Apps and websites are more connected than ever. It frustrates users when a website isn’t optimized for a smartphone or tablet, as it does when an app has no sister website that can be accessed by a laptop or desktop user.
All this means your business faces some challenges in terms of optimizing your apps and websites across all devices.
Smartphones
When your company optimizes its website for mobile devices, it must take smartphone web traffic seriously. Smartphones are the most commonly used mobile device these days. Mobile websites must focus on your business’s core content and functionality.
There’s no room for clutter in a mobile site, especially on a phone where the real estate is limited. You don’t want mobile users scrolling back and forth on their phones because the website is wider than their screens are. A dedicated mobile-only site is ideal. Most smartphones don’t run Flash, nor does iOS. Errors in CSS and HTML code are also common, as are framed images.
Phablets
While phablets may be part phone, they still offer a different experience for users. While a mobile-optimized site will work as well on a phablet as it does on a phone, some aspects of the website may not use the full real estate of the larger screen. Aesthetics count, and consumers want a clean experience, which can mean optimizing for larger mobile devices as well as smartphones.
There is one major difference between smartphones and larger mobile devices: conversion rate of sales. A measly 1 percent of visitors make purchases while on smartphones, while 2.4 percent of people make sales on larger mobile devices. Phablet and tablet optimization suggests a more than 100 percent increase in sales per 100 users.
An app might be more accessible for smartphone and phablet users, as it streamlines the checkout process to increase your conversion rate. The low rate of sales on traditional websites visited on smartphones hints at a lack of compatibility.
Laptops & Desktops
Traditional websites still reign supreme. People appreciate the durability of the computer set up and the accessibility and viewing options of a full website. Some laptop models offer hybrid tablet options providing a digital environment where apps meet the traditional website. Many of these models swivel, tent, and even disassemble (keyboard detaches from screen) to make for an impromptu tablet when needed.
While traditional websites are still a must-have, you can utilize responsive web design, instead of creating multiple websites for different devices. Responsive web design (RWD) is accomplished with special coding techniques that make your website adjust to any device, platform or screen size. This eliminates the need for the same information and material to be collected and implemented in a company app.
However, responsive web design is only appropriate for your company or business if you don’t need advanced features on your website. When a website has advanced options such as music, videos, checkouts for purchase, and other bells and whistles, RWD has difficulty converting those options.
