Should you create a completely separate website for mobile devices with an entirely different user experience and user interface to the desktop site or alter the experience and interface suitable to the device viewing the website based on the viewport (screen size).
Having a mobile friendly website has become more and more important in todays market, where people are accessing the internet wherever they are using a variety of devices from mobile phones to desktops, and with an average of over 10% (and growing) of internet traffic coming from mobile devices
A couple of great examples of dedicated mobile builds would be Facebook, which has both a desktop site and a mobile site, Twitter which has the same approach as well as the BBC.
Having a dedicated mobile build means that you have greater control of the experience that the user has and in some cases they have been built to look like native mobile applications too. This does however has it’s down sides, mainly time and cost; the cost for initial build (as it is a separate project of sorts) as well as maintenance along with time for content for each, unless sharing the same content and also sharing (ever had some email a link to a BBC news item from their phone and trying to read it….. very annoying). And if another build is needed for tablets (somewhere between desktop and mobile), then another build may be needed. On the flip side; the main positive point regarding dedicated mobile builds is the complete control over the experience and interface meaning you can tailor the design and content for mobile users although with advances in technology the same can be said for responsive websites.
With a responsive build, it’s just one that can support as many devices as needed. Responsive websites work by controlling the layout based on the screen size of the device viewing it. Meaning that no matter what device is used to view the website, the content will be resized and in a suitable layout for the device, no more pinching to zoom in and out just a smooth scroll up and down with all the content there to be viewed.
Examples of responsive websites include Lancaster University and London & Partners.
All in all, whichever strategy you choose, having a mobile site is increasingly important with mobile traffic at around 12% of global internet traffic and growing rapidly by the day.
Time to get mobile folks!