Mobile Web Design

People now view the web on multiple devices - including desktops, tablets, and phone. One way to take advantage of this new viewing experience is through a mobile website. Some facts about the mobile web:

RigNet Mobile Website Screenshot

1. Mobile traffic is growing

7.96% of all US web traffic is mobile traffic. Up 192.5% since 2010 (Source)

50% of all local searches are performed on a mobile device (Source)

2. Visitors expect a mobile site - that works

74% of consumers will wait 5 seconds for a web page to load on their mobile device before abandoning the site (Source)

46% of consumers are unlikely to come back if a mobile site didn't work properly during their last visit (Source)

3. Google Search results are affected if your site is not functional on a mobile device

Your site can be negatively impacted in mobile search results if your site is not optimized for a mobile device

How Do I Know if I Need a Mobile Site?

Tendenci Mobile Website Screenshot

Mobile sites are vitally important for location-based businesses like venues, museums, or restaurants. Regardless of your industry, your business sells to people - and people are mobile!

At a minimum your site should function on a mobile device. Test it on an iPhone and Android (which make up about 75% of the market). You should be able to navigate around to all of the major pages, and complete tasks like viewing an events calendar or filling out forms. Keep in mind that flash does not render on Apple devices like iPhones and iPads.

Check Your Analytics!

Look at your analytics - on average mobile traffic makes up about 8% of online views. If you are seeing mobile traffic above 8%, consider investing in a mobile site.

What Types of Mobile Sites are There?

Separate Mobile Website

If you have a separate mobile site, when you pull up the site on a mobile device the URL will change (usually to something like mobile.site.com). These pages live outside of your regular website & have to be managed separately.

The disadvantage is that you have two sites: two sites that search engines have to crawl to find your content and two sites you have to keep updated with content.

This option is often used when development to integrate a new mobile site with the primary website would be difficult or expensive.

Responsive Design

This is the most modern option and what we at Schipul recommend for our clients - and Google's recommended best practice for mobile sites. A site with a Responsive Design uses one style sheet and has the ability to adjust based on the width of the browser. This option involves some additional development on the site template, and is the most scalable because it is based completely on the width of the device - no matter what device that may be!

See it in action! Visit the Children's Museum of Houston site in your web browser, and drag the corner of the browser to make the screen thinner. As you drag, you'll see the design adjust to the new width!

Try it yourself at cmhouston.org!

Mobile Website Strategy - What Should My Mobile Site Include?

Keep it simple
When creating your mobile site, make it simplistic. Functional, but simplistic. Your mobile site is meant to be fast, easy and on-the-go. Design it that way!

Think Speed

Mobile users expect faster load time than desktop users. Navigation should be extremely easy to use so they can get to information quickly, and pages should load quickly.

Use analytics
Make use of site analytics to see which pages users visit most. Include those!

Think about your user
Think about usage for someone on their phone. Are they in the car on the way to your venue, what are they looking for? What pages are most interesting to that user? Also, make sure you include a link to full site in the footer!

Mobile Site Example: Miller Outdoor Theatre

Schipul provides mobile web design & development for a variety of different companies across multiple industries.

In creating the mobile site for Miller Outdoor Theatre, the Schipul team incorporated elements of the main site to make the design match the look and feel of the branding, and include the main items that a visitor to the venue would be interested in like directions, events calendar, and FAQs.

Check out our full mobile web design portfolio!