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To be fair, both tablets and smartphones are mobile – they unhook the tethers and let you take ‘computing’ away from computers. But there are some key differences that designers need to keep in mind.   Luckily, designers can enable sites to recognize which type of device is accessing a page, and direct users to different pages that have been designed with smartphones, tablets, or desktops in mind. This makes it easy to display the appropriate site at the appropriate moment – but what should you focus on when designing for mobile? Recommendations

• Display: Tablets can MUCH larger than smartphone screens, and small issues can become glaring imperfections when shown on a larger scale. Does your site auto-resize based on the user’s screen resolution? Are images high-quality enough to avoid pixelation?
   
• Orientation: Some smartphones, especially the older models, aren’t able to switch from portrait to landscape view easily, whereas almost all tablets now can. Can your site shift to each view and still look good regardless of the width or height?
  
  
• Flash: If you’re designing for an iPhone OR iPad, keep in mind that iOS does not run Flash. Since Apple owns such a huge share of the market, don’t make your site rely too heavily on Flash. In fact, a good rule of thumb when designing for mobile is to steer clear of Flash entirely.
  
  This isn’t to say that you have to avoid all animation; many companies have gotten wise to the issues with Flash and now design with different animation tools. For example, Whereoware’s Active Merchandiser uses HTML and Silverlight to get the job done, which allows those animations to be shown on any device.
   
• Catalogs: Many enjoy shopping offline or on a PC because they can browse through catalogs product by product, stopping to take each one in. Give tablet shoppers the same option! Platforms like Active Merchandiser incorporate digital catalogs seamlessly into your site, allowing users to shop directly from the catalogs. As we’ve stated again and again, the simpler you make it for your customers to purchase, the better off you’ll be in the long run.
   
• Screen size: You wouldn’t try to cram all of the information from a desktop site onto a smartphone site, would you? The same goes for tablets. You will have to establish a hierarchy of content in order to maintain the best design. Be discriminating in the amount of information you choose to put on a tablet-oriented site.

The bottom line

It goes without saying that mobile has become a crucial part of website design, and now, as mobile itself splinters into smartphone, tablet, and various other categories, these design requirements are broadening even further.

While you don’t have to worry about developing entirely different sites for each platform, it’s important to keep in mind the capabilities and constraints of each as you adapt your site to fit the different UI elements. In doing so, you’ll make your site more attractive, easier to navigate, and ultimately, more readily able to capture conversions – and your customers will thank you for it.