Often, when we talk to our clients about “responsive” websites we get some very blank looks and we’ve noticed there is a great deal of misunderstanding around how responsive websites work. In this blog post we will aim to put into basic terms what a responsive website is and how it can benefit your customers.
What is a responsive website?
At first glance, although you may feel the difference between responsive and non-responsive in the above banner is quite subtle, on closer inspection you will notice that the mobile and tablet versions have a different layout. This makes the text and images larger for the responsive version so they fill the screen better and additionally, there’s no need to zoom in and scroll in all directions to find your way around the website.
Although it’s fair to say this does create more vertical scrolling, it is a worthwhile trade-off as it means you don’t need to pinch your fingers to read and navigate the website, in effect making your website much easier and quicker to use.
Responsive websites are effectively the successors of the old-fashioned “mobile website” where you would be redirected to a completely separate website when you accessed a company’s “desktop website” on your mobile device.
The difference lies in the fact that a responsive website is just one single website that automatically adapts (or responds) to the size of the device being used to browse it by changing the layout of the content and the structure of the menu/navigation to suit a full range of different screen sizes.
The main advantage of responsive sites over having a separate mobile site is that you only have to maintain a single pool of content (i.e. you don’t have to duplicate content across two websites). You can also optimise the layout for as many screen sizes as you wish (so your users have the best possible experience whether they access your site on a small mobile, a larger mobile, a mini tablet, a full size tablet or a wide variety of desktop monitors ranging from the 1024 pixels you may get on older PC monitors to the 5120 pixels you can now get on brand new high-retina displays from Apple.
Why do I need a responsive website?
One of the major usability issues with standard websites on smaller devices such as mobiles is navigation – trying to use a traditional horizontal menu or sidebar menu without zooming/pinching is nigh on impossible, and so the user ends up wasting valuable time zooming and scrolling in all directions just to navigate the site. The image below demonstrates how difficult it would be to use the BBC News website on a mobile if it wasn’t responsive…
In addition to this, many standard websites are built with 2 or 3 column layouts which aren’t practical on a mobile device as the user then needs to zoom in to read text and then scroll both vertically and horizontally to view the site fully – this is very inefficient and frustrating for the user and may well lead them to go elsewhere.
In addition to these usability issues, Google has recognised the need to make the web more mobile-friendly and as such has made changes to its search algorithms on mobiles to prioritise mobile-friendly websites over standard sites. This means that by having a responsive website not only are you likely to see an increase in conversions from those who visit your site, but you should also see an increase in overall traffic from users searching the web on their mobiles (take a look at these recent statistics to get an idea of how many people are now using their mobiles over traditional desktop devices).
We hope that’s helped to explain the benefits of responsive web design. If you’ve got any questions regarding responsive websites, we’d be more than happy to help. Either leave a comment below or drop us a line directly.
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