What is responsive website design?
Responsive design refers to websites that auto-adjust to the screen-size and orientation of any modern device to display properly on the smallest mobile and the largest TV.
Why do we need it?
The way we access the internet has changed enormously and currently 25 - 30% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices such as Android and Apple smart-phones and tablets.
This creates large implications for web owners because older (traditional) websites are built to display on traditional computer screens only, and in order to be classified as “mobile friendly” websites must now include the following features:
- Avoiding software that is not common on mobile devices (like Flash)
- Displaying text that is readable without zooming
- Sizing the content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll left & right or zoom to read the text
- Placing links far enough apart so that the correct icon or link can be easily tapped
Testing your site
Using your smart-phone, open your own website and answer the following questions:
- Does page fit the screen or do you have to scroll? (76% of visitors simply do not scroll)
- Is the font large enough to read? (traditional sites will be hard to read without zooming)
- Are Images displaying properly within the page? (optimized sites will shrink and place images appropriately)
- Are the buttons & links “Fat-Finger-Proof”? (large enough to select the correct option)
- Is critical information placed “above the fold”? (are special offers, phone, address, map etc. visible without scrolling?)
You can also use the free online Google Mobile-friendly test to see if your website is really mobile friendly!
Conclusions
If the answers to the above are negative then your website will not display professionally on the full range of devices, and may result in frustrating potential clients. We recommend that clients make the decision to upgrade sooner rather than later because smart-phone and tablet usages are increasing at the speed of a fast-train.
So check out your own site and decide if your website is still producing the excellent service it was originally designed to provide.