As the world moves more and more onto smart phones, website design is starting to catch up.

If you’ve ever been on your smart phone and had to squint at the screen to see where to click, or had to scroll left or right to read something, you will understand. Old website design was primarily created for the large, fixed monitors of desktops or laptops.

We now know that most people are accessing the web from their mobile device: phone, tablet or some in-between hybrid. There is no mouse, they are touch-screen, and sometimes looking at websites can be an exercise in frustration.

So, if you have a website, and you want it to be mobile-friendly, you could have your designer create a copy of your site that is mobile-friendly, and then direct people to it if they are on their phones.

A better idea, however, is something called Responsive Design. The website senses what kind of a device (phone, tablet, desktop/laptop you are on, and adjusts accordingly to make the most pleasant experience for the user. Cool, right? So if, for example, you’re choosing a new WordPress theme, make sure it is responsive.

One thing that’s become pretty popular recently is called parallax, or infinite scroll. Basically, the website is all one page, and you simply scroll if you are on your mobile device or tablet. If you’re on a regular computer, you can also scroll, or often you’ll be given the option of a navigation menu as well. Check out Notegraphy as an example of an infinite scroll site.

Mobile-friendly web design – An infographic on the benefits of responsive web design by the team at Static Shift