by Patrick Zuluaga, PMZ Marketing [Download Article]
The answer should be fairly obvious yet most businesses have not yet embarked toward optimising their websites for tablet and smart phone use.
Look around you and observe a trend that is happening everywhere! If you are in either the B2C sector you will notice that smart phones are proliferating among consumers and they are using this device for surfing the web for information. Smart phones and tablet computers are now the dominant devices to view your online web business presence.
The same is true of the use of tablets in the B2B sector. At a recent Australia Business Chambers conference the use of tablets including iPads was the norm among the delegates! The current trend is for tablets to overtake the sales of laptops and desktops in a couple of years.
Some of our readers may rightly observe that in landscape mode tablets and smart phones can accommodate websites designed for desktop computers. Yes, screen resolutions match that of the desktop however screen size does not! Web content will appear so much smaller and will almost be unreadable without zooming with your two fingers to expand the view.
Human fingers come in all sizes and a small screen does not achieve the same result as a keyboard. If you want real engagement and interaction with your web it is crucial that your tablet and smart phone design is easy to use and provides for a pleasant web visitor experience.
This is why it is critical that business owners and managers introduce optimised web versions for both tablets and smart phones. On desktop computers we use mouse clicks and keyboards. For tablets and smart phones we use “finger sweeps” and on-screen touch keyboards.
Designing friendly versions involves full consideration of the device usage. A smart phone friendly web design will require a simplified layout and use text oriented content from the site. While a tablet friendly web design will allow for a more graphically rich design. The key point is the tablet and smart phone designs are optimised for the use finger sweeps and on-screen touch keyboards with a smaller touch screen.
We have a tidal wave of tablet and smart phone device users coming that your business must consider and provide the optimised versions otherwise your web presence will miss out in achieving its business objectives.
Here is a short list to get your business moving forward:
If your current web provider is unable to offer you an integrated solution you might consider moving to a service provider that can meet your requirements today such as PMZ Marketing.
15/03/2017