Keeping up with technology – Tablet-friendly websites

When the iPad first came out, I said I’d never get one. I lasted for a good length of time, but finally folded when the iPad 2 came out. It’s the perfect tool for working with a client in public – discreet, manageable, professional – and, well, it’s fun. The first thing I noticed when I started playing with it, though, is that not all sites are tablet-friendly. In fact, most of them aren’t tablet friendly at all. With the number of tablet users on the rise, making your website more user friendly increase conversion rates, rather than deter users. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Make your site fingertip friendly. Since tablet users interact with sites by swiping and touching screens, design your site with fingertip-sized buttons. Too small buttons can be frustrating to tablet users.
2. Don’t use those drop down menus. Drop down menus can be difficult to manage using fingertips. If menu items are placed too closely together it can be extremely frustrating for tablet users. At the very least, make sure that your menu’s size can be expanded.
3. Pick user-friendly fonts, colours and textures. A solid black background tends to look like an abyss on a tablet. Use textures and bright colours to reduce glare and the appearance of finger smudges. Choose a font size large enough for interaction with fingertips.
4. Make sure your forms fit the page. Often sites require visitors to fill out information gathering forms. On tablets, bulky forms don’t fit the screen, making the user scroll up and down, right and left. This type of movement is frustrating to users. Design forms to fit the page, laptop or tablet.
5. Don’t use Flash. This has been said time and time again. Flash does not work on Apple products. Since Apple has a devoted following, you don’t want to alienate potential clients by making your site inaccessible to them. Often Flash sites take longer to download than those built in HTML5 or JavaScript. Consider building your site using technology that is easy to use for all of your customers, Apple users or not.

Don’t get left behind with those who think that their users won’t mind the frustrations – they will. As technology advances and changes, your business’s website needs to grow and change with it.