We now see approximately half of all web traffic worldwide come from visitors on mobile devices, according to Statista. And we often see that number even higher with many of our mission-driven clients’ websites.
But if you’re like me, you typically access your own website on your desktop computer while you’re at work. That means there could be usability issues on your mobile site that you haven’t noticed — but your visitors probably will! Use the checklist below to take small but important steps to ensure you are giving your mobile visitors a great digital experience with your museum.
Mobile Optimization Checklist for Museums
- Use a responsive design (i.e. the website automatically adjusts to fit the screen size of any device). Hopefully this is a given at this point, but if your website is not responsive, make changing that your #1 priority!
- Try doing some common and high-value tasks on your mobile site. If you encounter any barriers or moments of frustration while completing these tasks, focus your efforts on smoothing out that process.
- Find your opening hours and the cost of a ticket.
- Purchase a ticket.
- Renew your membership.
- Find current exhibitions.
- Find an upcoming event and register.
- Fill out and submit your contact form.
- Use your search tool.
- Explore the site on several different phones (iPhone, Android, etc.) and tablets (iPad, Surface, etc.). You can use a tool like Google’s Web Developer Chrome extension to simulate browsing on different devices.
- Make sure any pop-ups can be easily closed.
- Reduce your image sizes. Large images can slow down page load times, and any decrease in page speed can cost you visitors.
- Use touch-friendly buttons and links that are big enough for a finger to press easily.
- Enter your URL into an audit tool like Google’s PageSpeed Insights for information about how your site is performing. This can get a pretty technical, and some changes may require support from a web developer to implement, but there are also some easy-to-fix issues that tools like this can bring to your attention.
- Ensure text is large enough for all readers.
- Verify that there is adequate contrast for all text and buttons.
Prioritizing the web experience for your mobile users is now critical. Time spent optimizing your mobile website can mean major increases in user engagement, satisfaction, and ultimately more visitors and supporters.
