7 Core Mobile Web Design Practices: Responsive VS Adaptive
More people use their mobile phones than their computers to search on the internet. This article is here to help you with this and discuss the best mobile web design practices you need to know about and use.
What is Responsive Design?
Responsive design will dynamically fit the screen of a user's device. The user can access the internet from any one of their devices and easily browse the website as all its content will comfortably fit on their screen.
Advantages Of Responsive Design
- The user will be able to browse websites and have a great experience on any device
- Google recommends that responsive website designs are used
- Only one version of the website is needed
- Easier to maintain the website, and it reduces the cost
Why Use Responsive Web Design?
Most websites now use a responsive design. This type of design requires less work, and it is easier to create and maintain. To make a new website, you should use a responsive design over an adaptive one. Any mobile app agency will tell you to use a responsive design since it's the better option for most new websites.
What is Adaptive Web Design?
An adaptive design uses different layouts for different screen sizes. Layouts need to be designed for each screen size, unlike responsive designs, where the same design will change to fit the screen size. Adaptive design has fixed layouts, and the best layout is selected based on the user's device's screen size.
The standard screen widths for adaptive design are 320, 480, 760, 960, 1200, and 1600 pixels.
Advantages Of Adaptive Design
- This design has faster loading times for all devices the user could have
- The user experience is optimized for each device
- The web designer of the layout can customize advertisements
- Designers are given more control over the user experience
Why Use Adaptive Design?
This design should be used to make an existing website mobile-friendly. This type of design will give you more control over the design layouts, and this greater control can help designers create more excellent user experiences.
7 Best Mobile Web Design Practices
When designing a website, there are numerous mobile web design practices that you should follow to make sure that your users have a great experience, no matter what device they are using to access the website. If you hire an app designing company, they will likely use these design practices.
Simplicity
You need to keep your website simple and make it easy for your users to use your website. It should be easy to use no matter what mobile device the user is on. If there is something that your website has but doesn't need, then you should get rid of it.
Many things can be simplified on a website. This can include forms, which can be shorter, more straightforward, and easier to fill in.
There are many benefits to simplifying your website, and these benefits include the following:
- The website becomes easier to navigate
- Loading times will be faster, so people are less likely to leave the website while waiting
- Users can 'scan' the content on the website
- Easier to create and maintain the website
These are the main reasons why simplifying your website is a great design practice that will improve your website and give users a better experience. This design practice is used frequently by many mobile app and web design agencies.
Use Hamburger Menus
These should be used on mobile devices instead of websites' navigation bars. Navigation bars are helpful, and they help users find what they want. But, since mobile devices have a limited screen and less content can be shown, a hamburger menu can display the navigation links in a better and cleaner user interface.
In your hamburger menu, you should only keep the essential navigation links that users frequently use. This will give the menu a cleaner look, and it will ensure that it isn't cluttered with barely used options.
Using Different Types Of Content
Using images and videos to support text will help grab your user's attention. Doing this will help you increase your website's user engagement and retention. The images and videos that are used should be relevant to the content that the website has.
Images and videos can slow down your website, so you need to consider the size of the images and videos you use and how they will affect the performance of your website. It would help if you compressed them so they are smaller before you use them.
Disable Popups
Popups frustrate users, and nobody wants to see them when looking for information on websites through their mobile phones. These diminish the user's experience, and you should not have them as part of your website.
These types of websites are also penalized by Google, so you shouldn't use them. Get rid of popups on mobile websites, which will improve your users' overall experience.
Highlight Important Elements
People do not want to search for what they want; they want it immediately. You must ensure that the essential elements and content users want are easily accessible to all users.
The easier it is for users to access this content, the better their experience will be. This will increase the chances of them returning to the website.
Comfortable Positioning Of Elements
Users tend to use one hand when using their mobile phones, so you need to ensure that they can easily use the mobile website with just one hand. The essential elements for the mobile website should be placed within reach of the user's thumb.
Link Contact Information
Contact information should be linked so it is easier for the users to use. If your business has a phone number on the website, it should be connected so users can click on it and immediately be sent to their phone's calling app. Users should not need to switch back and forth to save the contact information. This is important, and any app designing company will tell you this.