Think Mobile
Why you must design with mobile front of mind.
How many of your company's potential customers will browse your site on a smartphone or tablet? Do you know?
Well, one thing is for sure. It will be more than you expect and what's more, the percentage of users who consume your site on mobile is going to get bigger. Much bigger.
And when they do, what will they find - a 'shrink to fit' version of the desktop site? By that, I mean you've left it to the smartphone or tablet browser to decide how your site will look and be presented.
This might seem just fine, and at first glance it might not look too bad either. But you need to think deeper about this.
Your mobile user has only one eyeball and one thumb on your site. They're probably on the move and perhaps distracted by what is happening in their immediate surroundings. And they won't have a precise tool, such as a mouse, to select the links on your pages.
It's for these reasons that you need to give serious thought to developing a mobile specific version of your website. A version that puts content first and gives users a fighting chance to navigate quickly around the pages. You need big target areas for menu links and buttons and you will need to make sure that forms are extremely easy to complete. But that's not all. You also need to make sure that you make good use of the native features of mobile browsers and provide an alternative for the desktop 'hover' state on menus.
You should also seriously think about removing unnecessary content: prune the text, keep menu options to a minimum and remove 'heavy' image files or other features that may look great on the desktop but only serve to make for a painfully slow mobile experience.
In fact, I would argue that this process can really help you focus on what is your key content - the elements and messages that are most important and what your users most frequently want to do. Keeping the design, content and navigation simple and 'to the point' should really pay dividends when it comes to getting the maximum return from your investment in the mobile platform.
For too long clients and web designers have paid scant attention or dismissed the need for a specific mobile only site. And 2012 is the year that this out-dated thinking is set to change. Embrace the possibilities of this and you will forge a competitive advantage for your business.