Do you remember computers from the 1990s? Well if not, we’ve come a long way! I remember buying my first laptop computer for college at Circuit City with a whopping 20 gig hard drive. It’s crazy to think about how far computer technology has come since then.
With that said, website design is an art form that has followed a similar path. Websites in the early 90s consisted of basic text and hyperlinks. With the development of technology like CSS and JavaScript we now have image galleries, videos, animations, and much more! However, there is one thing that has remained constant in web design and that is the need to display content efficiently and effectively.
What makes this challenging is the fact that we have a myriad of devices available to view websites today. Televisions, tablets, phones, kiosks, and many more devices at an array of different screen sizes. With that said, do you believe a website created at one specific layout/design will satisfy all those different scenarios? Yes, the content will be available to your users, but depending on the device used, may become quite impractical to consume.
The solution to this problem is responsive design. Responsive design is an approach that suggests design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform, and orientation. This simply means website content should adjust to whatever device the consumer wishes to use. If not reason enough itself, let’s review why your business needs a responsive website.
Website Usability
Usability is a term to describe a website’s ease of use and is broken down into five different components.
- Learnability: How easy is it to complete a task?
- Efficiency: Once learned, how quickly can a task be completed?
- Memorability: Can you re-establish proficiency quickly after a period of non-use?
- Errors: How many errors are made and are they easily recoverable?
- Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?
Now, imagine yourself viewing a desktop design on a mobile phone. It’s difficult to complete a task, inefficient, prone to numerous errors, and overall an unpleasant experience. The result of poor usability will be a reduction in customers and ultimately revenue. By designing your website with a responsive framework, you’re much more likely to keep your customers happy and coming back.
If you’d like to learn more about website usability, I highly recommend, “Don’t Make Me Think“, by Steve Krug. The book presents a fantastic insight into the important aspects of designing a website today and into the future.
Faster Load Time
When designing for a number of devices, it’s important to consider page load. Sure, a website may load quickly on a desktop computer, but suffer greatly on a mobile device. The reason is that mobile connection speeds are not near as fast as broadband internet. With that in mind, it’s important to consider image sizes, animations, videos, and anything else that can slow things down.
Why is this important? Well, in modern society we have very little patience for delay. So in this case, seconds can literally affect the bottom line. By designing your website to change, adapt, and load content optimized to their device, you’re more likely to keep your customers attention.
Better Google Search Ranking
As of April 21, 2015, Google search started taking mobile friendliness into account as a ranking factor. This provides users with high quality content optimized to their devices. This means, by making your website responsive, it will fair better in search results no matter the device used. In business, it’s important to take any advantage you can. Better search rankings may result in more visitors and therefore more profit.
Better SEO
When creating a mobile friendly website, you have two options. Option one is to create one website that adapts and changes to whatever device being used (responsive). The second option is to create a second dedicated mobile website, usually seen as something like, “m.website.com”.
Now, it’s great to have a mobile presence, but a dedicated mobile website can become an issue. With it comes the management of two separate websites. This not only creates more work but SEO errors between two existing websites. In my opinion, it’s best to keep things simple with one url and a responsive framework to serve all your customers.
Decreased Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who leave a website after viewing only one page. Now, I can’t speak for others, but I personally leave a website that isn’t mobile friendly. Trying to navigate a desktop designed website on a mobile device is just too inefficient. I’d rather find another website that is mobile friendly.
This is huge when it comes to e-commerce. If your visitors leave before they even look at the products you offer, your business will suffer. You wan’t to make things as easy as possible for the consumer and by giving them an experience catered to their device, you’re sure to see better returns.
Social Sharing
Social media has exploded in the last decade or so, with new platforms arriving almost daily. People are consuming information off their mobile devices at an ever increasing rate with no signs of slowing. This presents a great business opportunity for mobile optimized websites to see viral sharing of their content.
If your website is not mobile optimized, you’re more likely to experience higher bounce rates, low conversions, and a poor customer experience. Keep your visitors happy with a responsive design, and they’ll be much more likely to share.
Forward Thinking
Mobile usage has been growing year after year and outpacing desktop at this point in time. Nearly 60% of all searches and 80% of social media time is spent on mobile devices. These statistics alone portrait the importance of a responsive design.
There’s no reason to believe this will ever revert back, so it’s imperative to take this into consideration when building your business website. By creating a website that responds to devices of all widths and sizes, you’re future proofing your design. Sure, design trends may come and go, but as long as your website holds a high level of usability, you’ll be set into the future.
Web design can be tricky, with many aspects to take into consideration. Just remember to focus on creating a positive user experience and your customers will love you for it.
What are your thoughts on responsive design? Leave any comments or questions below!
*Some of the links above are affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I will earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you. I recommend them because they are helpful and useful, not because of the small commissions I make if you decide to buy something.
