Kill The M-Dot Websites
Mobile-specific websites can be part of an overall adaptive strategy. They can work very well to serve smartphone traffic today. But running a separate m-dot
Website for mobile-only traffic is a dead-end .up device resource
don’t believe it? Here are 6 reasons m-dot websites are a dead end:
1 Hurts your search engine optimization (SEO)
2 Slows your website performance with DNS lookups and redirects
3 Results in subdomain spaghetti and heightens the device diversity problem
4 Erodes social media sharing because of misdirection
5 Undermines email sharing between devices
6 Clashes with the philosophy of the web
The bottom line: m-dot websites were a good first attempt to solve the first major
problem – mobile web growth – but they don’t solve the second problem – device
Diversity growth. They make it worse because they create a mess of domains,
links, redirects and user experiences on top of a weak foundation.
To play out the m-dot website approach, will you have an at-dot website for full-
Sized tablets, a mi-dot website for mini-sized tablets and a TV-DOT website for
Smart TV?
2. Build For Your Users
A commonly recurring piece of advice for web builders is to ensure your website
Always provide the same content to all visitors. This seems like sound advice.
Except in practice, it can be a hindrance to providing the best user experience for worth questioning and worth putting to the test for each specific
Website. We Always recommend starting with the 3 modes of mobile user experience:
> Repetitive Now users are seeking recurring real-time information, such as
Stock quotes, sports scores and auction listings.
>Now users are seeking distraction, entertainment or connection
through a mobile device on services like Facebook, Instagram and
Twitter, or in their email.
> Urgent Now users are seeking urgent information on their mobile device
that is often related to location or activity, mostly through search engines
And recommendation sites like Yelp or Foursquare.
Then review your analytics in-depth. Talk to your users and understand what
They want to do it on the website.
We’re in a time of very fast change. Many people are seeking external guidance
To help them make decisions. They should design “mobile-first.” They need to have the same website available to every user on
But they are not complete solutions to the problems of mobile web
Growth and device diversity growth.
Web designers and developers need to survey the available options, analyze
their specific context, take Responsibility for the experience they build and make
Choices to deliver what the situation demands.
As David Ogilvy said back in the middle of the 20th century, Performance: Not Optional
Whether your website is served to mobile visitors by wife or by cellular networks,
its performance needs to be a foundational consideration.
To performance constraints, both in delivering content and in running.
> Cut down on HTTP requests. While a mobile user may try to do the same. Their processing power. Their bandwidth is unreliable. Additional on-page elements – like
Facebook Connect and Google +1 – impact real-world performance and experience can quickly suffer.
> Optimize your images. It’s tempting to serve the largest possible image to the device and
Then let it take care of downsizing the Image. Don’t be tempted! Not taking for your images is digitally wasteful and makes for a poor
User experience. Serve the right images to the right device, full stop.
> Manage scripts and styles. Do you know all those JavaScript snippets in your
Web page and CSS styles, or stylesheets, that load for desktop visitors?
Yeah, your mobile visitors don’t want them slowing down the page and
Tuck
> Choose CSS transitions. For animation effects on the device, use CSS.
Transitions rather than JavaScript animations. They’re faster.
> Bonus tip: Use 3D transforms to trigger hardware acceleration. Your users
will thank you for increased usage how you can follow these practices is explained in greater detail in the body of
The e-book.
The last word in mobile performance is this common refrain – you can’t your desktop website and expect everything to be dandy.
Go Beyond Responsive and Get Adaptive
Responsive design techniques are almost certainly going to be part of your
They are part of our
Approach, too.
But a responsive design is just one front-end CSS. Tables of data – Combine the pain of images and content reflowing and
You have the problem of dealing with tables in a responsive design.
Responsive web design is a great series of techniques for front-end layout.
Gaps and pain points remain.
The reason that 86% of the responsive The website simply deliver the same HTML
pages – with all associated image, script and code resources – to all devices – is
Because it’s hard to do otherwise. Instead of doing the hard work, most responsive
The best Website sprays their data to every device and prays it will work out in the browser.
Build your Tooling and Capabilities
Technologies. SSD, sales automation engines. Yet many of these
Deserve some suspicion. They have been quickly built and deployed to meet a
Market need. They are not stable, scalable, long-term solutions.
At the other end of the spectrum, many organizations are opting to build bespoke
Responsive design systems with in-house teams or consultants.
Choosing the right approach for your organization is challenging. Mobile is a key
But it’s not the only piece. The bigger picture beyond mobile is a full-fledged
Adaptive website system. The promise is a website that is excellent on every device yet doesn’t handcuff your web team. Building your tooling and capabilities
ensures you have a chance to fulfil that promise. Getting there is the challenge.
Let us know if modify can help.
Nice job
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