The website UI/UX thus, plays a critical role in the conversion of a browsing session into a purchase. Customers browsing catalogues on their mobile phones are much likely to make a purchase if the interface is lucid and intuitive. On the other hand, a willing customer may end up abandoning the purchase mid-way if the user interface is difficult or cluttered and fails to provide intuitive call-to-action buttons or commands. Hence, it is essential to focus on a website design which is well adapted to mobile devices and operating platforms.
Here are a few nuances that can help make the user interface of your mobile website an addictive experience for the user.
- KISS (Keep it simple and sleek): Website design companies need to understand the fine balance between an impressive and an over-the-top UI/UX. In their endeavour to create an innovative and impressive UI/UX, website design companies end up creating noise and clutter on the web pages which can actually ruin the entire user experience. The key to achieving a popular and user-friendly mobile website is to keep it is as minimalistic as possible. It is extremely essential to ensure that the user is able to easily read and view the precise information he or she is looking for on your web page. Since the available real estate (screen-size) of the mobile phone is less, there will be a conscious effort to keep the UI/UX uncluttered. Website design companies need to apply stringent and selective methods to ensure that they display only relevant content or information through the UI/UX.
- Intuitive space optimisation: The size of the mobile screen is the biggest challenge in developing a mobile website. It thus becomes important to devote significant effort to an intuitive space optimisation exercise while developing a mobile website. Simply put, this means that it is important to display only that bit of information which is relevant to the corresponding or relevant stage in the buying process and provide intuitive call-to-action buttons specific to that stage of the buying process. This will enable the utilisation of screen space in a phased manner and thus, effectively provide much more real-estate than available.
- Consistency vs. Customisation: Website design agencies also struggle with developing web pages for different platforms. iOS and Android are two of the most popular mobile platforms among others, and it makes sense to focus on these two rather than catering to all platforms. However, since these platforms differ significantly from each other in terms of the technology as well as the way users are used to interacting with these platforms, it is difficult to develop harmonious websites for both platforms. What most companies fail to comprehend is that they have to trade-off between maintaining a consistent user experience across platforms and providing customised interfaces for these platforms. The ability to achieve this balance will greatly impact the success of your UI/UX on mobile platforms.
- Make a visual impact: While it is essential to ensure a simplistic and lucid design for your mobile website, it is also essential to make a visually appealing UI/UX. A very simple way to achieve this is to make sure that the images on your web page are light (in size) and yet, have a good resolution without affecting aspect ratios, this ensures minimal distortion when viewing on any platform. Another key aspect to consider is the colour scheme of the web page. Unlike a desktop or laptop which would be used in a well-lit room on a desk, a mobile phone could be used anywhere, from an underground train terminus to a park in the open sun. The colour scheme, the design of the menus and the call-to-action buttons can go a long way in creating that much needed impact on your users. Remember that the interface device in case of a mobile is the human thumb and not a calibrated mouse pointer. Thus, the call-to-action buttons and the link sizes need to be optimised to ensure minimal errors during operation.
The mobile-web revolution is here to stay and is expected to only grow further till the time another disruptive technology replaces the mobile phone. Many companies around the globe have taken cognizance of this fact and have consciously migrated to purely mobile oriented operations simply because it makes more sense to the target customers. This only shows how important it is to design websites optimally for mobile devices and the massive impact it can have on the way we do business.