We have a new age of handheld mobile devices, including smartphones, ipads, and tablets. Yet many of our design ideas continue to be inspired by the old-world Internet.

That era of users was a population that engaged entirely through computers and laptops. They had so much time on their hands.

Life was slower, entertainment less readily available, and users wanted to spend hours making simple purchase decisions. 

We’re talking less social media, less tech-based work life, less of everything. Slow times, where people had to intentionally find activities to indulge in to fill their day.

Does that sound anything like current times and the complete mobile revolution that took over our world? 

That old pattern of consumption via laptops and personal computers is entirely different from what we’re looking at today.

The environment, attention and focus, and mood are entirely different for both users. For a standard website to be used on a computer, the user would be sitting down comfortably.

The mindset was also completely different than what it is today. There was a proper plan of maybe spending some time looking through a website and making a purchase decision. 

Mobile Websites Are Consumed In A Chaotic, Fast-Paced, Rushed World

Everything has to be fast, faster, fastest — or you’ll miss out.

This type of mindset also doesn’t allow for more than a couple of minutes to make a decision. This attention span requires stellar speed.

The standards and expectations of performance for a mobile website are exceedingly high, and continue to get higher. You have to constantly keep track of changes, updates, and trends to make sure your website for mobile hits the mark. Basically , my point is…

For your mobile website design to deliver, you have to go to get it together. Fast.

Have you invested in your website at all within the last five years? By investment, we’re talking time upgrades, updates, removing obsolete factors, redundancies?

If your site hasn’t had a makeover in more than five years, you can officially be considered out of business. As far as mobile web design is concerned, the world is fast.

It’s a cut-throat competitive world, with competitors popping on the horizon at a mile a minute, better, faster. With superior websites, higher advertising budgets, great skills, and experience.

How do you cut through all that noise and reach your customers? How do you stay relevant when the space around you is so terribly fast-paced?

Here’s A List Of Ways Your Site Needs To Be Improved To Meet The Mobile User’s Needs:

• Fast load times: Computer users are in a comfortable spot and have mentally prepared to spend at least some time navigating the internet for whatever they need. Mobile web users just do not have the time to stand around waiting for your site or app to load. Get it together. Things need to move fast, or they simply fail to be relevant — and this decision-making process takes fractions of a second in your customer’s mind. When you optimize for faster load times, your users come back more frequently. That’s because the user experience is more seamless, creates less stress due to waiting, and actually fulfills their need for fast results. Incorporate a clean, simple design that takes less time to load. More white space makes visual navigation easier. The text stands out and becomes easier to read. The images appear more attractive and catchy, and the overall minimalistic design also makes the calls to action pop. Everything associated with your mobile website needs to be performance-focused, and you’ll find that prospective customers can’t get enough of your website.
• Limit text data fields: For instance, instead of making each user fill out their life story, and medical and genetic history to sign up with you, let them auto-sign in with Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Disqus, and so on. Users appreciate this ease and any other ease you can offer. Users are constantly bombarded with information online, and tasks, to-dos. That one extra full-page form to fill with their name and number feels like an uphill battle. You want to offer ease, and auto-fill lets the user take care of those details without any time required.
• Brevity is the soul of usability — so keep it simple: On the mobile end, you need to screen out a lot of text and focus on the basics. We’re talking scannable, fast, and impactful. A mobile user has no time nor the inclination to read that block of text that describes your business or your business journey. Cut it out, and keep the basics. For instance, your restaurant’s website doesn’t have space to rave about the scenery or traditions that have driven the vision and mission — NO. A mobile user could not care less. They want to show up on your website and know the location and operating hours. Maybe a menu. That’s all. But no extras. Keep the long-form stories of glory and history on the standard website, but make the web design as clean, simple, and to-the-point as you possibly can.
• Design for fingers, not the mouse: This means big buttons and icons, so even grandma with her stubby fingers can navigate without needing assistance. One tap on a mobile screen feels like hard enough work in today’s times, so make it easy. Big buttons make taps easier, and faster. Plus, they pop up on the phone screen better, so they’re also more visually appealing and attention grabbing. Basically, dumb it down so there’s nothing complicated on the screen to navigate through.
• Design for tiny screens, but make it zoomable: Should go without saying, really. One non-obvious point is letting the user zoom in on images — so they can clearly see the image on your mobile site on a tiny screen. This offers more transparency. The option to glide through a catalog of images quickly, with different angles, and zoom in on product details can make or break the customer’s decision to purchase.

Conclusion

There are many factors at play when mobile users are surfing or shopping. They have a smaller screen of course, with less memory and processing power.

But they’re also not sitting down at a desk with their feet up, planning to get comfortable and staying engaged on what they’re actually doing on that mobile device.

We’re trying to find a slot or time in their busy day to grab their attention, promote our product, and make a quick sale based on value. It is a lot of work, but that’s how the mobile experience works. 

Mobile users are browsing with a very small window of attention. They’re surfing while walking to the bus stop and need to use that time to get that product they need — or don’t.

Going up the elevator, they might decide to make that quick and impulsive purchase. Getting on and off a train, an ad for your product might pop up and catch them in an adventurous moment where they want to splurge to feel good. We’re talking about constant “on the go” use. 

Chopped down attention spans, and users’ lack of determination to actually put a lot of effort into what they want to achieve, is what we’re battling as a business today. Users’ desired action needs to be attained fast, and accurately, and it has to be enjoyable.

That’s asking a lot from a website on mobile, but it’s a standard consumption pattern. It also looks like this pattern of purchase is here to stay. Focus your efforts on remembering these details when you’re designing for mobile, and you have a winner.