In the world of online marketing there are always new buzz words and best practices to learn about and explore. Newly introduced to the online marketing vernacular is the term responsive design. By definition, responsive design is:
“A web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).”
This term has now trickled down to other marketing professionals, especially those responsible for their company’s online presence. So why is it important to know about responsive design?
According to Google’s now-famous report, “The New Multi-Screen World,” 90 percent of people use multiple screens sequentially, with 67 percent doing so when shopping online. Furthermore, a recent survey by Gomez reports that 46 percent of mobile users say they are unlikely to return to a website they had trouble accessing from their phone.
What does your website look like on mobile devices? With responsive design, your website will function properly and look great on any device.
With responsive design, your site can look great and function properly on nearly any web-capable device:
- Smart Phones: iPhone, Android
- Tablets: Kindle, iPad, NOOK
- Laptop Computers
- Desktop Computers
- and whatever they come up with next!
How Responsive Design Works
In the past, cross-device compatibility posed one of the greatest challenges to web design and development teams. The commonly adopted solution was to create multiple versions of a website for each popular screen size and resolution. When the first smart phones and mobile devices were added into the mix, bringing their own unique display requirements, many companies developed special mobile websites (“https://m.domain.com”) to address the issue. But the pace of technology has only accelerated, and this solution is no longer cost-effective or efficient.
Enter responsive design.
A site with responsive design adapts the layout to the user’s viewing environment. This creates a consistent user experience across many devices and screen sizes. And since it’s all one site (no annoying redirects), you’ll have just one URL to promote, one SEO strategy to manage, one batch of content to create and optimize, and one set of analytics to measure. Marketers, rejoice!
Responsive design is accomplished by developers using fluid, proportion-based grids, flexible images, smart scripts, and CSS3 media queries. If that sounds like Greek to you, contact Blayzer to find out more about responsive design and how our team can create a better browsing experience for your customers.
