As the use of smartphones continues to grow exponentially it is no surprise that all of that usage would somehow have an impact on other things. With more and more people using their phones to perform daily tasks that they once would have to wait until they got home and would sit in front of their desktop computers to do.
People can now take care of paying bills with a couple of taps of the screen on their smartphone and get on with their busy day. There are so many other things that these handheld wonders that simply slip into your pocket can do. You cannot walk many steps down any street these days without seeing someone on their smartphone.
With all that being said, it has not gone unnoticed by the media and marketing industries. The explosion of mobile device usage is definitely on the minds of the people who make it their business to pay attentions to trends in computer usage. According to the numbers, over 65% of digital media is now consumed by mobile devices.
One of the main reasons for this is that the mobile service providers have invested huge sums of money to increase the speeds of their networks and the mobile phone makers have improved the devices to point where they are actually more powerful than many of the desktop computers found in most homes.
With all that power and speed at the fingertips of so many people, it is not surprising that this has caught the attention of the web designers and content providers all across the Internet. The fact that the mobile user’s traffic has surpassed the traffic coming from desktop users has obviously begun influencing how content providers are tailoring their content for the smaller mobile device screens.
Speed Enhancements
Website design and development has seen a major shift in how they are being approached and this is due in large part by the explosion of mobile device usage. With so many websites being accessed by mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets at a higher rate, it is important that websites need to be adjusted as to make the experience for the mobile user much better. It is extremely important that websites and web pages load faster and use much less of the device’s resources. All of the enhancements being employed by web designers are also benefitting the desktop users as well.
New Graphic Techniques
The onslaught of the usage of mobile devices has also appeared to have affected the way web page graphics are being used all across the board. The concept of using less complex graphics to benefit the small screen user has also benefitted desktop users as web pages load quicker and the graphics have an appealing look to them. There is even a new innovation in a graphical design called Flat Design that is being used to reduce the complexity of icons and other graphic components being used in web design.
Human Computer Interaction
The term Human Computer Interaction is used to refer to the design and use of technology that focuses mainly on the interface between the user and the computer. This is extremely important as it can be useful for website owners to be able to get the most bang for their buck, so keeping the cost of HCI lower would be a huge plus. One of the easiest ways to improve the ROI and therefore reduce the cost of HCI would be to place the search bar in a more prominent location, preferably at the top of the page.
Use of Typography
Fonts and type size have become a greater area of emphasis with the access to a greater number of fonts and typestyles to web designers and content providers. Since the screens are smaller on mobile devices it makes it more difficult to read content that is in smaller type size, this has caused the content providers and website designers to rethink the standard 12-14 pt type sizes and bump them up to 16-18 pt. They have also opted away from the plain old standard Arial or Comic Sans, more some much bolder type.
Final Thoughts
It really should not come at any surprise that today’s computing experience is highly influenced by the mobile device usage. The trends have been pointing towards mobile traffic outpacing computer desktop traffic over the past couple years and this means there had to be a shift in order to accommodate the use of mobile devices for accessing websites and web pages on the Internet.
It does seem that it has actually been a positive thing for both the desktop user and mobile user at the same time. This is mainly because the web pages are loading that much faster and they aren’t having to sacrifice the usability of the site to get it.