Mobile website file sizes
Wednesday, February 29th, 2012
Where mobile websites are concerned, always mark files that must be opened in an external program with an icon. Many sites host PDF files, and less commonly, DOC files, that must be opened in Foxit Reader and Microsoft Word/OpenOffice, respectively. These files should be marked with an icon representing the file type, and a link to download the appropriate viewer if the user does not have it.
Do not use images for your mobile website background. When you think about some of the biggest mobile websites on the Internet, they do not have images as backgrounds. When you use image backgrounds, you represent yourself as someone who is not well-versed in web designing. Images as backgrounds also cause your site to load slower, which can lead to user frustration.
To help your mobile website visitors find their way home on your site, always include a link to your homepage on each page of your site. Having a home page link that is visible allows your reader to easily make their way back to starting point. If you do not have a home page link then your visitors might get frustrated and leave your site altogether.
Make sure to include a way to get feedback from site visitors. This way, if something is missing or they don’t understand how to use your page, you can fix it accordingly. Making your visitors feel involved is a great way to ensure that they will visit your mobile website again.
Regardless how your mobile website is designed aesthetically, it is important to make certain that all of the files have small file sizes. The reason for this is that your file sizes directly affect how quickly your website loads. It is always better to have your mobile website load as fast as possible.