This is my first post on MobilOpen; so let me introduce myself. My name is Naiyer Asif. I am an Indian and a mobile web designer and reviewer. My posts are often based on my experiences and experiments on mobile web.This one is also a quick analysis of thousands of mobile sites I have come across till date.

The tiny mistakes that can doom your mobile site.Here they go one by one…

Absence of About Page/Site Description When you reach a mobile site,what do you want to know at the first instance.”What is this all about?” Giving a short introduction to your service is extremely important.People on the go are in very hurry.They don’t have enough time to figure it out themselves.You should minimize their work.The best way to do this is to provide a short paragraph below the header of your page with a link to your full “about page”.Mippin.com implements this very nicely.

Absence of Contact/Feedback method Be accessible.The end-user knows better than you what your site lacks. If you don’t provide a contact form,you lose a big chance to take your site to the next level adapting to the rapidly changing mobile scenario.Always provide a contact method for users to get new ideas,complaints and error reports. Remember,providing a contact form is always better than merely specifying an email.The social media sites like Twitter can also be used for direct user interaction and feedback.

Incorrect Use of Container Elements A lot of developers use tables to enhance the “look and feel” of their mobile sites. Sadly enough,tables were not created for glamorising your webpages. They were created to present statistical information in a tabular form.Presentational tables increase page weight and plummet your site’s mobile-readiness adversely. Similarly,many a developers use divisions repeatedly to list the menu items. Repeated use of divisions also increases page weight.For listing the items,always use list containers.

Absence of Accesskey Accelerators Mobile web experience needs to be fast and “accesskeys” are essentially a boon to mobile browsing. While they might not have been so successful on desktops,accesskeys are almost a necessity for mobile sites. They fasten the navigation considerably by reducing the overall click distance. If you don’t provide them,users are likely to struggle scrolling your site.

Absence of a link to Full Website Everyone has their own needs and preferences. People on capable browsers might wish to use your full desktop website instead of its mobile edition. If you fail to provide a method to bypass the mobile version,you are going to be disliked by users. Never force a particular version of your site on a specific browser without providing an option to switch to the other version.

I know I have missed many other issues. If you want to share more “grave and oft-committed” mistakes of mobile web developers, let us know in comments.

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