Mobile Navigation

Let's face it, my website is not going to be a "big hit" with the mobile user. There are no celebrity gossip links and it is as far away from a Social Media platform that the majority of mobile users exit.

However, there are things that I have worked out to make the mobile experience more "pleasant".
I did do some experiments with buttons that only display on mobile.

On a large to medium screen there should not be a button above this text.

Position of buttons

Both scrolling and sticky.

The Home button can be sticky on all mobile pages

The About button is scrollable but hidden on all but mobile screens.

The gototop is sticky and will display on all screens.

I have to remember to add 40px to the section spacer divs on pages that have "on-page" links.
(an "on-page" link is one that is either accessed from the menu system on the page of another page on the website).

I can only determine this by trial and error and to add 80px on all spacers on the template.

Long URLs

My first assessment was that the URLs were too long for a mobile user to enter. While this is true a mobile user is not likely to type in a URL in any case.

This observation was made when I couldn't find any of my pages on a mobile phone from a hospital bed.

The dynamics of a mobile search

If a mobile user does find this website it is more likely to be the outcome of an Internet search. The page that the visitor arrives either gives them the information that were looking for, highly unlikely! Or they can't work out to get to other parts of this website. I have been adding links above the fold to encourage all visitors to click them.

Even though my template uses a pretty standard method of presenting a menu on a mobile screen I don't think that most mobile users bother to go top a menu if they dont' find the information they were seeking on the landing page.

Limitations of the "Hamburger"

While most mobile users are familiar with this symbol and that it means a menu, I think that you can do better.