Mobile web design still changes and offering a flawless mobile web experience becomes more and more of an obligatory condition rather than a competitive advantage, so just keep up the pace. In this article, you will find a checklist of UX design principles that your users will highly appreciate.
Mobile’s influence on digital business is definitely on its rise especially when it comes to mobile commerce which has grown fast. As business owners, entrepreneurs, or marketers, we should first of all change our thinking mode to mobile-first. And here is a list of design principles examples that will help you keep the focus on mobile web design.
Navigation
Navigation is about how easy it is for people to take action and move around your website. Doing so is one of the essential user experience principles. The keyword here is easy, so thinking out how should you build mobile web navigation, do not use sophisticated approaches and elaborate words, instead use common terms to itemize a menu instead. Moreover, the visitor should understand in which direction they should go. Better to avoid symbols, but if you still want to include some, make sure they are expressed unambiguously.
More tips here:
- Short but clear menu items
- Easy-to-read and perceive elements
- Your most important message listed first
- Vertical orientation if scrolling is required
- Finger-friendly design of menu items
- Make clear explanations why it is better to change the orientation
Context
Designing with context is an important design principle and can have various meanings. A seamless user experience is crucial for a successful product but sometimes you need to explain to users what’s happening. They need to understand the purpose of every button and every action. You need to learn how to do it organically without ruining the user’s experience with your product.
Another meaning of context is the understanding of where and how users will use your product. Meaning in which environment and under which circumstances. Also, you need to understand which devices they’re going to use to access your product and how they interact with it. To get answers to all these questions, you should get to know users. The best methods for this are user interviews, surveys, and user testing.
User should be in control
To make users comfortable with your product, you should give them a sense of control. There are several ways to achieve that:
- Users should always be able to go back. The ability to back-pedal gives users the opportunity to explore your product and encourages them to spend more time interacting with your product.
- Provide informative feedback. For every action that the user takes, there should be a clear and visible reaction. You should show users that their action is acknowledged with your interface elements.
- Make exit links visible. This step is quite evident as your users shouldn’t struggle when they want to Close and Exit signs. Moreover, you should enable users to easily cancel an action at any point.
Consistency
Another golden rule of great UX is consistency. Meaning that you should keep the design and functionality and design across all your pages and platforms the same. There are several ways to achieve that is by creating design systems. Moreover, you should make the design and interface look familiar. This way users won’t get lost when they launch your app or website for the first time and will be more confident to use it.
Reduce cognitive load
It’s no secret that modern internet users are used to consuming information at an impressive speed. Therefore, making users put too much effort to use your product will just push them away. Here are some methods to help you reduce the cognitive load.
- Reduce the actions needed to complete a task;
- Make your UI elements recognizable;
- Ensure a good visual organization;
- Keep it simple.
Empathy
Do not let ads and promotions steal the thunder of your website, impeding users’ way to completion of their and your goals. Ignoring this rule can cost you the loyalty of your website users. They visit your resource because they are interested in your offering, do not let them get distracted by another company.
Double-check it:
- Make sure promotions do not interfere with navigation
- Make ads easily differentiated from calls-to-action
- Avoid using popups
Visual hierarchy
The best websites to be viewed on mobile devices prefer the approach where content is organized in a grid-like manner so that it is easily adjusted to fit various screen sizes. Moreover, think of organizing content in such a way to keep it simple once again; what the user needs on their mobile’s screen may be different from what they want to see when sitting at their desk. Give them easy-to-catch pictures, minimum of details.
Here are some of the current mobile web design best practices:
- Back to top button
- Carousel at the top with the items you want to draw attention to
- Easily scrollable content especially for information websites
- Focus user’s attention on call-to-action (CTA) – it’s the heart of your website
- Keep important content on the surface
- Use up and down scroll, not left to right
- Show content of secondary importance upon certain action taken
- Animate content to make it more fun and easily perceivable
Images
Images are vital for mobile web design. Make images expandable and never make users zoom in. Minimize downloads by organizing and optimizing mobile web content. Images will make your website shine having in mind that amazing imagery content is always crucial for your mobile website. Being able to tell a story through your images would be a big plus. Interaction paired with animation used in your mobile website design will bring the appeal factor to your web resource.
To sum up
Mobile is a red-hot topic, and it will only continue to heat. The Web changes fundamentally every day and so does the mobile web design. A lot of companies now make one version of their site for desktop and another for mobile. Others choose Responsive Design, a mix of fluid grids and layouts, flexible images, and grateful use of CSS. Here at Pixetic, we believe that no matter what your client needs – mobile website, desktop web portal, or a mobile app – excellence and style are what always come in handy. These 9 UX design principles help us make the most for a better user journey.