We've started thinking about designing across platforms. Now, it's time to learn how users engage with different devices. First, we'll discuss user behavior on mobile phones and desktop computers.
Then, we'll move on to design considerations when designing for mobile devices. Let's start with an overview of the current landscape. There's a big difference in the amount of time users spend on mobile phones compared to desktop computers.
An average mobile session is 72 seconds, while the average desktop session is 150 seconds, more than twice as long. Why is this important? Because it tells us that people use different devices in different ways. Mobile users tend to be goal-oriented, and they're focused on completing a single task.
On mobile phones, gestures like tapping and swiping help users move around the screen. Test this out for yourself. Next time you're using a mobile phone, think about your own behaviors.
And remember the next billion users we discussed earlier? As those users come online, they're mostly accessing the internet from mobile devices. This means the amount of desktop web traffic compared to mobile web traffic will continue to shift. It's important for UX designers to consider mobile users' connectivity limitations, like slower processing speeds and longer load times. To be inclusive, we need to design for all types of phones, whether they cost $50 or $500.
Okay, so users interact with devices in different ways. Now, let's go through the design differences we need to consider based on the devices we're designing for. First, let's talk about responsiveness.
In the past, most mobile websites were a mini version of the desktop site, which often made the mobile websites difficult to use. Now, almost all websites use responsive web design. Responsive web design allows a website to change automatically, depending on the size of the device.
For example, a website home page might have multiple columns when a user experiences it on a desktop computer. With responsive web design, when a user visits the same website on a mobile phone, the multiple columns are automatically condensed into one column to better fit the smaller screen. All the content is still there and the usability is way better. Internet browsing on desktop computers has been around for longer than on mobile devices. But since mobile device usage has been booming, designers have had to start focusing on designing for mobile.
So let's think about a few best practices when designing for mobile user experiences. First, call to action buttons should be placed front and center. allowing the user to easily complete the desired task, like joining an email list or adding an item to their shopping cart.
Second, navigation menus should be short and simple. We want to simplify the user experience on mobile, so menu options should only highlight the core functions of the product. Third, use gestures that users already do, like tapping and swiping.
Gestures should be intuitive and familiar to users. Fourth, Designed for both directions, a phone might be held. We need to consider the vertical portrait view of a mobile phone and the horizontal landscape view. We want users to have an effective experience, no matter how they hold their phone.
And fifth, reduce visual clutter. Mobile phones have smaller screen sizes, so it's important to keep the visual experience simple. Phew, that was a lot of new information to take in.
Remember this main takeaway. Users behave differently depending on their device. UX designers help make that transition happen as seamlessly as possible.
It's a big responsibility, but a lot of fun too.