Mobile responsive websites

On February the 26th Google announced that they would be ranking mobile friendly websites higher than those that do not adhere to Google’s mobile responsive criteria.

The update rolled out on the the 21st of April 2015, this has seen some huge changes in the SERPS. Ultimately the most important change is that users can now view high-quality content on any device that they use.

If your website is still not mobile friendly it is important to know that a responsive website can boost your rankings on Google and increase conversions.

Here are some useful tips for designers specialising in UX, to improve user engagement on your website.

Usability

When designing for mobile sites it is important to focus on ease of use, so it may not be viable to include all elements of the desktop website design. Cutting out some elements to include only the most vital elements, is an important part of the responsive design process.

Speed

Mobile devices are fast these days, but it is still important to build for poor connections. Fast mobiles are only fast if they are picking up a good reception. If your website is slow in poor connection areas, users will find another site that is not as laggy.

UX Elements & Speed

Navigation

E-commerce sites genuinely have lots of filters to sift through on their menus.

An easy to use drop-down menu is key, main navigation items should be kept as simple as possible. A user should be able to quickly navigate around your website on a mobile just as easy as a desktop.

Image Optimisation & Site Speed

Keep all images at 200kb or thereabouts, also keep image quantity to a minimum to decrease the amount of times the server is pinged. Both of these actions will help increase the speed of a website.

Compress Scripts

Another good speed increase tip is to compress your scripts and style sheets.

Design For Fingers

If your navigation is designed too small, users will find it hard to navigate around the site. We have all landed on websites that you need to zoom in on, to press the correct menu tabs to navigate easily.

Vector Images

Vector images are great for high-resolution screens, this is because they can scale without any quality loss.

Conclusion

All of the above can help improve your website load speed. Thus making your website more mobile and user-friendly.