The use of mobile devices is exploding. And even better, so are purchases made from these devices. So the question is ‘Is your website usable from a mobile device?’

I recently purchased an iPad and the reason may surprise you.  I work from home and rarely go out, so why would I need an iPhone and an iPad? Yes I am on the desktop/laptop computer a lot but there are times when I am not. Some call those times ‘the in-between moments’, lying on the couch, watching TV, cooking, letting my dog out to go to the bathroom, and some even use them on the toilet. I can now watch tutorials and read PDFs from the comfort of my couch or bed without having to sit in a chair (which I do all day for the most part). As I started to surf and read things on my iPhone I realized it would be nicer to have a bigger screen but still be able to be away from my computer.

The surprising thing was how hard many websites are to use from a mobile device. They are often too big and so you have to scroll over, menus are hard to click on without zooming in, etc. With all the ‘real estate’ we’ve had on desktop computers, we’ve tended to fill all the available space with crap. So mobile devices can help us rethink our design.

So with this knowledge it is advisable to make sure your website is usable on various sizes of devices. You don’t necessarily have to run out and build an app but setup a mobile site for your customers or better yet (and more involved) create a website that can respond to all sorts of devices dynamically. The benefit of a separate mobile site is that you can eliminate a lot of information that would normally flow to one’s device which can cause performance isssues due to limited bandwidths. We can often ‘hide’ information from the devices but it still gets passed to the device.