Responsive Web Design - The Hype is Justified!

Imagine – you walk into an office building and the walls are bare, the hallways are difficult to navigate, and the message of the company isn’t clear or is extremely complicated to decipher. As a customer, your immediate reaction is to turn on your heel and walk right out. Investing energy and time just to figure out what the company stands for will exhaust your audience and can lose your business countless leads and resources.

Approach your website and brand design the same way that you would fashion your work environment or the design of your own home. Creating that immediate welcoming impression will draw your viewers in and pique their interest – and that’s where responsive web design comes in.

Responsive web design (RWD) is the process of constructing your website so that, no matter what screen size a visitor is using, your website will respond and self adjust to fit that screen size. It seems almost too simple, yet companies are still considering if it’s worth investing in RWD.

We have slimmed down the decision process into three aspects:

• Responsive websites will get the optimal UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) presented to them no matter what platform is being used, directly impacting on profits as the great UX/UI increases conversion rates, average browsing time, and user engagement.

• RWD increases mobile marketing and mobile SEO effectiveness, as organizations will not have to construct an entirely new roadmap for a mobile website. By focusing on the central site, your company will obtain the highest value from SEO tactics while enjoying the ease of a manageable mobile marketing campaign.

• Companies will not have to worry about creating separate links to social media for both their desktop/laptop computers and for their mobile sites. By integrating mobile into every dimension of marketing (like pay-per-click ads, email marketing, social media, etc.), keeping track of all their initiatives will be easier, smoother, and will allow for those campaigns to grow more quickly.

With mobile and web design becoming increasingly crucial for companies in any industry, it is fascinating to note that many businesses are still debating on whether or not to implement any RWD projects. However, being that search engines such as Google and Bing started recommending responsive web design as a best practice (since late 2012), companies must ask themselves a better question – why not pursue it?

While the process will be challenging, allowing your customers easy and aesthetically pleasing access to your site and information will only assist you in both the short and long run. RWD will allow you to maintain your competitive advantage in this rapidly mobile-savvy market, and keep your customers and viewers satisfied.