How to Design and Build a Mobile Version of Your Website?

When one aspires to be an entrepreneur, he or she is always on the lookout for new developments. A sleek and streamlined mobile version of your website can assist an entrepreneur to build a platform of his business for people on the go. The mobile web is as it is burgeoning with a world of different operating systems, including iOS, Android, and Windows is revolutionizing the businesses. There are plenty of other benefits as well of the mobile websites.

Some of them are:

• It distinguishes a business from its competitors. A mobile optimized website is easy for users to access and use. And naturally, users gravitate towards what’s more convenient to them.
• The nature of digital marketing has completely changed now. A mobile website makes a business available at all times and everywhere. This goes a long way in improving customer relationships.
• Mobile version of websites are built to be search engine friendly or SEO Friendly. It makes it easy for your business to be recognized through traditional search mediums and enhance the chance of attracting potential customers.
• With the development of scanning Quick Response (QR) codes feature, mobile websites grant more flexibility to a user to connect with a business. And businesses can merge their print and mobile marketing strategies for efficiency and better user experience.
• Users today make decisions in a spur of the moment, and mobile websites in that regard provide them ease of use and accessibility to swiftly process their decisions. A simplified design, with no room for clutter, is any day better than going through several steps to acquire information.

But then the question still remains, how to build a mobile version of a website?

A simple solution which is adopted by small businesses is to install Google Analytics on their website and then use various tool, such as Mobify, Onbile, Mippin Mobilizer, and Mobile Press.  The key concept which these tools work on is to identify and detect the user agent of a website. A user agent is the browser being used. This means that when a user is browsing your website on a mobile browser, they will be directed to the mobile version of the website, and if they are browsing on a desktop browser, they will be automatically directed to the main site. Another common practice which is followed by such tools is to give your website a sub-domain, for example, m.xyzcurator.com. These tools have an extremely user friendly graphical user interface and copy and paste code blocks that can be installed swiftly. Mobile website development more than being cross browser is more oriented to be cross platform.

The next way to understand the intricacies of designing and building a mobile version of a website is to get formally educated in graphic designing and web developing. A graphic designer works with virtual tools to create designs and animation which can be portrayed on the front end of a website. For mobile versions, the layouts and animations have to be set to the dimensions of a mobile device. A more mobile responsive design is unified and can lead the business towards a more future friendly web interface. Further, web developers are integral to website building. A web developer understands both the technological as well design needs of clients to offer them the best layouts, interactive designs, and features for their websites and ‘m-sites’. Basically, a web developer creates the back end of a website.

Various colleges across the country offer exciting and enriching undergraduate and post graduate courses in web technology and computer applications. These courses and modules focus at developing skills in students to have a stronghold over every aspect of building a website. So be it programming, coding, designing, software analysis, or troubleshooting, everything is taught to a student such that they enter the industry fully prepared.

Graphic designing is also essential to build the front end and make it more responsive. Graphic designers are required across various fields to create communicative designs. Professional graphic designers enjoy a career where they interact with different teams to get the specifications right. They are responsible for creating logos, illustrations, and original images for websites, which have to be adaptable to mobile version and applications as well. A bachelor’s degree in graphic design and subsequently technical training is a possible direction to take if one wishes to meet the industry demands.

On a concluding note, mobile version of website design and creation requires a right mix of creativity and technical expertise to ensure it’s a fluid and responsive platform. With a stupendous 946 million mobile connections in India and easy accessibility to data services, mobile web is seemingly the next big thing!

Image courtesy: www.freepik.com