Defining Mobile Optimized Design

We’ve drawn attention to the rising, increasing significance of the portion of eCommerce known as M-commerce, also known as mobile commerce. As more and more people turn to mobile devices to research products and make purchases, the importance of a responsive design that is optimized for mobile use has become more important than ever.
In considering mobile optimization, standard eCommerce best practices in design still apply, such as the key elements of an effective homepage and the importance of brand cohesion, but due to the nature of mobile devices, there are a few more things that become important. When weighing how to create a successful mobile design, keep the following in mind.
1. The Thumb Test
This is a somewhat subjective metric, but one of the most important mobile design elements of all. Newer iPhones allow you to swipe the home button to bring items at the top of the display within reach of your thumb. That’s the concept of the thumb test put into practice. In short, the most important features of your mobile design should be well within reach of a user’s thumbs around the bottom and middle of the screen.
2. Reduce Overall Clutter
This is also subjective; but look at the homepage of your mobile web design and ask yourself if it looks too confusing. Is there an overload of information, whether in the form of words, pictures, banners, or logos? Mobile design, like desktop design, is about balance, but because you’re working with a smaller screen, there is less forgiveness.
There should be only a few key elements that stand out on your mobile homepage design: navigational features like a menu, branding and logo imagery, links to popular and best-selling categories, and maybe one or two more features. If you need to include more information, include it below and make it scroll-accessible.
3. Scroll Accessibility
Typing on a mobile device is an absolute pain and the overwhelming majority of mobile users don’t want to have to do it. That means that your mobile design should be navigable by scrolling and clicking, as much as possible.
In terms of layout, this means that you should make all of the pages on your mobile site as scroll friendly as possible and only in a vertical orientation. It’s equally off-putting to have to scroll to the left and right on a tiny screen.
4. Reduce the Need to Type
As stated above, users want to be able to scroll through pages for information and don’t want to have to type. That means that, while you should offer the ability to type-search, you should also offer options for click-through navigation such as a mega menu or image links to your product pages, popular categories, contact pages, blog, or other important content pages. Allowing that type of click-through navigation can significantly impact your conversions and diminish bounce.
5. Noticeable, Recognizable Buttons
One more quick thing to keep in mind, but an important one, is that links to important category and content pages should be noticeable and distinct. Whatever mixture of imagery and text you choose, make sure the most relevant pages on your site stand out.
These are some of the most important things to keep in mind when laying out a mobile design, but there are many more that impact conversion rate. While customer satisfaction is important, there’s more to keep in mind when laying out mobile design.
It can impact your overall search engine optimization value as well. For one, Google has begun mobile-first indexing, which means that going forward Google will index sites based first on their mobile design and then by other factors.
Taking this a step further, Google has begun to penalize websites for designs that contain tiny text or hard-to-click links because they are not mobile-friendly, so this can have a very real impact on both your SEO and UX.
More Important Now Than Ever
As the eCommerce landscape shifts and a landslide of people take to their tablets and phones to make purchases, offering a mobile friendly optimized design should be a priority. M-Commerce was enjoying significant growth before COVID-19 impacted our domestic markets, but as we adjust to the new normal, there’s a simple fact with which we need to reckon. M-Commerce is here to say, and to be competitive in eCommerce, your business must embrace m-commerce. Taking the initiative to provide a design with the features we mentioned here is a good start.
Our team of BigCommerce and Shopify designers at our eCommerce design and digital marketing agency has the expertise in design and SEO best practices to create a mobile design for your website that is SEO friendly and will deliver an unparalleled user experience. We’ve worked with customers using many platforms, so even if you’re looking for a Magento web design company for a stellar mobile design, we can help you reach that goal.
Whatever industry your eCommerce site serves, 1Digital Agency’s team of experienced designers can build a customized design for your online store to attract and satisfy users. Contact our team today at info@1digitalagency.com or call us at 855-297-7707 to learn more about how to create a successful eCommerce web design for your mobile website.