Internet is accessed by the people through a variety of platforms. Of these, computers, laptops and smartphones are the most popular devices used to access the internet. Looking at the growing demand for making websites which are optimized for use on various platforms and devices, it is essential that website developers understand the importance of responsive design. As most website designs are based on the old specifications, they are prone to several glitches and crashes on different platforms.
Photo by Antoine Lefeuvre, CC BY-SA 2.0
What Is Responsive Website Design?
To solve the problem of badly functioning webpages on different devices, responsive design for websites was developed. Also abbreviated as RWD, this specialized website design system makes the website flexible and adaptable to any changes in the browser viewport. The crux of the problem lies in the websites not being optimized to devices that lack JavaScript frameworks such as mobile phones and tablets. Responsive Website Design or RWD helps the website adapts to the changing viewport in the following ways.
- Fluid Grid Concept – This allows for a more flexible page sizing through adding the size values in percentages rather than pixels. This change from an absolute unit to a relative one makes the page fit for use on various platforms and devices.
- Flexible Images – Just like the flexible page size values, the values for the image sizes are also put in relative units. Hence, the images never get displayed in places other than where they were positioned.
- Media Queries – This function incorporates the use of different CSS sizing rules which are based on the device rather than following a standard rule.
Already being termed as the next phase of website design, the responsive website design offers the following benefits to website owners and developers.
- Enhancing User Experience
Other than having really engaging content, it is the design and the user friendliness of a website that attracts visitors. If a visitor cannot access your website properly or it’s failing to load on his smartphone or other portable device, there’s no chance they would ever come back. It is of high importance that the website owners and developers use RWD to target the potential customers using other devices than computers or laptops. Responsive web designing ensures that the website remains user-friendly, irrespective of the device being used by the viewer.
- Website Flexibility
When accessing a few websites on your smartphone, it is often frustrating to find several websites that fail to load. Designing your website with a responsive layout makes them extremely flexible for use on all types of screen resolution. Like mentioned earlier the size values for the page and the images are entered in a relative value rather than an absolute one to allow flexibility.
- Google Recommended
Google is one of the most popular and trusted search engines today. With more than 67% share in the market, there’s no way that Google’s recommendation would be a waste of time. The websites that follow a responsive design layout use a single HTML and URL regardless of the device. This also makes it more convenient for Google to collect website data and rate the content accordingly. Using a single HTML and URL makes the websites extremely slick and easy to share.
- Cost-Effective Solution
Business owners no longer have to pay for two different websites and a single website would serve all purposes. While this might not sound very substantial, it would certainly benefit you in the long run when you experience heavy website traffic. A single URL and HTML also mean that all your data can be compiled from a single website which also makes site management more convenient.
With the above benefits and functions, RWD is indeed the next level of website designing. This also eliminates the need for having two separate SEO campaigns to manage the websites. You can also visit the various online ad agencies such as Force Ad Agency and others for more information on SEO and RWD. With more and more smartphone users each day, businesses cannot deny the potential of this simple yet effective solution to their website related problems.
