You can no longer design your website solely for the desktop and PC market.

Mobile websites? This year is an interesting time for the internet—and it’s got nothing to do with FCC rulings on net neutrality. Mobile usage of the internet is exceeding usage from traditional devices like PCs or desktops. Consider the following charts. The first shows that internet usage from mobile apps has exceeded desktop usage—and when combined with mobile access through a browser, mobile use far exceeds that of laptops and PCs.

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2014/02/28/technology/mobile/mobile-apps-internet/

 

Meanwhile, mobile access to some of the world’s most popular websites, including Amazon.com and Instagram, far exceeds desktop and PC access.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-usage-vs-desktop-for-websites-2013-12

What does this mean for your business? Several things. First, the obvious: you can no longer design your website solely for the desktop and PC market. The internet is now more than the 10-21 in. screen market—it’s a space in which customers and clients will be accessing your website on 7-10 in. tablets and even smaller smartphones. That means that your website must be responsive. In other words, it has to recognize what kind of device the page is being viewed on, and adjust itself accordingly. Menus must resize, content must stack and shift to display optimally on a smaller screen. And text must be decreased in scope and scale, making use of “read more” buttons for those users who wish to dig deeper into a topic.

 

 

Source: http://www.zoho.com/sites/mobile-website.html

Perhaps the most difficult change for businesses will be cutting to the chase when it comes to text content. It will no longer be an option to use three or four paragraphs to explain what your company does. Responsive web design for mobile demands minimal, quick-hitting verbiage that catches the user’s attention without requiring any drilling down.

There’s a new internet coming—be prepared.