Question 7
Will my customers be able to use my website on their iPhone/iPad/mobile device?
Mobile web usage increased by 110% in the U.S. during 2009, while the rest of the world’s usage of the mobile web increased by a staggering 148% during that period. As more of your users access the web on their mobile devices, you need to ensure they have a good experience there as well.
Good response
We use web standards to ensure your website will be accessible on as many different devices as possible. Using these techniques we can deliver “adaptive layouts” that cater to the device and context where they are being viewed. Depending on the complexity of the design, this may add some additional development costs, but it ensures that your website will be accessible on an iPhone (smartphone), tablet, netbook, laptop or desktop.
Poor response
Browsing the web on a phone is awful; we should build you a native iPhone app instead.
Expert Tip
While most smartphones/modern mobiles will display a website in the default web browser, it is considerably reduced in size. And because most websites are designed for the traditional monitor screen, which is far wider and has a different aspect ratio than a mobile device, users are often forced to use the zoom function as the default way to view a website on their mobile device. Furthermore, some devices don’t have the same capabilities as our desktops (such as the ability to run Flash, etc.), so not all websites will even be usable on a mobile device.
Optimizing a website for mobile can often be done with simple modifications to the website’s stylesheet, though some additional content-related adjustments may also be recommended. Overall, mobile optimization should be far less expensive than the development of a native app for any smartphone, and you have the added benefit of being able to reach multiple devices without paying to build multiple apps.