In the time of Web Designing and Development, the use of Mobile devices is increasing at an astronomical pace. Globally, traffic from mobile has doubled between 2012 and 2013. Hubspot report that in 2014, mobile devices accounts for 25% of global Internet traffic and by 2015 mobile use of internet has overtaken the desktop Internet usage. By 2016, revenue from mobile content is predicted to reach $65 billion. According to Hubspot, if a user lands on your website through their mobile and get frustrated or doesn’t see what they are looking for, there is a 61% chance they will leave your website immediately and go to another website.
Unfortunately, many of our websites are not optimised for Mobile devices. The prohaloweenblem is due to the display size of the mobile devices as it requires a different approach to show content on this device. Also we can’t make different websites for the iPhone or for the Android. It would be impractical thing to do. So now the question is, should we just bear the consequences of sacrificing traffic from one device for the sake of other? Or do we have any other option? Yes, we do have!
Responsive Web Design is a procedure which suggests that design and development of a website should acknowledge to users behaviour and the environment according to the device, screen size and orientation. This approach is a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and a smart use of CSS media queries. The change of layout is based on the size and capabilities of the devices. For example, a phone user would see the content in a single column while in case of Tablet, it might be shown in 2 columns. Responsive design was originally introduced in 2010 by Ethan Marcotte through “A List Apart” article and by far the most popular and globally used method for designing a mobile website.
There is also one more method for creating mobile websites – Mobile Templates. It is completely a different thing. This requires a another mobile-only website or sub domain other than your main domain and still not made according to different sizes of your device. This will create a issue regarding user experience and behaviour.
Below are the 5 undeclinable reasons that show the need of Responsive design for your website:
1. Mobile Usage is booming:
Smartphones and mobile devices are quickly becoming the desired method to access Internet i.e. our customers are increasingly going on mobile. So creating a mobile friendly website would be a good benefit. But what if you create a mobile friendly website, but your customer’s experience and interaction (in terms of visibility and navigation) with your website is still poor? They will for sure move to the competitors website. So, this is a very big reason for changing your website from standard to responsive.
2. Recommended by Google:
Google may penalize you if you don’t have a mobile friendly website. As per the Google, the websites that are mobile friendly too will rank better because they are providing a better user experience than the other websites. So, if you think search engine optimization(SEO) is important, then your site better is responsive.
3. Social Media Exploding usage on Mobile:
People are using social media mostly on their mobiles. There is a 0.01% chance that if a mobile user comes from any social media platform to your site and his experience with you is poor, will come later on your site from a desktop. Unfortunately, obviously he will move to your dear competitor’s website! Half of your social media marketing efforts are also wasting as you are not able to grab a mobile user.
4. Adapts to multiple devices:
This means no matter what the screen size is, if a user is viewing your website, it will display properly on their screen. The Responsive web design will improve the visibility of the content and navigation inside the website for the user hence proving good user experience.
5. Cost Effective:
Don’t you think that the cost of creating a responsive website will be low as compared to creating multiple websites for multiple devices? Creating multiple websites will not only be costly but also difficult to handle. Building responsive website designs will be a smart idea.The above logics shows that there is no harm in making websites responsive rather than standard, as ultimately it is increasing our traffic to the website. There is NO doubt left in the fact that the Responsive Web Design is very crucial for today’s web design point of view.