1. Fingertip Optimization
When taking a survey of current mobile websites, it's more than evident that many are being built for fingertip navigation. Many elements including search fields, menus and images are created large enough to accomodate finger-clicking.
The tactile nature of today's mobile web experience should always be kept in mind when designing a mobile website.
2. Simplicity
Capturing the interest of today's attention-deprived mobile user is no small feat. Complicated mobile websites are clumsy and difficult to navigate, making it difficult for users to access the info they need on-the-go. For this reason, current mobile websites feature functional, minimalist layouts. With a fraction of the navigational choices offered by the full website, these scaled-down versions make the internet experience much more accessible to mobile web users, who are more demanding and time-constrained than ever.



3. White Space
White space is a must for any good web design, and its importance takes on special meaning in
the mobile realm. An instant detractor from any mobile website, visual clutter can be distracting and frustrating (picture those times when you've clicked on the wrong link because there isn't enough whitespace!). The most compelling mobile website designs today are built with this fact in mind.
4. Increasing Number of Videos
and Images
With a rising number of unlimited data plans and the growing popularity
of the 4G network, concerns around loading times and data consumption are not as prevalent as they once were. Although it is always important to keep these factors in mind, today's mobile web designers have found more flexibility in creating visual interest. With this, there's a growing trend towards video galleries, image sliders and other forms of dynamic content on mobile websites.

5. Designs Borrowed from Apps
With the success of touchscreens,
mobile website designers have used the
app layout, adapting menu items into
buttons or icons similar to those found in
apps. The result is a clean, icon
driven design that many mobile users have grown accustomed to.

6. Social Networks Integration
The nature of mobile usage is incredibly social, so lots of mobile websites are
catching onto this wave by incorporating links to all their social media channels,
along with incentives for "liking" them on Facebook or "following" them on Twitter. Whether they're waiting in line at the grocery store or having lunch with friends, the mobile web allows your business to establish a social, casual connection with your customers, one that's interwoven into the fabric of
their daily lives.

7. Introductory Pages
Many mobile websites feature an
introductory or opening page
containing only branding and a
large background image. This tactic is a
good way to instantly capture
interest and set the tone of the
mobile website experience without overwhelming your visitor with unnecessary text or calls-to- action.
It's always important to note that while you need to keep aware of ever-changing trends, all aspects of your mobile website design should align with your larger mobile marketing strategy. To remain competitive, and to truly evolve your digital marketing presence, any mobile website design initiatives you take on must be firmly rooted in your business objectives.
All mobile screenshots were taken from mobileawesomeness.com.
If you're looking for more info on mobile websites, check out how Marqui can help you with your mobile web design and build, along with mobile website content management .






We just finished our webinar on what we think the top website design trends for 2011 will be, and hopefully you all found it useful and informative.
Earlier today I read an interesting post on Erik Askin’s website, discussing the ways in which designers can discourage user behavior by developing designs that annoy the user or make usability difficult. The post uses the example of a cigarette carton and shows how by designing the carton away from its usable rectangle shape it might actually discourage users from smoking in general by making their lives more difficult. The post is looking at the design for the package of a consumer product, but the post got me thinking about how designing for or against user behavior can help or hinder design for the web.
Are you sabotaging your website without realizing it? There are some big (and unfortunately, common) website mistakes that we see that we would like to help make you aware of and hopefully eliminate all together!
Over the last few months we’ve put together a blog series on redesigning your website. The inspiration for this series was our own site redesign which we released in early February. Our site redesign has been great and it served to remind us what it’s like to be in our customers’ shoes during a redesign. As a result, we thought it would make everyone’s lives a little easier if we put together a blog series to walk through the steps of a redesign, covering everything from why you should do one, to building an SEO strategy once your site is up and running.
Anyone who has a business online should know that the internet is one of the first place prospects turn when they are evaluating vendors for different products and services and with so many vendors available on the web, first impressions are everything. Your website needs to catch your visitors attention, convey the integrity of your brand and express the quality and reliability of your business immediately. Having a proper design is an integral aspect of capturing your prospective clients' interest. Whether you are a designer yourself, or your company is in the process of hiring a design firm, here are 5 things that you need to know about effective website designs.
Often one of the most overlooked aspects of a redesign, usability planning is actually one of the most significant ways you can get visitors to return to your site. If your visitors can’t easily navigate your site, chances are they won’t return a second time, they'll just move onto a site that can give them what they want quickly and easily. You need to make sure when you’re redesigning your website that it is accessible to the majority of people, it is easy to use, and that it delivers on its promises. 



The actual design of your website is obviously one of the most important aspects of a redesign, but it isn’t just about having an eye-catching, appealing site.
The first step in a website redesign, a website audit, is crucial for helping you determine the direction that you want your new website to take. It can also help you discover the problems that your site is currently experiencing and help you determine where you rank compared to your competition. A website audit can be performed by your own marketing team (depending on its experience/size), but ideally it should be done by a web consultant, a web designer, or both.
We held our webinar on planning for website success today, and it went great! For those of you who couldn’t attend (we’re sure you did your best to try and get there) I've included the main points from the webinar below:
Recently Marqui went through a complete web redesign to better represent who we are as a company and what products and services we can offer to our customers. We’re ecstatic about how it turned out. To celebrate our new website we’re going to write some consecutive posts with input from our entire team on the six crucial aspects of a website redesign to help anyone else out there who is planning a redesign for 2010. Today’s post is just a brief introduction about what we will be talking about in the future, and little bit about why you should think about redesigning your site as well.
Lately we've been getting a lot of questions from our customers about optimizing their websites in 2010. We know that planning a new website, or redesigning an old one, can be a daunting prospect and it is easy to quickly get bogged down by conflicting opinions or technical debates over the latest web development trends.