What is a mobile friendly site now?

Brian Hoyt 2

Previously a mobile friendly site I think meant dealing with low resolution / small screen size devices. However now with smartphones and tablets equaling or surpassing desktop monitor screen resolutions and being far more pixel dense but still having a smaller physical screen size has mobile friendly changed in defintion? I am thinking now it means it high resolution but easy to read images and text and easier to navigate larger touch friendly site navigation. I am wondering how BB is moving in this area and what others are thinking? The standard 1024x768 or 1280x1024 desktop resolution is quickly being surpassed by 1920x1080 phones and 2560 x 1600 tablets. The fixed width default design of most OCC (BBNC) sites doesn't utilize these much wider screens and rather just leaves lots of empty space it seems.

Jaime Lassman 2

I saw some examples of responsive design at BBcon this past fall, and I would love to see that as an option for NetCommunity.

Jono Young

Hello Jaime and Brian, I am replying to you from a mobile device and the post preview suggest this response may be smushed together.

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IN SUMMARY

Both Blackbaud NetCommunity and BBIS can provide Responsive Design solutions. Both support CSS media queries and both can support many different devices and many different resolutions. Both can also support high-resolution (a.k.a. "retina") imagery using CSS with media queries to serve the appropriate image.


FORCING THE ISSUE

What's really great about mobile design and responsive web design is that it is forcing the important issues regarding how to best manage content and how to develop a winning strategy.


PRINCIPLES FOR SUCCESS

While screen resolutions have changed, and device dimensions have changed, the same great design principles and content strategies still work today as well as they did 5 years ago:

1. Keep it simple

2. Use clear calls to action

3. Keep buttons (and now touch targets) big and bold

4. Get the visitor moving to the next step in 5 seconds or less

5. Provide compelling reasons to take action

6. Show the positive impact that my action will make

7. Use text in place of images as much as possible...and beautiful typography, of course.

8. Ensure that text is legible at all screen resolutions and dimensions - this means large type and appropriate line lengths.

9. Priority is king, content is queen, and speed is scheming to overthrow them both (see #1)

10. Ensure you are providing what your audience needs and wants. Everything else may get in the way.


A MOVING TARGET

These sound familiar, right? Those are just a few basic principles. There are many more technical principles and considerations to account for as well. At the moment, things are changing so quickly, that the absolute "best" way to design responsively 1 year ago is no longer recommended. It's important to take care of the basics first (1-10), and build with flexibility and adaptability in mind.


WE ARE READY TO HELP

The Blackbaud Interactive Services team is working side-by-side with the Product team(s) to make mobile and responsive design a great solution for our customers. We are assessing a changing technology and approaching our solutions with the idea that what we want to develop today may not be the best solution tomorrow.


CONTACT US

If you are interested in mobile design or responsive design, contact your account executive, or shoot me an email: jono dot young at blackbaud dot com and I will provide more details.


Keep the conversation going!