Responsive website design is a very popular topic among web design circles today, and for good reason. By all estimates, mobile (e.g. smartphones, tablets, etc.) use of the Internet is skyrocketing, especially for consumer goods and services. However, B2B website traffic is not too far behind. Companies are deploying smartphones and tablets (especially the iPad) to their employees in record numbers. In fact, corporate deployments of iPads are happening much faster than deployments of smartphones did. Plus, among consumers, smartphones and tablets (led by the iPad) are transitioning from luxury devices to everyday-use devices.
Mobile Websites are a Stop-Gap
In our opinion, the first attempt to deal with properly displaying websites on mobile devices was to develop a separate website, just for mobile consumption. On the face of it, this seemed like it made a lot of sense. However, with the introduction of tablets, and the incredible variety of screen sizes present on smartphones today, it has become nearly impossible to develop a single fixed-size site that works well across all platforms. Plus, users do not typically like a stripped-down experience on their mobile devices. Users want all of the content that matters to them, wherever they are.
What Responsive Websites Are
In a nutshell, responsive websites are sites that are designed to format correctly on any screen size. The site itself is fluid, re-sizing itself to properly fit on any size screen. This way, one site works for any platform. That is, not only does your website (if built properly) work on every major web browser, but also on every major device type. So, when a user views your website on their 24? desktop monitor, then again on their iPhone, not only the experience is similar between the two devices, but the site is just as usable/functional in both places. This type of design prevents the need for users to zoom in/out to view all of the content of your site. The site molds itself to be the perfect size of the screen it is viewed on, which allows your users to interact with the site without having to stop to zoom.
What Responsive Websites Aren’t
Like any new way to solve a problem, responsive websites are not a cure-all. No one type of design can be expected to work perfectly for any possible use, and responsive sites are the exact same way. This is precisely why we work with you to find the best solution for the problems you want to solve, not what technology, or buzz-words, happen to be popular at the moment. Sometimes, responsive websites are a perfect fit for a given situation, especially if a website’s primary function is an informational one. Other times, fixed-pixel (a website with a fixed-pixel-width, regardless of screen size) sites works best. While other times, a combination of the two (plus, perhaps a mobile app) makes the most sense. The bottom line is that although responsive websites can solve a lot of problems, we work to make sure this type of solution would solve YOUR problems.
A Couple of Examples
It is always nice to be able to see these sorts of things in action, and as such, here are two examples of responsive websites (both built on the WordPress CMS) that we have developed. Be sure to try them in different widow sizes on on your computer, or on different devices to see how they adapt to any screen size:
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