The biggest frustration to mobile web users is to treat a mobile device like a desktop PC. Phones have limitations to keep in mind, but by realizing this and mitigating these limitations, you can create an effective mobile web experience for your potential customers.
Mobile devices can be limiting if you allow them to be. However, creative mobile website design and marketing allows you to overcome these obstacles to deliver easy, fast, and fun experiences.
Don’t Forget…
The mobile screen is smaller
Although some of the latest iPhones and Android phones have serious pixel density that competes with many desktop monitors, keep in mind that the screen is much smaller and your mobile site content will often appear much smaller. So keep it simple, and make every pixel count. With the limited mobile device screen size, the mobile web designer might want to split information or articles into several pages rather than cram it all on one page.
There is no mobile device mouse
Vertical scrolling is acceptable, but not horizontal. Mobile devices usually don’t do this well. Design your mobile website with a flexibility to fit the screen size of mobile devices so the user doesn’t have to awkwardly try to navigate to read the right half of your content.
No big images or files
Mobile connections are often limited. Even the best 3G or 4G isn’t even close to broadband cable internet speed. Plus, most mobile plans charge by the gigabyte, and your users won’t appreciate your website eating up bandwidth. Worse yet, many mobile networks throttle their users after the user has hit some bandwidth limit, or when mobile networks are busy. Keep your mobile web pages, files, and especially images small so they load very quickly.
Please, no printing
Most people don’t lug around a printer or even know how to print something from their mobile device, so avoid including content for printing. Some items, like PDFs, can still be viewed on a mobile device, but better yet, ask the user to enter their email address and then email them the PDF or other content so they can print it out from their desktop.
Please, no typing either
Avoid asking your mobile website users to type paragraphs or fill out long forms. Both my phone and my tablet really suck for typing because when the stupid keyboard pops up, I cannot see what I’m typing. Plus with the tiny little keyboard buttons, I make a ton of mistakes, so keep the typing to an absolute minimun on your mobile website.
In order for your mobile website to be fast and not frustrating to your users, keep your mobile site home page and content pages small and easy to use. Avoid these limitations to avoid frustration. Your mobile web users will appreciate it.