January 31, 2011

Many of you have probably visited some of your favorite web sites on your iPhone or Blackberry only to find it looks different than the site you’re used to seeing on your PC or laptop. That’s because the site you’re visiting has a simpler version created just for mobile devices. I myself created a mobile web design for my portfolio site, feel free to check it out on your phone or even on your computer by going to Sebastian Agosta | Mobile Version.

The reason more and more companies and individuals are creating mobile web sites is because more and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the web. This article on mashable shows how some analysts think people will surf the web on their phone more than on their desktop by 2015. It’d be silly for to create a web design for your company and not have a mobile site setup.

If you do want to get a mobile version done for your site and it’s not being designed or developed by me, I want you to keep a few things in mind.

1) Be sure to create it so that there isn’t too much scrolling. I wouldn’t make my design much longer than what would fit on your basic iPhone or Android device.
2) Make the links large enough that someone doesn’t have to zoom in to click it. As you can see on my mobile site the links are the entire width of the page.
3) Condense your mobile site to show only what’s absolutely necessary. I find that some people who do mobile web design forget that people are surfing on their phones and probably aren’t going to spend hours searching through the 100 pages you have. Keep it sweet and simple. My mobile version only has 5 pages.

There are a few other things I would suggest, but those are the main 3. If you’re curious about what else I would add or remove from a mobile web design feel free to contact me. I’d be happy to give you a free consultation.

Anyone else have opinions on mobile design? Comment below!