Mobile web trends: have you checked your analytics lately?
Back in March, we posted two articles regarding mobile-optimized websites and how to determine whether your business needs one. The Google Analytics blog posted on the subject yesterday, reminding us that the topic is still very relevent as more and more visitors are using iPhones, Blackberries and other devices to browse the web.
Many of our customers have seen an increase in mobile visitors so far in 2010—even if they didn’t have any mobile visitors at all in 2009. Have you checked your analytics lately to find out how many of your visitors are mobile?
Read the full article on the Google Analytics blog →
Site Launch: Tim Trost.com
Check out the updated website for Tim Trost!
Visit www.timtrost.com→
What is the most commonly used browser?
Here are the most commonly used browser platforms:
- Internet Explorer
- FireFox
- Chrome
- Safari
- Opera
Here are some details about some of the more popular web browsers in the U.S.:
| Internet Explorer | Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is one of the most popular Internet browsers today. It comes preinstalled on most Windows operating systems. |
| Firefox | Mozilla’s Firefox is one of the most popular cross platform Internet browsers today. It is a free product that offers enhanced security and privacy.
What is Mozilla? |
| Chrome | Google Chrome is a free, open-source web browser developed by Google. |
| Safari | Apple’s Safari is the default browser for Mac systems as well as the Apple iPod Touch and iPhone. |
| Opera | The Norwegian Opera browser is the smallest and fastest browser in the world! |
| Netscape | AOL’s Netscape browser has been discontinued. |
Learn which browser your web visitors are using by logging into your web statistics. If you’re using Google Analytics, click on Visitors, then select Browser Capabilities > Browsers. Here’s a graph of the browser Vision Design’s visitors are using:
Site Launch: Student Houses In Winona
We are proud to announce the launch of a newly redesigned website for Student Houses In Winona!
Visit www.studenthousesinwinona.com→
Site Launch: Bosteter Windows and Siding
Vision Design just launched a new website for Bosteter Windows & Siding!
Visit www.bosteterwindowsandsiding.com→
Site Launch: Daniel Carey Photography
Were excited to launch a newly updated website for Daniel Carey Photography!
Visit http://www.danielcareyphotography.com→
Site Launch: Re-Elect Steve Drazkowski
Vision Design is proud to announce the launch of an updated website for Steve Drazkowski!
Visit www.draz.com→
Designing a website for different monitor sizes
When Vision Design creates a website, we design the page layout to look and function well on as many different computers as possible. Your web visitors are looking at your site from a variety of monitors–big, small, new, old, and widescreen. Our goal is to build a site that is optimized for the most common sizes your visitors are using, but still looks and works great at other sizes.
We look for these criteria when optimizing a web design:
- Overall layout: Are the most important elements of the page—like navigation, search functionality and key messages—visible “above the fold” (without scrolling down)?
- Readability: Is key information easy to read and intuitive to navigate?
- Aesthetics: Do images, text and other page elements line up correctly in a way that’s attractive and branded to the company’s image?
- Schematic: Does the layout include everything in the schematic that was initially agreed upon? We want to prevent anything from being overlooked.
We measure monitor size in screen resolution, which indicates how many pixels will display side by side across the screen. The majority of monitors will display your website at a resolution of 1024 x 768 or larger. During the design and production phases, we view the layout in a wide range of resolutions to make sure that the pages work at smaller and bigger sizes.
Here’s a sample of a website we recently designed, when viewed at different screen resolutions:
Your page should also work at even smaller and bigger sizes, though such extremes are less important. Fewer than half a percent of users still use a screen resolution of 640 × 480, and fewer than 3 percent use 800 x 600, which used to be the industry standard years ago. Although these users should certainly be able to use your site, it’s important to optimize the site for the majority of users who will be using a larger monitor. This allows you to take advantage of more space available on the screen to help organize and display more content for the majority of users–those that will view the site at 1025 x 768 or larger.
What about those tiny screens on mobile devices? We do review the site on small screens and also offer a mobile version of your site.
By evaluating your web site statistics, you can gain valuable insight into how your visitors are viewing your web site and build you pages to your most common size viewed. Give us a call and we can review your statistics with you. Let’s find our what your customers are seeing!
