Designers should “enhance upwards” when taking Web sites to mobile platforms.
This is according to Lynette Hundermark, head of product strategy at Prezence Digital, a mobile solutions provider and digital brand strategist.
Speaking last week at the UX Masterclass, a biannual user experience event hosted by the UXalliance, Hundermark explained that “enhancing upwards” means building for the lower-end and then adding functionality and introducing mobile apps.
Hundermark says designers should not forget about USSD, a GSM communication technology that is used to send texts between mobile phones and an application program in the GSM network. She adds that USSD works on all phones.
Device diversity
Hundermark argues that while designing Web sites is “bliss”, designing mobi sites is not as simple. She explains that mobi sites are accessed from many different devices, with different screen sizes, browsers and operating systems.
She says, for this reason, mobi site designers must ensure that the content of the site is adapted to each handset. She explains that not all handsets have the same functionality, with the result being that elements that work on one handset will not necessarily work on a different handset. For example, she says, higher-end handsets may have a fancier way of displaying drop-down menus than lower-end devices.
For Hundermark, designing mobi sites is like organising important stuff on the smallest desk possible. She says designers should take hierarchy into consideration, placing the most important items in visible areas and grouping the less-important items together.
Hundermark also stresses that simple navigation is important when designing mobi sites, so that users always know exactly where they are. She adds that 'clicks', or links between the site's pages, must be limited to essential clicks.
Hundermark explains that by limiting these clicks to only essential ones, the designer reduces the number of links a user must click to get to a desired page. She says limiting these clicks makes for simple navigation, and adds to the user experience.
Share
