Discover The Bridge Between Desktop And Mobile Web Design
Calgary Web Design sure has changed over the past few years, particularly with the massive growth of the mobile Web. As mobile web usage increases, it will become increasingly important for web designers to adapt their design skills by accounting for "responsive web design" factors that mobile phones need.
Calgary Web design experts will need to explore Mobile Web design when exploring the best ways to meet the needs of both desktop and mobile platforms:
First, review your current website for accessibility on the Web and then also specifically on Mobile devices. It is important to see how the same web site performs on these different platforms since there are ongoing changes to browsers and platforms that may change the final look of your website. Ironically, now that we can safely design for a minimum of 1024 screen resolutions, we are now faced with the need to shrink Web designs down to 200px wide versions.
Thanks to mobile browsers, Web designs degrade well on these small devices, however, flash-based web sites or those with elements omitted by mobile browsers. a business may have to redesign their existing website. Presently, a Calgary Web designer has three main approaches in this situation:
- Update your Website's current coding and layout for the Mobile Web. The Web is synonymous with change, and these are positive changes, because your existing website will now use "responsive web design". These changes may be minor or major depending on your site’s age, technology and content layout.
- Build an entirely new site with Mobile in the forefront of the web design methodology. Find a Web designer who knows how to build this hybrid desktop/mobile web site and will also focus on ways to merge a website with social media channels and habits.
- Build a standalone Mobile version of a Web presence. With a successful Calgary Web development team, a good portion of the website content can be displayed on a Mobile App. However, iPhone Apps, as an example, function in a different manner than it's desktop counterpart, not to mention that these apps may require an entirely different code base, and detector scripts will be needed on the current web site to make sure mobile users are redirected to the mobile version of the site.
Today's Web designers will have to learn how to best overcome the first 2 scenarios and then partner with a dedicated Mobile developer to complete any mobile apps needed.
As a Web design professional, if you are in Calgary, Alberta or somewhere else, consider these design elements for your next Web design project:
Oversized Button Graphics – Good navigation is a fundamental part of Web design, and anyone who has surfed websites on a 200px wide screen knows that larger buttons make life so much easier! It is definitely possible to create buttons that fit well into a regular desktop web layout and also enhance the ease of navigation on mobile devices.
Vertical Menus – Due to the narrow screen of mobile phones, it just makes sense to sue vertical menu designs, since menus that go left to right across the screen won't fit well. If you do use horizontal menus keep them as short as possible and add large buttons and icons to ease tap navigation.
Reduce Content Images – As another fundamental approach, smaller content images naturally keep load time of a page as quick as possible, but they also improve the browsing experience on a mobile phone. One step up is to use smaller thumbnail images that are linked to larger images that pops up in a lightbox effect so the mobile viewer can get a better look. This is a simple example of responsive web design.
Avoid Flash Content – Since, at this point, iPhones and iPads don’t show Flash elements it is important that a Calgary web designer be careful when choosing Flash for a Web site; at minimum the designer needs to use some alternative version, such as a static JPG, or even a different approach using JQuery coding and bypass Flash altogether.
Make pages “Tweetable” and “Likeable” – Obvious, right? Start with making sure that the website's main navigation has Twitter and Facebook tie-ins plus any other social media links needed but also make every article, video clip and gallery photo easy to share with a visitor's social circle. Search engine accessibility for any site is key, but the other critical part is to make each site and its content as easy to share as possible.
Many Calgary Web designers have not yet embraced mobile design, however, there is no time like the present to get started with some simple mobile design strategies. It just makes sense to increase focus on mobile design when so many people are using it.
