Forum
Last seen: Nov 19, 2021
About Me
Techniques How to Make a Website Mobile Friendly
In today’s web environment having a Responsive Web Design is essentially a requirement. Responsive web design is the standard for mobile optimization, recommended by major search engines like Google and Bing. Occasionally alternative methods of mobile optimization will rear their heads, but for most businesses and sites, responsive design offers the best benefits and cost efficiency.
Why is mobile optimization so important? Well, in the UK, roughly 1 in 4 people browsing the web are doing so from a mobile device. That means 25% of your potential users are on phones or tablets. Older web designs look horrendous and function very poorly on these devices, offering the 25% of people an extremely subpar experience. Around the world, those numbers soar even higher, with many nations around the world already seeing a majority of users coming from mobile.
The UK’s mobile browsing share only going to go up as time passes as smartphones and tablets continue to penetrate the market and grow more capable and convenient. Mobile websites by web application development - https://jatapp.com/services/application-development/ - are the best way to future-proof your online presence, and prepare your website for the next generation of browsers.
So with all that out there, you should also keep in mind that not every responsive website is created equally. Just like any creative asset, there are some differences between a “responsive design” and a “great responsive design.” Let’s try to make sure you fall into the latter camp. Here are a few tips and tricks for building the best mobile experience possible:
- Keep your copy short and to the point. In general, large amounts of text are not very appealing on small screens, so make your statements short and sweet.
- Use large, tappable interactive elements. A mouse is a very precise instrument, which led web designers to use fairly small links in the past. Meanwhile, a finger is absolutely not precise. The good news is, any button that’s big enough to tap, is also equally easy to click—in fact it’s a better design all around, and conforms to the modern look and feel, which brings us to a related point…
- Low density. Don’t put very many things on screen at once. Modern design principles include lots of space, so that users don’t get lost and can easily navigate to their destination on the page. On mobile devices this is even more important, due to the smaller screens and less precise interaction tools.
- Fast loading times. Website loading time is always important, but even more so on mobile devices. Mobile users are more likely to bounce from a site due to slow loading, so compress your files and consolidate CSS files wherever possible, and generally reduce the amount of data your site requires.
Thanks to our strong experience in both mobile and web technologies, responsive, mobile-friendly websites are a specialty of Software Developers UK. Work with our in-house design and web development teams to revamp your web presence and ensure you are making the most of what the web offers in today’s mobile era. It’ s time to boost your sales in 2019, start with a mobile friendly website.
What Should I Choose for my SMB: Apple Store vs Google Play
A central question for all new app ideas is which platform to develop for. The two major platforms, iOS and Android, are both wildly successful, and from a general perspective offer identical opportunities. Both offer robust and well-documented SDKs. Both have a healthy selection of third-party resources and APIs. And no matter which platform you settle on, you have a good opportunity for success.
The question is definitely not “which one of these is good” because both have proven themselves as fantastic platforms. The question of “which is better” is a much more challenging one. To answer that, we’re going to use a tried and true method of decision making: a list of pros and cons.
Apple Pros
- Less compatibility trouble: iOS devices come in only a few flavors, which means that apps are less likely to run into compatibility problems.
- Greater revenue generation: It’s a longstanding quirk of the industry, but despite having a much smaller net market share iOS continues to generate more net revenue for developers. The revenue per user on iOS is much higher than on Android.
- Cool factor: Apple and the affiliated apps are marketed with a heavy focus on design. There is no denying that Apple is a stronger pillar of pop culture (though I can’t find any quantifiable data on that…)
Apple Cons
- More limitations: Apple occasionally locks features so that developers can’t access them (I’m looking at you, NFC chip!) and has a much stricter policy for approval before you can publish your apps. Apps simply have less flexibility on iOS devices.
Android Pros
- More users: Android controls about 84% of the worldwide smartphone market share. If you are looking for raw user count, there’s no competition.
- More flexibility: Android’s open platform is more flexible for experimentation, and the review process for publication is less strict.
Android Cons
- Compatibility issues: Android devices come from dozens of different manufacturers, in even more unique varieties. This fragmentation makes it much more difficult to ensure the app is optimized for all users.
Verdict!
I’m going to give a slight advantage to iOS in this competition, and here’s why: when building a brand new app, it is usually the easier platform to start with—excluding certain occasions when iOS simply won’t allow for the functionality you want. If your main audience is in the UK then the audience size gap shrinks considerably so you aren’t missing out on as big of an audience, but the compatibility problems on Android will always remain a challenge, and when you are first building an app you really want to limit the points of failure so you can focus on iterating, testing, fixing, and improving the experience. One or two extra obstacles from compatibility can be very distracting during that time.
My real verdict would be “build for both!” But that’s not really answering the question. Building for both means you get the biggest user-base and most revenue. Build iOS first to establish the concept, after that it will be a breeze to replicate on Android so the extra QA that’s needed on that platform won’t really get in the way of anything.