20 Mobile Friendly Website Designs
Posted on 11. Nov, 2009 by Shawn Ramsey in Design
As more and more people continue to browse the web with their smartphones, the need for websites to adapt to these smaller screens is becoming a necessity. Many web developers have already made the change focusing on user-friendly GUI’s, larger fonts and easy search options. Unfortunately, there are still a large number of websites that have yet to follow the trend.
While technically just about any website can be viewed with your smartphone, with the exception of Flash for the iPhone, this list focuses on some of the more popular sites that have put some time, creativity and easy to use interfaces into their mobile counterparts.
If you’re looking to make your site a little easier for your mobile audience, browse through these 20 Mobile-Friendly Website Designs to get an idea of what some of the others are doing.
Note: The following list was checked with an iPhone and my not reflect what you see on other smartphones.
DeviantArt
DeviantArt, a well-known community featuring some great designers and excellent resources did a great job on the mobile side of their site design. Browsing through the deviations is a breeze.
Web: www.deviantart.com
Mobile: www.deviantart.com
Amazon
Amazon’s mobile site makes shopping easy for their customers with featured items, categories, search and easy access to the shopping cart.
Web: www.amazon.com
Mobile: www.amazon.com/gp/aw
Discovery
The mobile site of The Discovery Channel implements an easy to use simple design making it easy for visitors to check in on their favorite show. They have also recently released their free app which I recommend to anyone who watches the channel regularly. Their color choice is definitely questionable.
Web: dsc.discovery.com
Mobile: m.discovery.com
Digg
Digg did a good job in designing their mobile site by sticking to a list format while dropping the images in the initial browsing. The design itself is pretty seamless with their regular website. They even did a good job implementing their banner ad.
Web: www.digg.com
Mobile: m.digg.com
Flickr
Flickr’s mobile site is awesome. Browsing images is super simple and the “Nearby” section uses your current location to display local uploaded images on a map. It’s a nice feature.
Web: www.flickr.com
Mobile: m.flickr.com
The Weather Channel
I usually get my weather info from their iPhone app, but The Weather Channel’s mobile site is just as functional. It includes a radar map, up to a 10 day forecast and much more all easily viewable on a mobile platform.
Web: www.weather.com
Mobile: mw.weather.com
YouTube
If you own an iPhone then you are probably using the built in YouTube app to view videos. Not surprising their mobile-friendly site handles video browsing just as well and is actually better if you’re wanting to sign into your own account.
Web: www.youtube.com
Mobile: m.youtube.com
National Geographic
Nat Geo Mobile has a beautiful interface with featured content, large images for categories, and the option to go to the full site if needed. I like their use of thumbnails.
Web: www.nationalgeographic.com
Mobile: m.nationalgeographic.com
Food Network
The Food Network makes it easy to find recipes on their mobile site. Oh wait, they have an app too.
Web: www.foodnetwork.com
Mobile: mobile.foodnetwork.com
Wikipedia
Wikipedia hits you with a search box and a featured story when you visit their page through your mobile device. Their type is large enough and spaced out appropriately for easy reading in both portrait and landscape modes. I heard that the main site was getting a makeover soon and this could ring true for their mobile site as well.
Web: www.wikipedia.org
Mobile: en.m.wikipedia.org
eBay
If you’re not using their app the mobile ebay site works great.You can sign-in and get to bidding on video games with ease.
Web: www.ebay.com
Mobile: iphone.ebay.com
MovieFone
I love the simplicity of MovieFone’s site. Just type in your zip code to bring up options to find movies nearby, local theaters, upcoming releases, top 20 movies and more. A very easy to use mobile site. I feel like I’m repeating myself over and over, but MovieFone has an app too.
Web: www.moviefone.com
Mobile: iphone.moviefone.com
The Onion
Find news easily on The Onion’s slimmed down mobile version. Beware of ads too.
Web: www.theonion.com
Mobile: mobile.theonion.com
Google drops the custom logos with their mobile site but continues to offer their awesome search engine easily viewable on your mobile phone.
Web: www.google.com
Mobile: www.google.com/m
ESPN
Catching up on sports news is a breeze thanks to ESPN’s user-friendly mobile site. Find scores, video and much more.
Web: espn.go.com
Mobile: m.espn.go.com
Fox News
Fox follows the list trend on their site making it extremely easy to navigate to breaking news. Yes there is an app.
Web: www.foxnews.com
Mobile: iphone.foxnews.com
Dell
Dell wants customers to know that they are up-to-date with current trends by offering up an easy way to browse their inventory, check on orders and much more. They too follow the listing style with their categories, which seems to be the easiest way to guide you to where you want to go.
Web: www.dell.com
Mobile: mobile.usablenet.com/mt/www.dell.com
SitePoint
Catching up on web-development info couldn’t be any easier via SitePoint’s mobile site. The use of big text, post images and excerpts makes finding interesting articles extremely easy.
Web: www.sitepoint.com
Mobile: m.sitepoint.com
CNN
CNN has revamped their site design recently and that holds true through the mobile site as well. Finding the latest news in your favorite category is pretty effortless.
Web: www.cnn.com
Mobile: m.cnn.com
eHow
I wanted to include this one on the list mainly to show you how simple the designs can be. The mobile version of eHow starts out with a search box and only a search box with the fill in the blank question of “How Do I…”. The results are sorted by relevance in a nice list format for easy navigation.
Web: www.ehow.com
Mobile: www.ehow.com/iphone
Further Resources
- WordPress Mobile Edition - a WordPress plugin that shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site through a mobile device.
- Make your Site Mobile Friendly - an article focusing on how to make your content more mobile-friendly.
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