The Importance of Getting a Responsive $ Retina Ready Template for your Website!

What You Need To Know About The Mobile Version of Your Website

Making a website mobile ready is pretty high on the request list for businesses and organizations developing a new website. However, there are a flurry of terms surrounding mobile. Mobile friendly, mobile optimized, and a newer term: responsive design. What is the difference between them? Why is it important?

You probably already know that number of users of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices with touch screens is growing daily. As a result, we may expect more and more people who are accessing our web sites equipped with touch screens rather then mouses and keyboards. Hot Swipe Carousel rotates slides that may contain any HTML content (images, text, etc.) and it allows users to change slides by dragging them on the screen to the left or to the right.

Mobile Friendly Website

Mobile friendly refers to a site that displays accurately between your desktop/laptop computer and a mobile device such as a handheld phone (iPhone, Android, Blackberry) or tablets (iPad, Kindle, Galaxy, etc.). While it will appear smaller on a phone and may not work perfectly on a touchscreen tablet, a mobile friendly website will be perfectly functional. Many developers view mobile friendly as a “best practice” for all website developments.

Ensuring your website is mobile friendly is critical. As we discussed above, the percentage of mobile users is quickly rising. What are critical features of a mobile friendly website?

Text-based phone numbers, physical addresses, or email addresses that can trigger a call, directions, or email message from your mobile device

Slideshows or image rotators that function without Flash support (Adobe Flash is not supported by Apple and some other mobile devices)

Small image sizes to allow for fast loading over mobile connections—don’t count on even a 3G connection

Mobile Optimized Website

A mobile optimized site is a far more advanced website. Mobile optimized means that the site will reformat itself for a list of handheld or tablet devices. Larger navigation buttons, reformatted content, and differently optimized images appear when the user is on an iPhone or other device.

Why reformat? Reformatting allows the website to easily engage a large mobile audience when key buying decisions come up. More and more consumers are turning to their mobile devices right in the store. Having a website developed that allows the user to easily navigate and engage from the small screens of their handheld means reaching a decision faster.

What are some good formatting elements that go into a mobile optimized site?

Simplified navigation that is “thumb” friendly with large touchpoints, especially for critical contact information

Reduced graphics that don’t interrupt the quest for critical information such as product listings or commoditized content

Avoid making users type unless absolutely necessary

Give users the option to view the desktop version of your site