A number of studies suggest that mobile browsing would surpass desktop and laptop browsing. This technical advancement, however, turns to be a concern to business owners as it implies complexity and cost. So, how to cope with this change?
Responsive design is the key approach to be taken by website owners who care about adapting their businesses to nowadays technical breakthroughs. RD approach enables your website to be viewed and used from various devices. We at Blue confirm that responsive design enriches mobile users’ experience and meet websites’ owners’ expectations.
Main advantages of responsive design
Reduce Costs
Before people opted for responsive designing, if they wanted to give their users a mobile experience, they had to develop a separate set of templates for every device. This would considerably add to the cost and usually people do not want to bear these costs. When you opt for responsive design, it customizes your website to fit the screen size of all devices. This indicates that you just have to develop just one website hence reducing the costs.
Longevity
Because we care about continuity, opt for responsive design to keep your website on the go for a longer time. We promise you a dynamic website.
Competitive advantage
Most likely, your competitors have not heard of responsive design yet; it’s still on the developmental stage. Therefore, it’s your chance to outshine the competition. Offer your visitors an enjoyable experience whatever device they use.
Save build time
Designing one website would absolutely save your time; don’t be concerned about going through the process again once a new device is launched. Also, you would need fewer meetings and approvals.
Don’t hesitate to encourage your visitors to take action by giving them a pleasant experience. Opt for responsive design.
Some points to consider
You should be aware that responsive design doesn’t apply in every case. You are not blamed for this misconception as responsive design is still new and haven’t been completely understood. To check if responsive design applies on your website development plans read the details below.
Interactive site
RD approach doesn’t work for complicated websites which its work revolved around users’ interactions and tasks. In such sites, design is best limited to have all the functions performing. These websites are mostly as large consumer led portals and social network sites in which delivering functionality is prior to design.
Content based site
If your website depends on content more than user interaction then responsive design approach would work well. This applies to sites as magazines and newspapers in which content is designable. Users access such publication’s websites on their smartphones to read content, not to interact with it.
Complicated or large file media delivery & Animation
If your website is featured with heavy developed technologies and functionality as CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, and others; then the RD approach doesn’t contribute perfectly. Such websites tend to work and load slowly on smarphones which would result in losing both; users’ time and satisfaction.
Case and Content
Your user’s case and your website’s content play a major role in opting for responsive design approach. This shall be taken into consideration in order to avoid failing your website users’ expectations. For example, an airline website viewed from smartphone would have access to limited details and specification which would correspondingly fail to assist the user’s searches. In this case, smartphones only allow users to view very few specifications and details related to their flight as checking a flight and its status.
Responsive design is not a subset of your traditional website
If you think that responsive website is a minimized copy of your original website fitting smartphones’ screens then STOP. You should be aware that responsive design takes into account users’ expectations. Your user is not fascinated much by your business if browsing the same website in desktop is as the same as in smartphone. Differentiate you website users’ experience by turning it into convenient, relevant, and mainly, contextual one. Take a bank mobile website as an example where content is optimized for context of use and accessible to accounts, statements, deposits and others. On the other hand, browsing the same website via desktop would be different as marketing content, application forms, calculators and so forth are displayed there.
Cost verses your actual needs
You should always remember that responsive design is an option. You should consider the budget needed to get your job done and goals met before deciding on responsive design. It’s true that responsive design is a breakthrough in the world of technology, but it might not be the right option. So, your goals might be attained better in a traditional web design.
Responsive design is expensive due to the effort and work done to guarantee its well performance. Highly priced services, in comparison with traditional web design, includes preliminary research essentially conduct to design a page fit all your users devices and reflect your desired goals and specifications. Also, the time spent on deigning multiple screen designs for your clients’ devices is considerably long. Lastly, much attention is given to details; evidently, quality assurance and web development testing is done and even increased as the largesse of the job increases.
Design limitations
It is very important to understand that responsive design has restrictions; high-quality design and speedy performance require simple and minimal designs. Therefore, heavy graphics, complicated backgrounds, and non-standard font would ward off any good performance. Likewise, flash animation would make your website load slowly. So, we at Blue would design fairly simple and clear designs to perform fast and format well on your users’ devices.
Mobile Applications
Responsive design approach doesn’t include mobile application. It’s important to understand that mobile applications are developed separately on tablets and other devices.
Understanding all this detail would help you in deciding on the good way to satisfy and approach your customers besides winning an online existence. Remember that offering your clients with a responsive deign fitting all their devices is better than developing different apps for various devises at different costs.