Is Your Website Responsive?
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a new approach to web design in which a site is created to respond to a wide range of devices. It is now imperative to provide an optimal viewing experience with the ability to browse the internet on smart phones and tablets with the same clarity and ease as browsing the web on a desktop computer.
The first reaction to this by the common website designer was to begin creating separate mobile versions of client websites. While seeming to be a good idea at the time, it added work for the designer and for the search engines because each website would need to have a typical “desktop view-able version” and a separately created “mobile view-able version”.
Web browsers have also been morphing to meet the changing needs of the users in order to offer ease of navigation with a minimum of re-sizing panning, and scrolling. In a 2012 “Webmaster Central” blog post from Google Inc, the search giant made several recommendations about creating a mobile presence that search engines could index and scale easier for users browsing via the mobile web. Their number one suggestion: Responsive Web Design.
Responsive Web Design often requires coding skills that are not in the mainstream marketplace yet, as well as time and resources that can add to client costs. However, RWD saves online businesses from the burden of maintaining completely separate websites that are optimized for just phones and/or tablets.
Utilizing Responsive Web Design has multiple advantages. Most importantly, it keeps all desktop and mobile content on a single URL; making it easier for users to interact with, share, and link to via social media networks.
For more than two years, RWD has been taking over but it is still rather new and difficult for many designers who are getting swamped with the constantly changing technology of mobile devices, code frameworks, scripts, and graphics programs. The next generation of devices to hit the market with increased pixel density displays and newer hardware, places further challenges upon the web designer and on the online businesses to keep up.
It is no wonder Responsive Web Design was listed as #2 in Top Web Design Trends for 2012 by .net magazine!
Graphic design has also been as affected by the need of Responsive Web Design. As a very important part of any marketing campaign or website design; logos, icons, and images must be created to be as flexible as possible to guarantee graphics appearing on high pixel density device screens look as sharp as possible. Images that are improperly scaled can appear blurry and unprofessional.
At GINGALLEY, we have been busy taking our long-time customers’ websites and recreating them as responsive websites that can be viewed on a multitude of devices and screens. We can help you too. If your website has not been updated for more than two years, it is an important time to get a new Responsive Web Design.