What do your users currently see when visiting your site on the go?
In this day and age people are constantly accessing the web from their mobile devices, and will continue to do so even more as our phones, tablets, and connection qualities increase. If you’re considering a new website or site redesign, creating a great mobile experience for your users should be a top consideration, or even a priority. Enter responsive web design!
Older websites (and by older I even mean those created as recently as a couple years ago) are not optimized for mobile use and can be quite the hassle. We’ve all been there. You’ve visited a website on your phone and proceeded to scroll, zoom, and pinch your way around the site to find what you’re looking for. Did you even find it? A new and increasingly common way of combating this issue is to make your website responsive. A responsive website will play well with any size screen, be it a phone, tablet, laptop, large monitor, or even a tv. It will adapt to all web-enabled devices, creating a custom user experience for millions of mobile users. What’s not to love?
Responsive websites are created by using media queries. A media query will essentially check for certain viewing conditions, most commonly the width, allowing CSS to be used to tailor the design of a site to fit these conditions. To see some great examples of responsive design “in action”, a great site to browse through is www.mediaqueri.es.
I’d love to say that successfully making your current website responsive will always be as simple as adding some media queries and css, but that might not be the case. It’s important to consider the functionality and structure of your site. For example, are any videos on your site optimized for mobile playback? Are there certain features of your site that are not necessary for mobile viewing? There might be features that are more prevalent to the mobile user and should be readily accessible for viewers on their phones. With just a bit of consideration and planning you will undoubtable set your responsive site up for success.
