Picking A Mobile Support Strategy For Your Website

The number of people browsing the Web from a mobile device has more than tripled since 2009, and it is sure to continue growing, with browser platforms such as iOS and Android offering mobile browser support that is almost identical to what we have come to expect from a desktop experience. As the mobile consumer market continues to grow, so will the aspirations of individuals and companies who look to embrace what the mobile Web has to offer.

With this in mind, many website owners have begun to develop a strategy for providing information and services to their mobile visitors. However, mobile strategies can vary massively from website to website, depending on what the company wants to offer visitors. For example, eBay’s strategy will be very different from an individual’s strategy for a portfolio website, which might simply be to improve readability for those viewing on a mobile device.

So, as website owners define the level of support they aim to provide, a scale of support for mobile devices emerges. Picking where on the scale your website should sit can be quite tricky; each level of support is not without its pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some of the more common approaches:

Approach A: Tweak What You Have

The most basic and, thus, quickest option is to do only what is required to get the website to work on mobile devices. I use the word “work” loosely here because it can be very subjective, but the main goal is to ensure that the website displays and functions properly on mobile devices and perhaps similarly to the desktop experience.

Sure, delivering a desktop experience on a mobile device is not ideal by any stretch of the imagination, but this option simply offers the minimum required to get the website to function and display OK. With modern mobile devices offering good CSS support and zooming functionality, visitors should at least be able to access the information they need.

Approach B: Adaptive Layout (Media Queries)

Media-dependent styling has been around for a long time; you will almost certainly have used “media types”.

Media queries, on the other hand, have really started to gain popularity since browser vendors began to support the W3C’s CSS3 “Media Queries” specification.

Most modern browsers, including mobile ones, should now be able to query such things as width, height, device width and height, orientation and more. This has led to more people using media queries to provide responsive designs to their visitors.

Ultimately, your approach should be guided by your content, objectives and visitors. What might work in theory doesn’t necessarily work in practice. A bit of digging in your analytics might show that a large proportion of visitors are on mobile devices, and so the extra time spent improving their experience would be worth it. Once you have all of the data, you can make an informed decision about which approach will benefit you — and more importantly — your visitors.

Originally from: SmashingMagazine http://goo.gl/DseMWK