7 Usability Guidelines for Websites on Mobile Devices

By Abid Warsi
2008-01-30


Introduction

More and more mobile phones users are browsing and searching the Internet on their handsets. The UK, for example, has neared saturation for mobile phones and many handset browsers can now handle sites designed for viewing on computers. Indeed 20% of UK mobile phone users now use the Internet on their mobile devices (source: 3G.co.uk¹).

If you design websites for PC viewing then you need to consider how your sites will look and work on mobiles. The bar for mobile specific sites has been raised by some good sites and others need to close their gap. As the mobile Internet has developed savvy users have come to expect higher standards when browsing on their handsets.

These 7 guidelines are based on actual user research conducted with mobile phone users. Users were asked to carry out typical tasks on popular websites using a mobile phone browser. The issues they encountered were used to produce these guidelines.

Tutorial Pages:
» Introduction
» 1. Meet users' needs quickly
» 2. Don't repeat the navigation on every page
» 3. Clearly distinguish selected items
» 4. Make user input as simple as possible
» 5. Only show essential information
» 6. Place basic browsing controls on the page
» 7. Design mobile-friendly page layouts
» In a nutshell

Related Tutorials: » Stylize Your Digg Count » Installing Apache on Windows » Ecommerce Imagery: Persuading with Pictures » Customizable Websites - The Definitive Guide » 10 Common Errors When Implementing Accessibility » WordPress Customization