The Importance Of Responsive Web Design

Life in Orange County, California is characterized by a work hard, play hard attitude. It’s a paradise, but to fully reap its rewards we need to be productive in our daily lives, and of course that involves daily use of technology and the internet. Increasingly, being productive with technology means getting onto the mobile platform, and that means responsive web design.

What Is Responsive Web Design?

Building a responsive web site means it will display appropriately across all devices on which it will be used. For instance, if you live in technology savvy Orange County, California you likely have at least three different devices you use to access the internet–a desktop computer, a tablet, and your smartphone. You’ve probably tried to access a website on your phone that was not responsive, and it was so microscopic that it was impossible to interact with. Responsive web design takes into account the width and dimensions of all the possible devices you might have (add smartwatches to the list now) and optimizes the site so it displays properly across all of them.

Some Examples

Say you are on a desktop system with a large display, mouse and keyboard. It’s fine then to design a site with clickable text and navigation elements that might involve clicking. On a mobile phone however, scrolling is preferred over clicking as a navigational experience, and large buttons over linked text. Details like that can now be dynamically adjusted through the site’s design, rather than maintaining a separate website for each device, which would be a nightmare as well as quite expensive.

Why is Responsive Web Design so Important?

We’re accessing the web on mobile devices more than ever. If a user is to consume content, or make an online purchase, the information has to be presented and formatted in a digestible way for the device they are using. If it’s a smartwatch, you can’t use your desktop strategy. Furthermore, if you don’t use responsive web design, Google may ding you in its search results. They now factor in mobile friendliness when a search is performed from a mobile device.

In fact, it’s wise to adopt a “mobile first” mentality when designing your website. Having to accommodate the smaller screen real estate will force you and your design team to get to the essence of the content or the desired user experience, and will improve your design overall.

New mobile devices are being developed and coming online all the time. Creating your site with responsive web design will ensure your content will be at the cutting edge of technology. A lot of the residents in Orange County, California are early adopters, so you want to make sure you impress them by being ready for the future.

The more accessible your content is across a multitude of devices, the more likely the user will stay engaged with your message and brand, which can lead to higher conversion rates. And although it costs more upfront to use responsive web design, it saves money in the long run by preventing you from maintaining that are redundant for mobile devices, as well as having the long term benefit of keeping your audience engaged, however they happen to interact with your content.