Responsive Web Design: An Important New Trend For Websites
The Internet is constantly changing as technology evolves. As small screen devices like tablets and smart phones become more popular, websites must adapt. Websites designed for desktop and laptop computers, with their larger screens, deliver a poor viewing experience for tablet and smart phone users. The solution to this problem is called Responsive Web Design.
You must be shapeless, formless, like water. When you pour water in a cup, it becomes the cup. When you pour water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. When you pour water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot.
-Bruce LeeResponsive Web Design (RWD) uses HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, and can be built into most existing websites created with Progressive Enhancement. While many websites being built today implement Responsive Web Design, millions of existing websites have not yet been adapted.
If your website caters heavily to those using tablets and smart phones, you should seriously consider an upgrade of your site. If your typical user is 16 to 38, probably 50% or more of their Internet viewing is performed on smart phones and tablets. You could be “turning away” half of your users because viewing your site on their smart phone or tablet is a frustrating experience.
The Masterpiece Studioz website you’re looking at, fully utilizes the techniques of Responsive Web Design. If you are currently viewing our site from a desktop or laptop, reduce the size of the screen by half and notice how the presentation changes to fit the new size. Cut it in half again, to about the size of a smart phone screen, and notice the changes. On a site using RWD, you still obtain a pleasant viewing experience on any size screen.
Now try the same experiment on a couple sites you frequently visit. If they have not implemented Responsive Web Design, you’ll immediately see the difference. The selling point of a smart phone is not its small screen, but its portability. You give up a larger screen, but the Internet is always at your finger tips. Less than 1% of today’s websites were created with Responsive Web Design or have had the site redesigned to utilize RWD. So they cannot provide the quality of viewing experience that the Masterpiece Studioz site does through its use of RWD.
The use of smart phones for Internet searches is expected to climb to 60% of all searches by 2015, regardless of the age of the user. Now is the time to upgrade your website to meet this growing demand.
If 60% of your Web visitors are already using smart phones, the best solution for you might be two separate websites, one geared for desktops and laptops, and the other for tablets and smart phones. Numerous firms are already using this strategy and finding it cost effective by drawing more customers.
Let’s talk to determine what type of strategy will work best for you.
To learn more, email or call Timothy Wu (206-963-1889) and tell him you want to learn more about Responsive Web Design, especially how it can retain current customers and gain new ones.
