User Experience Factors To Consider For Mobile Design
Part three of the three part series, “Why Do I Need a Mobile Website”. Design for mobile devices is often referred to as “mobile first” design. The term took on reviewed vigor when Google and Bing demanded preference toward mobile pages for their search engine users. According to Google, most people perform searches from a mobile device. More people “Ask Google” or talk directly to their cell phone when searching. Cell phones are used as assistants and with Bluetooth technology, enable the listening of music in vehicles, listening to a book being read or talking while driving. If your company wishes to be ADA compliant, mobile’s text to voice apps are a desirable option. In fact, accessibility for mobile is expected…
First Steps in Decision Making for Mobile Design
Part two of the three part series, “Why Do I Need a Mobile Website”. The first step is performance testing your existing website. Automated tools for mobile acceptance from Google and Bing are provided by both search engines. However, there only 4 criteria required to pass and they are server side. The tests don’t validate if the mobile page meets the requirements of your target market, user personas, accessibility or business goals for mobile experiences. More testing is a logical recommendation. To understand how your intended website visitors add an item to a shopping cart, fill out a form, searches for a product or if they read an entire article from their mobile device, there are additional sources and test…
Why Do I Need a Mobile Web Site?
Web design for mobile friendly web pages is not new. In fact, it’s ancient history. And while most companies slept through mobile design, Google decided the future is “mobile first”. In 2016 Google did two things to wake up the world to the realities of the mobile user experience. They began with an automated mobile testing tool that anyone can use for free. Next, they sent website owners, with accounts in Google’s Webmaster Tools service, warning notices that their pages failed Google’s internal mobile tests. And P.S., if you don’t fix the issues, Google might not continue to crawl or rank your pages. The response to the news and warnings varied from panic and hysteria to outright denial. “My website…
The Pressure from Google to Be “Mobile First”
Ever since Google announced its preference for “mobile first” web pages and applications for search engine query results, the crowd of companies wanting to remain competitive rushed for site audits and mobile design assistance. During the last half of 2016, and especially when the more pressing crush of audits ensued in the last quarter, I was unable to pass a single website that I audited for mobile readiness. There was no website designed for mobile usability with people. They may have passed the 4 test criteria required by Google and Bing’s mobile test tools, but the mistake is assuming that pages passing search engine indexing mobile algorithm requirements automatically pass human requirements. Not a single website was ready to meet…
