Make Your Site Go Responsive or Go Home!

So, if you’re part of the 56% of the people on this planet (According to DigitalBuzz) that have a smartphone, then you know how annoying it is to pinch, zoom, tilt and la Bamba with your mobile device. These days it’s practically essential to go responsive web design to adhere and accommodate your site’s visitors.

What Is Responsive Web Design

So what is responsive web design you ask? In a nutshell, responsive design is essentially accommodating a variety of device resolutions (smartphones, tablets, desktop’s even TV’s) the best user experience possible. So what in the world is user experience, and why do I need experience with a website you might ask? UX as we like to call it is the heart and soul of this approach, this is where some of the fat gets trimmed or tucked so to speak, so we can present the end user with the most relevant and the highest of priority content possible based on what device they’re on.

Responsive is your website conforming to the various devices screen sizes. So if you were to look at your website on an iPhone, a Samsung Galaxy or a tablet-based device, the site would look like it was meant to be on that device without giving your fingers a jazzercise lesson.

More and more of us are spending time exclusively on our smartphones or tablets, heck, if I didn’t need to write the rare line of code, or use some of my graphically intensive applications, I’d likely never have the need for a Laptop or Desktop device.

Presumably in the future with more convenient typing devices like CTX’s VK200 or text to speech applications, there’s no end in sight for how much time we’ll be spending on mobile, this includes for arguments sake, Google’s Glass technology or Mobile watches, which the jury (I think) is still out on.

Everything from being social to purchasing day to day consumables, EVERYTHING NEEDS TO ACCOMMODATE MOBILITY

So what are some of the obvious reasons everyone should consider going Responsive?

1. Stop frustrating your users!  No one likes to pinch, zoom, pinch, reverse-zoom and twist!
2. The user experience is much richer and Call to Action strategies can work to increase your lead generation
3. Give your end user confidence in you and your brand and your credibility. If you care about your user’s experience they’ll care a little more about your organization and stay attentive.
4. 50% of Mobile Users Leave Your Site And Won’t Return OR Recommend You If Your Mobile Site Sucks!

5. When a proper responsive web design solution is implemented this will make your site future-proof to new device sizes/resolutions

Imagine walking into a retail store and then having to scale a brick wall, and then doing a cage crawl in order to purchase a pair of flip-flops, not pleasant.  Make your web experience pleasant, clients aren’t willing to put in the effort! NO MATTER what device, your site will RESPOND big, small, short or tall like Dr.Seuss

Some additional reference which you might want to consider:

• Fixed vs fluid approaches http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/02/fixed-vs-fluid-vs-elastic-layout-whats-the-right-one-for-you/

Cool article on some great responsive tools:

• http://mashable.com/2013/03/18/web-design-tools/

Next Up, Retina, what the heck does that mean?