We recently came across a fascinating statistic: For the first time, people are spending more time on their smartphones than on their desktops and or laptops. More, even, than on their televisions.
With this shift, people are now expressing a decided preference for digital and social experiences that resonate with what they see on their mobile devices. Not vice versa.
Three key trends we’re seeing:
1. Don’t fear the fold. Once upon a time, everyone wanted their most important content near the top of the Home page, above an imaginary “fold” like you’d find in a newspaper. But now, the very first thing people do when arriving on a site is to scroll down and check out what’s on the part of the page they can’t see.
2. Don’t count the clicks. You probably remember the old rule of thumb, “No more than three clicks to get to what they’re looking for.” That’s fine, but a mobile-savvy visitor actually doesn’t want to click at all. The design key is to vertically stack your content in longer pages, so they can scroll and swipe.
3. You load, you lose. We used to be so much more forgiving of our websites, patiently waiting for pages and pictures and animation to load. But a recent Google study revealed that most people will now leave any page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load. The trick: Create a user journey that reduces the number of times you have to load a fresh page.
Given all this, there’s a very simple way to know if it’s time to update your company’s website. Just look at it on your phone.
