If you’re handling the mobile website design for your Orange County business, then likely you understand how critical of a task it is. The reason it matters so much that you get it right is that the majority of your customers are probably going to be using your mobile site, while those using laptop or desktop versions are in the minority.

Because of this, you must understand that mobile website design differs from other versions in several ways. While many of the design elements will be similar, there will be subtle changes to put in place so that your mobile site visitors can get the most use out of your various features. Let’s go over what it is that sets the mobile version of your site apart.

Menu Formatting

For Orange County mobile websites, the formatting of your menu is going to be one of the most significant ways that particular site version differs from the others. On a desktop it’s okay for you to have a mega-menu with many different categories and sub-categories. That’s because in the case of a desktop user the screen is going to be big enough that all of those options should be visible. They can read the text in the menus and click on the links, thereby navigating to wherever they want to go.

Mobile website design is different because it has to be. The phone screen is going to be much smaller, so a sizeable menu is impractical. Small screens and thumbs to control them should be on your mind as you design for mobile. It’s probably going to mean a single-level menu with large buttons and text. The other option is a vertical drop-down menu with many options.

The ability of menus on mobile phones to collapse and expand is part of what makes them look different to the naked eye than laptop or desktop versions, Orange County. It’s probably one of the first things you’ll discover even if you seldom take the time to think about it when you access a company’s mobile site for the first time.

Form Fills

Form fills are also different for mobile versions of sites. Vertical alignment for mobile sites is your friend, where horizontal alignment makes more sense for desktop or laptop. Again, it’s because of the difference in screen sizes. If you’re on your phone trying to scroll back and forth horizontally to fill out a form, then it can be utterly maddening. 

If you fail to go vertical, then the likelihood of your potential customer sticking around to finish the job is very slight. Again, you’ve probably noticed this with many of your favorite mobile sites already, but you haven’t taken the time to think about why it’s set up that way.

When it comes to forms on mobile, you should also have predictive text capabilities. Predictive text is a series of text options that come up when you start to type in the first letters of a word. It’s the same feature that now shows up on most cell phones when you’re trying to text someone. Several word options will come up, and you can select one of them, which in theory speeds up your ability to generate a message.

Predictive text on forms is another one of those small aspects of mobile website design that your customers will appreciate. It’s not the easiest thing to fill out forms on a small screen, whether horizontally or vertically, and this will move things along as expediently as possible.

Minimize Fields

You also want to minimize fields for your mobile website users as much as you can. If they’re trying to buy something from you, for instance, you only want to get the barest of information from them to complete the sale. 

The more questions you ask and the more fields you require to be filled, the less of a probability exists that the transaction will be completed. If you can ever condense multiple fields into one, you should do that as well.

Content Organization

The last thing about mobile website design in Orange County that makes it different is the way content is organized. The needs of a customer are likely to be the same or similar when they are visiting your site, but their browsing behavior will not be. All of your content needs to be stacked vertically so that it will easily fit the contours of a phone screen. Desktop devices have the benefit of portrait orientation so that images can be stretched to fit. That is not the case with cell phones.

A small screen means that even in landscape mode what you can see is limited, so you must keep that in mind with the image files that you choose to feature. A poorly formatted image speaks badly of your company’s technological capabilities, and you always want to give off the appearance that you are on top of all things in the realm of tech.

Different Content

As we mentioned earlier, the content on your mobile site should be similar as that to appear on your desktop or laptop sites, but you may choose to omit some material for your mobile site that you feel might be superfluous. 

By cutting to the most vital content, you make sure that whoever is browsing your mobile site gets the sales message that you have for them loud and clear. If they are quickly skimming through your site on their phone, you want them to be able to find your services and products almost instantaneously.

Many of the questions that you have related to mobile website design for your Orange County business can be answered by asking yourself what a cell phone user most wants to see and not see on a mobile site. What are they trying to accomplish, and what elements are going to frustrate them?

We’ve all used mobile sites, so figuring out the basics shouldn’t be all that difficult. If you find yourself stuck, remember that there are also many online forums to which you can turn for advice as you continue mapping out your site for mobile devices.