1. 100% Responsive Design

Even before mobile optimization emerged as we know it today, mobile responsiveness had always been a priority numero uno. Whether your website is built using themes or from scratch, 100% responsiveness should be your absolute goal from a UI point of view. 

The idea of responsive web design revolves around the following:

• Detecting the user’s screen size, based on the device and browser they are using to access the website.
• Automatically tweaking all the website elements like images, grids, carousels and more, to dynamically fit the user’s screen. 
• Ensuring no horizontal scroll on the webpage as it is practically impossible to have a seamless horizontal scrolling experience on handheld devices. 
• Using a mobile-friendly menu instead of the top bar that is predominant on desktop websites. Mobile-friendly menu options include the hamburger menu which is easy to implement and use, and doesn’t take a lot of space either. 
• Keeping the design easy to navigate for the user. Don’t clutter the screen with too many elements at once.

Having a responsive website is completely opposed to creating different versions of the website with different elements for separate screen sizes. In doing so, not only do you save a lot of effort that you would have otherwise spent in making a different website for individual devices, but the users also get a seamless experience of your website regardless of the device they are viewing it on. 

2. Mobile design consistent with desktop design

 When users visit your website, they immediately relate to the colors, fonts, designs, and style used. You want to keep their experience and relatability consistent across different devices they use. As a result, it is imperative to have the mobile design consistent with the desktop design. 

The best way to go about this is by creating a master design that dictates how the website looks and works on large screens. Then, work on the website’s responsiveness by keeping in mind the essential elements that form the core of your website. Once you have those elements with you, you want to ensure that those elements are translating in a similar manner across all devices so that the users get a seamless experience everywhere. 

3. Faster loading speed

According to a study conducted by Google, 53% of mobile users end up bouncing off of a website if it takes more than three seconds to load. Further, on average, websites take nearly 12-15 seconds to load. You need to bridge this gap to optimize your website for the mobiles and impact your website traffic and conversions. 

The loading site of your website depends on the media files, scripts, and other external resources being used. All of these resources can be compressed and minified to speed the website up. Some good practice include: 

• Website Auditing: This involves using Google Page Insights or other similar site audit tools to get a comprehensive overview of your website’s performance. It provides information about all the resources being used by your website and how you can optimize them for faster load time. 
• Content Delivery Network: Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to deliver your media content on the website is a good way to improve site speed. This approach fastens the loading time regardless of the user’s location by using servers that are spread out geographically and not concentrated in one region. 
• Optimized Caching: Mobile caches cannot hold a large amount of content. Hence, these should be optimized to ensure faster loading speed for mobile sites. For example, the Chrome cache is dynamic – this means that its cache size will depend on the amount of disk space available. You can also utilize some of those mobile browsers that use local memory to cache resources, thereby avoiding unnecessary server requests.
• Headless Systems: A traditional CMS is the one that couples front end (design) and the back end (platform) as a single package. However, this means that whenever a change happens in the market, you will need to depend on the CMS to adapt to that change. However, headless systems work in the opposite way by unbundling the front end and back end. As a result, it becomes much easier to react more quickly to any market requirements. It also enables developers to implement lightweight frameworks. 
• PWA (Progressive Web Apps): PWAs allow you to build one web-app, and use this on desktop and mobile, but also install it as a native app that can instantly be added to the customers’ home screen. It allows websites to run much faster, helps with quick navigation and smooth scrolling, and provides mobile-native experiences for users. The PWA storefront can also allow you to set up auto complete , one page checkout and one-click purchase features.

4. Simplified functionality with a focus on touch gestures

Most people browsing the web on their phones don’t have a lot of patience or time. They require quick solutions – so you need to cut to the chase. It might be tempting to layer your website with more and more features. However, you should try to include only the most essential functions on your mobile website so that the UX is simplified and intuitive. 

For instance, one of the most important elements to simplify functionality in mobile view is to make the website sequentially, and not parallely. This means that instead of dividing pages into parts and showing information or forms next to each other, you should ideally show them one after the other. This ensures that the user is asked to make one decision and take only one action at any given point in time, and is then asked to move on to the next. 

Further, you should always empathize with your mobile visitors, as it is extremely easy to misclick on a phone device. Some important points to consider are: 

• Use larger buttons to reduce the need for pinching
• Try to keep clickable images and links away from the essential forms, 
• Do not use hard-to-tap X (close) buttons on any element of your website. 
• Have clear and easy-to-spot CTAs to draw more visitors into conversion. Likewise, buttons like Add to Cart or Shop Now should be easy to find and access, too. 
• Identify all the elements that cause a disruptive mobile experience and get rid of them. These include sidebars, top menu bar, sliders, tables, and more. 

5. Careful implementation of pop-ups and other elements

Pop-ups are important for conveying important information to the user or as opt-in forms. However, popups are also extremely irritating as they cause hindrance to the user’s experience of the website, especially on handheld devices. As a good practice, you should implement pop-ups only when they are extremely necessary.  These pop-ups should be easy to close for the user. To that effect, the pop-ups should have a smooth closing mechanism, wherein they should either include an easy-to-access X button on the top-left or an easily clickable ‘Close’ button anywhere on the popup. 

In fact, Google recently implemented penalties to tackle pop-ups that disrupt user experiences. While this penalty is applied on a page-by-page basis and not on your entire website, this truly shows the negative impact that pop-ups can have on the UX – so you should be careful of that!

6. Personalization

Another crucial element of mobile optimization is personalizing your visitors’ experience on your website. This ensures that the user has to take limited action in terms of typing, clicking, searching, etc. when viewing the website on smaller devices like mobiles. From personalizing product search options to adding default selections during checkout, all of these play an important role in enhancing your user’s website journey by saving their time and effort. Some of the common personalization features include:

• Option to select default shipping and billing address during checkout
• Option to select default payment method and shipping method
• Keeping the users logged in, so as to avoid the need of logging in every time they visit
• Providing easy and direct ‘add to cart’ options
• Adding the quantity selector drop down or quantity incrementor buttons, so that the user does not have to type in the quantity 
• Showing the shipping duration based on the user’s location
• Providing search suggestions to the user as they start typing
• Having the right product on the home page or top of search, based on the user’s search & purchase history, and more! 

In conclusion

Mobile optimization is no longer an additional thing to do on websites. It is very much the primary concern in today’s world. Your focus should always be on the users accessing your website from mobile devices. Only then will you empathize with their pain points and optimize your website for the best experiences!