What you should know

Your website user experience can vary depending on whether you view it on a  desktop or mobile device. It is important to be aware of how your webpage looks and is accessed across multiple platforms in order to give your users the best experience no matter how they navigate to your website.

On-screen navigation

On desktop webpages, you can include many features that are necessary to enhance your customer’s experience. On a traditional desktop page, we are used to scrolling horizontally. While this is still acceptable for desktop webpages, you should know that your mobile site will function better if you can scroll vertically, and access content in a linear fashion as you scroll. Think of popular social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. These sites allow for interaction through scrolling up and down; therefore, your webpage should encourage the same kind of interaction.

Another bygone element of web-browsing are hyperlinks. These are not used so much anymore in either format, but have been moved to tabs or maybe links to other pages, usually at the top or through accessing a menu. Easy access menus are useful on both desktop and mobile pages.

You should also include fewer graphics on mobile pages; often the software used to create desktop pages are not compatible with mobile pages.  The resolution, however, will be much sharper on desktop and can include much richer images than you can integrate on mobile. 

One helpful tip is to have a home button that brings users back to the home page of any website, especially if this allows for easier navigation to other parts of your website. You should also have simple navigation options for mobile, so users don’t get frustrated with having too many pages to navigate to in order to get something done on your page. Make your most popular pages accessible for mobile, and everything else can live on the desktop website.

Finally, you should know that mobile websites do offer some advantages. It is much easier to integrate across social media and to set up easy access for mobile orders. Keep this in mind as you develop your website; make sure you are using software that makes it easier for users to access, navigate, and of course, buy your product or service, from your website.

Overall User Experience

While your ultimate goal for your website is to gain customers, you should know that you will only keep them if they can easily access your content and buy your product. Keep navigation simple, and try not to add too many pages to a website that may only need three or four. Before you launch any website, make sure you have looked at it across multiple platforms to ensure the best overall user experience that you can offer your customers.