A website is not enough if it doesn’t adapt to the users and offer the required resource when it is needed.
With the increase in the use of the mobile and small portable screen, devices have put a demand on designers to adapt to the change and provide a website that is responsive.
As a brand, you wish to have a consistent experience of your website regardless of the variation on the device screens. This makes it critical in your marketing strategy as well as in improving the brand experience.
To get started, responsive design is the approach to website design with the aim of ensuring the seamless rendering of the web pages on various devices and screen sizes.
This is to imply that the design will also consider the viewer’s proximity as part of the context and metric for responsive web design.
Shift from Desktop to use of Mobile
With the sited increase on mobile users compared to the desktop device has demand pre-planning for mobile responsive web design.
As a business having mobile users in mind while mapping your brand and SEO strategy before developing the website will usually result in a more concise and thoughtful design.
With the migration, business is also forced to have a mobile content strategy with keyword research to meet the user’s experience and still have it to be shareable.
To break it down, as a company you are trying to reach your target customers who are often on mobile and in so doing you develop a responsive web design that results in a more effective SEO strategy for your website.
The result of this is an increase in search appearance and content that are worth sharing.
Some statistics to highlight the importance of considering having your website responsive on mobile:
- Over 20% of Google searches are performed on a mobile device.
- In 2012, more than half of local searches were performed on a mobile device.
- 25.85% of all emails are opened on mobile phones, and 10.16% are opened on tablets.
- 61% of people have a better opinion of brands when they offer a good mobile experience.
Improve on User Experience
Users who can’t easily navigate your website, there are fewer chances they’ll stick around.
According to Google, ‘time-on-page’ is recognized as a key indicator of the site’s value for any given query.
Building a responsive web design often times makes your website much easier for visitors to read and navigate. Improving on the user experience and typically a greater time on site.
Sales or conversion made on a website often is a result of a repeated visitor who had a good user experience after your website passed on usability scores.
As Google is in the business of satisfying user queries, mobile responsive web design is an added value to your user experience.
The loading speed of your website on either desktop or mobile device may either improve or discourage your web visitor when interacting with your site.
So, as a web designer, you must remain vigilant when it comes to conversion and user experience.
Improves on social sharing and SEO
Having a responsive web design allows easy social sharing especially with mobile users. A website that provides shareable content may opt to cater for user’s social sharing of content they enjoy.
Integrating your social media icons may need to fit a thumb click and not to be too small or causing much distraction. Your blogging page and media related page may require these as a strategy to increase mobile traffic.
As at 55% of social media consumption happens on a mobile device according to a recent study by ComScore cites, your website may require to be mobile-friendly and allowing sharing of content.
Responsive Design Adapts With the Trend
Your website might need to be adaptive by responding to the various devices and screen sizes, be it a tablet, a mobile or a desktop. A website that is not optimized for mobile users may be difficult to navigate and loss of site visitors.
The trend of users preferring the use of mobile and smartphones as compared to the desktop may be what you want to consider in your web design.
Your mobile users would need to have a seamless experience with the elements being clickable and the font being legible and readable.
While new devices are being invented and the screen size varies, your website needs to be responsive while still looking elegant for site visitors.
One element you would need to consider in having a responsive site that adapts to various screen size is consistency in your branding. Your website visitors may need to have a similar experience when browsing your site across the various devices.
Share your thoughts below on the need of having a responsive website. How have you made your website to be responsive to various screen sizes and devices?
