Have you ever come across a website-gone-wrong on your phone and leave after just 5 seconds?

Building an app or web is not a “one size fits all” job. You may have a website or app which looks perfect on the computer, but it does not mean your design will work on a mobile device. A study by comScore shows that approximately 52% of internet usage are by mobile devices in 2015 and it will continue to rise. With mobile web marketing growing, how do you ensure that your mobile website grows your site traffic?

Always avoid the common mistakes below in your mobile web development!

Messy Layout – Fixed Positioning

How do you fit a giraffe in your kitchen fridge? That’s right, it is impossible, of course, unless you fold the giraffe into a half. Likewise, do not expect the desktop view to look identical to the mobile view due to the differences in screen sizes when you are building an app or website. When you try to squeeze the contents for the desktop view into mobile view, contents will overlap when their positions are fixed.

You may have come across the term “Responsive Web Design” (RWD) and the purpose of this approach is to tackle the problem of screen size differences. App development companies adopt RWD while building an app or website as it layouts the contents flexibly in response to the screen size. For a mobile-friendly web redesign with RWD, you should start looking for professional web developers.

Overlays and Pop-ups

You see an interesting website, clicked on it and ten layers of boxes covered the page. What a pain it must be to close them one by one before you reach the contents you were there for. Overlays and pop-ups can make web design interesting as it attracts user attention, whether it is a chatbox or advertisement. However, multiple layers of contents may slow the loading speed, posing risks of technical issues like crashing, failing buttons and system hanging.

Here comes the big question. How many is too many? It is best to keep to just one layer and arrange other contents on the main page during your web and app development. Now, you might ask, “How am I supposed to fit so much contents on one page?”. The idea is to keep your design simple, clear, fast and appealing when you are building an app or web. Limiting your content to just one overlay or pop-up does not mean you have to cram everything else together. You can get app development companies or a professional web developer to assist in separating your contents into several pages with proper links to each page (next button, menu bar, hyperlinks).

Background Problems 

While setting up my website on Wix, I saw an animated gif which was so pretty and I immediately applied to the background. When I loaded my website with my phone, I was flustered. My supposedly pretty animated background showed up as a low-resolution frame of the animation which completely wrecked the appeal. Hence, avoid using animated background images unless you are entirely sure that the animation works.You might be familiar with this second mistake of background dimensions. There are three manners it can occur in the web and app development process – extreme shrinking, excessive cropping and warping of the background image. Extreme shrinking happens when your mobile phone tries to fit the image for desktop view fully within the phone screen. Excessive cropping happens when the phone does not resize the background image to fit. Rather, it crops it to fill the screen. Warping occurs when an image is stretched to fit the screen. All three are caused by the incompatibility of screen dimensions. You may apply a versatile background which is suitable for all screens (solid color, repetitive image etc.) or you may also hire a professional designer to prepare a separate image for the mobile view when building an app or a website.

User Experience 

Often, the formatting and layout change unexpectedly, messing up the order and hierarchy of your contents when building an app or a website. Text and image alignments may be out of place and buttons may be in unsuitable shapes and sizes. Sometimes, they may even be hidden and contents get lost.
Tackling background problems in mobile web design is not easy with many factors to consider like placements, sizings, colour schemes, presentation and overall appeal. You may need to redesign buttons for the mobile view which are small and simple but still visible. To hire professional designers for your designing needs, you can click here.

Huge style change

Good mobile web development comes with style. With a unique style of your own, viewers will go “Oh! It’s you!” at the first glance of your webs and apps. Branding helps to build an impression on your users because that is what makes you different from the others. Having that said, both desktop and mobile views should adopt similar color schemes and fonts while building an app or website. Legible fonts, of course, enhance appeal because contents are easy to read and inconsistent font usage may make your contents look untidy. Just ensure that users do not feel as if they have entered a different dimension from your original website. A professional designer may be helpful for your branding to assist in your mobile web development.

Generally, try putting yourself into your viewers’ shoes. Ask yourself whether the website or app is easy to use. Can you read the contents without a sweat? Is the online platform neat and organised? Some app development companies use the “mobile-first design approach” in their web and app development process, creating their content from a mobile view before working on the desktop view while building an app. It allows a smoother conversion and the contents are focused on the important information. After redesigning, always put your design to test. Make sure all the links work fine and the contents appear right before publishing. There will always be ways to improve the design, feedback from viewers may be helpful to you for a better-improved design. Don’t stop designing and keep the creative juices flowing!

ThunderQuote is the “Gebiz for businesses” and most comprehensive business services portal in Singapore, Australia and ASEAN , where hundreds of thousands of dollars of procurement contracts are sourced every month by major companies like Singapore Press Holdings, National Trade Union Congress and more.