Mobile Design Elements to Ditch this 2019 (Part 1)

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It’s time to clean up! If on a desktop website, you have an ample space to play with. On mobile, it’s a different story. You need to find ways to maximize the small screen size. You can’t congest the tiny mobile screen with too much unnecessary information.

Woman Holding Space Gray Iphone

With that being said, you need to remove these mobile design elements to provide a better user experience.

  • SIDEBARS

    • Sidebars have been helpful in dividing the website into different sections. However, when it’s on a mobile site, sidebars don’t really navigational help.
    • On a desktop, it looks trendy and modern. Plus, it serves both a navigation and an advertising purpose. However, on mobile, it can be a distraction. So, it’s really convenient if these sidebars disappear once you access a site on a mobile device.
    • Because if you don’t remove the sidebars, mobile users will need to get past the sidebar before they can read the actual content. A brief desktop page might appear too long on mobile.
    • Sidebars usually contain:
      • External ads.
      • Internal ads. This includes promotion of your own products, and web store.
      • Blog comment form.
      • Email subscriber form.
    • Imagine all these information flashing on your mobile screen. It’s totally not cool! Before you get to click a link you want to read, these are the things you need to go through. It might take you forever to read something!
    • Having 3 forms in a mobile website is just too much so remove the duplicates and stick with showing your actual content.
    • Since people are on social media most of the time, feature your prominent social media account. If it’s Twitter, then, highlight your Twitter feed. There’s no need to bombard your users with information they are not interested.
    • Lastly, blog posts should just be plain texts. If it’s filled with images, it will take awhile to load. So, if the titles are on an image, I suggest these titles should be converted to simple texts. Mobile sites should be a lightweight experience. Users should easily move from one post to another without any problems.

  • POP-UPS

    • Pop-ups are a normal occurrence on a desktop site. When you see one on mobile, it’s hard to locate the “x” or close button. Such a torture!
    • What’s worse is that some pop-ups are gigantic to a point that you need to see the whole thing for you to close it. You spend your time scrolling for the close button, which is why it’s not a good idea to retain pop-ups on a mobile site.
    • People go to your website to find new information. Instead, they see a pop-up blocking their way. It’s annoying to see a pop-up the moment you step foot on a website.
    • Sometimes, websites are quite redundant. On their main page, there’s an existing promo. On the pop-up, the same thing is advertised. At least, trey to show a different promotion on the pop-up so they will be interested to read it.
    • Still, I don’t recommend putting annoying pop-ups on your home page because it is one sure way to drive away interested customers!