In my previous blog, I have tried to focus on how people are gradually switching themselves from personal computers and relying on their mobile phones for accessing the web. There has been a progressive inclination in the number of smartphone users worldwide. Let us discuss another aspect about how influencing it would be to focus on Mobile-based designs?
From the perspective of having information on the website, there are two different approaches for mobile and PCs. The current design trend allows complete display of information on the website while in case of mobile devices, the content is filtered and prioritized.
Consider Responsive Design for Mobile First Approach
The information has also to be perceived based on the application of responsive design which is a part of current design trends. Responsive design does not stand alone, the best of it can be attained in its application with other design tools. Responsive design is based on the concept of media queries that specifically targets devices and viewport sizes. One can code up initial CSS, provided a mobile perspective and then using media queries to serve additional styling as the viewport size. Based on the above arguments, it is well justified idea of structuring your media queries from large to small devices.
Mobile-First Approaches
So far, we have discussed about the importance of prioritising the design for mobiles. Now, let us take a look at some approaches towards mobile-based designs.
- Visual Hierarchy- The first step in mobile design is prioritizing the elements in the content inventory and then determining how to display the important elements in a noticeable way.
- Small breakpoints Design and then scaling up- During this process, begin with wireframe design and then use that as the model for larger breakpoints. Once this is done, experiment by scaling it up.
- Expand Touch Targets– As fingers are much wider in area than pixel or precise mouse cursors and so there is the need of larger elements that allows users to tap. Give plenty of space to the hyperlinks and enhance the size of the buttons.
- Avoid Hover Menus- It is one of the bad practises, but designers often rely on hover and mouse-over effects in their interactive work. If you are designing a mobile-friendly website, do not indulge with hovering menus.
- Real Time Device Test– The success of a design depends on the performance. So, to check the performance, test it on the devices on different parameters of performance evaluation.
