7 Usability Guidelines for Websites on Mobile Devices

By Abid Warsi
2008-01-30


1. Meet users' needs quickly

Mobile and PC users can have different reasons for visiting the same site. Mobile users are more likely to want information to help them at that location or time, such as finding directions or finding out what's going on nearby. Also, they might want quick entertainment to pass away a short period of time, like something to read on the bus or while waiting to meet a friend. For your site, predicts users' needs and fulfil these as quickly as possible. Exceptions to this are items people download to keep on their phones (e.g. buying ringtones).

Yahoo! does this effectively with its new mobile oneSearch^TM service. Searching for 'Cinema' produces a list of cinemas near users' location showing their address and phone numbers. Clicking the 'Call' link next to a number opens a call dialogue box on the phone. A further enhancement would to be enable users to click through to a map of a venue.

Yahoo!'s oneSearch predicts what users are searching for and tailors results to their location.

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

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