Tag: Mobile Website

Great website design examples to inspire your own

Posted on by Marika Hirsch

Introduction: design trends aren’t only for the ‘flashy’ companies

While we’ve written many blog posts about making sure your homepage is more than pretty, today we’re focusing on the design itself (so you have our full permission to ‘ooooh’ and ‘ahhhhh’). We pulled some great website design examples below, so you can see how both our clients and companies from all industries have managed to incorporate new website design elements. The below websites show that you don’t have to be Apple or Tesla to have great web design. Every company of every industry can benefit from these trends. How can you utilize some of these elements in your company’s website?

Inspired to start your own website design project? What are you supposed to talk about when you call an agency? Before you get overwhelmed, download our Complete Checklist for Hiring a Website Agency!

 

Great website design examples that follow current trends

Trend: large background images

1. Warby Parker

The white space of Warby Parker’s main website ensures that the big background images pop. The overall stripped back and clean design also mimics Warby Parker’s fresh young vibe as a brand.

 

great website design examples

 

2. B2Gold Corporation

Large background images are great for CSR sections of any public company website. Here’s an example the Social Responsibility section of a website we did for our friends at B2Gold. The images describe their social impact better than any paragraph on the page.

 

great website design examples

Trend: background video

3. Paperless Post

This is one of our favorite websites lately. Paperless Post does almost all their work from their website, so it had to be both beautiful and simple to use. The background video on the homepage shows examples of different scenarios in which their cards are used.

 

great website design examples

 

4. Uranium Energy Corporation

We helped UEC include background video to their website redesign to showcase their projects (as well as make their homepage really pop). Similarly to Paperless Post, this video also showcases their product to their audience.

 

great website design examples

Trend: mobile first design

5. Elespacio

Elespacio is a Spanish digital agency who recently won an award for their mobile first website design. Their scrolling homepage banners look just as beautiful and are just as easy to scroll through on mobile as they are on a desktop computer.

 

great website design examples

 

6. EXL Service

We’ve written about the mobile-first design of EXL, a decision-analytics and operation management provider company, before because it’s one of the best examples of mobile first websites we’ve seen. The best mobile websites make the user forget they’re even viewing from a smartphone or tablet because they don’t feel constricted by the device in any way.

 

great website design examples

Trend: long scroll

7. Apple

There are many companies that artfully include a long scrolling page to highlight products or elements of their website, but Apple does it the best. Complete with subtle animation as a user scrolls, the long scroll really captures the company’s story.

great website design examples

8. Rise 

Shoutout to a local company! Rise is the ‘future of HR’, or a people and culture platform. They recently rebranded and redesigned their website, and we love the long scroll they’ve incorporated to better tell their story.

great website design examples

Conclusion: know the trends, no matter who you are

In paring great website design examples from one ‘cool industry’ company with an example of how a lesser known company can also use these trends, we hope to inspire you to get thinking about how anyone can really implement great web design. Not sure where to start your redesign project, or if you’ll need the help of an agency? Download the checklist below to see if you need the help of professionals!




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How mobile optimization affects website traffic: INFOGRAPHIC

Posted on by Marika Hirsch

Introduction: what affect does mobile readiness have on real website traffic?

We’ve been writing a lot lately about how having a website and investor section that’s optimized for mobile is beneficial for you and your investors. We’ve talked about making sure the email signup process is easy, any buttons are simple to tap, and presentations interactive on mobile. But how does mobile optimization stack up when looking at actual numbers? We were curious to see how two of our clients’ website statistics would change if we looked at one that was mobile optimized and one that wasn’t.

 

We analyzed the mobile website statistics of two of our biggest clients

Both are public companies and both are in the same industry. However, one company has a completely mobile optimized website and investor section, while the other company does not. Our goal was to find out how mobile optimization affects website traffic. Today’s infographic below shows our findings!

 

how mobile optimization affects website traffic

Conclusion: these gaps will only increase

If you read our mobile usability statistics blog a few weeks back, you saw that we’re moving even closer to a mobile-first world. The expectations for a mobile user experience are only growing: more and more people have negative opinions of websites that don’t render well on a mobile device. This infographic shows, with real numbers, how mobile optimization affects website traffic and affects the amount of time investors are spending on websites.




How mobile optimization affects website traffic




Mobile websites vs responsive design

Posted on by Marika Hirsch

Introduction: Google is making a fuss about being mobile optimized (and for good reason)

Do you remember Mobilegeddon? It was the Google update released last year that favoured mobile optimized websites over ones that were not. We’ve written all about it here. If your company’s website isn’t mobile configured the way Google wants, then you won’t show up very high in mobile search results. In order to make the mobile cut in Google’s eyes, you have two choices. And that’s where mobile websites vs responsive design come in. These options are the two typical types of configuration that will boost your website’s mobile-friendliness.

