appeal of any web site is its trump card to lure potential clients in the case of traditional desktop web design. But the mobile users access required websites for specific purposes and are intimidated by the use of heavy flash and animations in the website, making it load very slow acquiring more bandwidth.
Navigational usability
Another main aspect that should be taken in to account while mobile web design is the navigation issues. The user should be able to move in to the website easily and should be able to scroll up and down.
Optimum testing
Testing your responsive design for mobile is also very challenging .There are many restriction in the testing process of mobile web design. Plan your test process in a strategic manner that you don't leave a chance to any big loopholes in the design. Test your design in all the available browsers and also in browsers that are more similar to mobile browser environment.
