A website has a specific purpose. And your job is to design a website to achieve that purpose. The only way to determine if flawless website design is by testing different elements. And measuring how the site visitors are reacting to the element changes.
Let’s say for example the site objective is to sell a widget. You can build a website with all the bells and whistles but if it doesn’t sell, then you’ve got nothing. But if a plain Jane site sells like crazy, then you’re on to something. So first look at what the website has to accomplish.
Testing With Smartphones
Have you ever run across a website you know the designer didn’t test on a smartphone? Pretty ugly, huh? Our mobile society wants instant gratification. You put those two together and you have a challenge to designing a flawless website. If you don’t test using smartphones, how are you going to know if your design works? And what makes for a flawless website anyway? Visitors do exactly what you want them to do … in large numbers.
Is the smartphone going to replace TVs and desktops? Could be … we’re halfway there already. Television manufacturers are struggling to stay ahead of the curve. So yeah, you have to design a website for smartphones or get left in the dust.
The best way to test how your website is going to perform on smartphones is to actually use one. Simulators and emulators can’t give you the real-world experience. There is no substitute for the real thing. Let’s say is visitor is viewing your site on the infinity screen of a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 and is viewing your site on its infinity screen. And another visitor has a Nokia. Don’t you think the UX is going to change? You bet it will. So design for both.
Don’t Over-do Making Changes
Tweaking a website design is an ongoing process. But making too many changes at once is like throwing a handful of rocks in a pond. And knowing which one hit first. Impossible. So when making changes, do it one at a time.
See how your design looks and feels on an Android. Then check it on an iPhone. Once you’re satisfied, see if the visitors react positively. Let the audience tell you what they want. Your job is to find out what works best. But save yourself the frustration and make changes one at a time. Then track it.
Two Important Elements To Test First
Load time is critical. Make sure your website can load to a smartphone in a couple of seconds. Or your visitor will move on. Gone forever. So test smart. Attention spans are crazy short these days. So it’s important to have relevant information load up quick. At least the audience will have something to read while the rest of the graphics are loading.
Speaking of graphics. Keep it simple. The more data that has to transfer the longer the page takes to load. And users will not wait. Especially if they’re on a smartphone. Everyone expects the navigation to be close to the top of the page. Designing your website with a floating top of page icon will make moving around the site easier and more user-friendly.
Another idea you can test is a flyout menu. The idea is to test. If visitors are leaving after one page visit, it may be because your navigation is too confusing or hard to find. It has to be stupid easy. So if you want to design a flawless website, get yourself several smartphones. See how your site looks and feels on each one. Then test different elements, one at a time. Let your visitors tell you what they like.