Want exact steps of how to get mobile-friendly? Download The Ultimate Mobile Optimization Test to see if you are good to go with Google.

 

mobile websites vs responsive design

What is the difference between mobile websites vs responsive design?

Mobile websites

A mobile website is a parallel website created just for mobile phones and tablets. Both the content within the mobile website and the website address (URL) will be different than your original website. Usually, to avoid confusion with your original URL, a mobile website looks like “www.m.company.com”. The great thing about mobile websites is that you can select specific content to only be shown to mobile users. For instance, if a large section of your corporate website won’t apply to those viewing on a phone, or if you have a corporate video that isn’t optimized, you can select which pieces to remove. This is also possible with responsive design, but that may require a website redesign.

mobile websites vs responsive design

 

Responsive design

A responsive website ‘responds’ to the device you’re using; whether it’s a smartphone, tablet or on desktop. Due to the flexible format and design, the site’s content automatically resizes itself to work seamlessly on the screen on which it’s being viewed. Responsive design, while it may require a redesign before you get started, ensures that your site stays on one URL and updating content is easier to implement.

mobile websites vs responsive design

Which one should I use?

When it comes to mobile websites vs responsive design, both get you a ‘pass’ from Google. However,  Google prefers responsive design and so do we. Why? Google gives a lot of reasons, and you can read them all here. Here’s why we recommend it:

  1. Responsive design makes sharing content across different devices easier since the URLs stay the same.
  2. Any content changes only need to be made in one place, so there’s less risk of duplication.
  3. It’s probably just smarter to go the way Google recommends if you’re trying to ensure that your website is favoured on Google’s search engine.

 

Conclusion: choose one and get started

Regardless of the method you choose, it’s important to start mobile optimizing your website if you haven’t already. We’re moving to a mobile-first world, and you don’t want your company to be left behind. A recent study by Google showed that a third of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices, and that number is increasing every day. Seem overwhelming? Don’t worry, because we have a complete mobile optimization checklist. See if you pass Google’s test, and if you don’t, we’ve provided a list of steps to ensure mobile optimization. Download the checklist below!





mobile websites vs responsive design




Your Mobilegeddon survival kit is here

Posted on by Marika Hirsch

Days to Mobilegeddon: 0

Panic level: epic

Vaccination kit: installment 3 of 3

 

Today’s the day! 

Happy Mobilegeddon everyone. In case you’re not sure what we’ve been talking about, here’s a recap: As of April 21st, 2015 Google will start favoring websites that are mobile-friendly over ones that are not. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, it will be harder and harder for people to find you on their smartphones or tablets. This update has been nicknamed ‘Mobilegeddon’. Sound scary? It is but we’ve made you a guide.

Introducing ‘The Mobilegeddon Survival Kit: your guide to getting a mobile-friendly website’.

Fancy, huh?

TMobilegeddon_blog_image_newhe ‘Mobilegeddon Survival Kit’ will teach you: 

  • What Google’s update means and how it affects you
  • What it means to be mobile-friendly and the two routes you can take to get there
  • What route Google recommends and why
  • A simple checklist you can use to see if your website makes the mobile-friendly cut

To get your hands on the ‘Mobilegeddon Survival Kit,’ just click the link below and we’ll send the guide straight to your inbox!

Mobilegeddon Survival Kit

Forget Zoom Navigation & Prioritize Mobile Optimization

Posted on by The Blender Team

With global smartphone sales growing every day, we always tune into the latest tech trends, and thrive to break the barriers of viewing a website on a mobile. So, how do you optimize your website for mobile and make it easy to navigate? Here’s what you need to know:

Use bigger fonts, more white space and buttons that are easy to tap. That’s because 49% of mobile users hold their phone with just one hand. So whichever mobile optimization you choose, keep this in mind when you’re making decisions on the design.

A fluid layout means that the width of your website is set to a percentage rather than a fixed number. This simple approach will allow your website to expand or shrink to adjust to whatever screen the viewer is using.

A single-column layout is a simple mobile-friendly website designed specifically for mobile browsers. It saves investors time and gives them quick access to key data without any zoom navigation needed. We call our unique version of this layout, Mobilize, in which content updates in between mobile and full website are done automatically.

A responsive design is similar to the fluid layout idea except it provides a much greater flexibility. Instead of just resizing the frame of your website to fit the screen, the content also resizes to fit. So literally, your mother website will be presented in an optimized layout regardless of what device is being used.

This is just a very brief summary of the possible mobile optimization options for your website. With mobile marketing exploding and smartphone sales booming, it’s inevitable that websites need to be optimized to expand their reach across all devices. Give us a call to speak with our tech professionals if you want to know more, we’re always here to help! @BlenderMedia