the dominance of mobile

My last two entries were about ways to create your web site. I wrote about using a cloud-based service to simplify the process and I said that you can still hand-code your site if you so choose. The cloud-based services take care of optimizing your site for mobile devices (in some cases requiring you to do some tweaking). I wrote that if you do your own coding you need to take advantage of free tools out there to make sure your site displays properly on mobile devices.

We all know that mobile devices are ubiquitous, and if you don't use a mobile device yourself you nonetheless constantly see people out in public focused on their iPhone or Android device. How dominant is mobile? One study says that in December 2013 desktop computers had a 47% share of digital media time. By December 2015 that had decreased to 35%. In the same time period mobile's share increased from 53% to 65%.

The study says that most e-commerce transactions still take place on a PC, but if you have a web site to create visibility for your business or nonprofit, the odds are better than even that a visitor is going to get to your web site using a mobile device.

Some experts use the phrase "mobile first." I'm not sure that I like that mindset. I believe that it is essential for your web site to be attractive and usable on a desktop or laptop. At the same time mobile needs to be integral to your web design strategy. Your site needs to be responsive: accessible on any device of any size.

Whether you choose to use a drag-and-drop cloud-based service or whether you elect to hand-code your site, it's important to keep mobile on your mind all the time.