An Introduction to Responsive Design

In 2013, CreativeMediaWorks.com was viewed from over 60 different kinds of mobile device. Have you checked your analytics lately? Studies conducted this year show that 90% of people use multiple devices to accomplish one goal. In fact, it’s been predicted that by next year there will be more mobile devices on the earth than people. And no one screen size has more than 20% of the market share.

How do you provide the same user experience to every device?

The answer used to be to create a mobile version of your desktop site. With mobile technology growing faster than we could keep up, the mobile website was a swift response to a rapid paradigm shift. It was a huge step toward a device-agnostic world. But with the mobile site only displaying 50% of the desktop content, it was not the final step. There was still room for improvement.

After having some time to catch their breath, developers have caught up to the mobile device frenzy with Responsive Design. Now you can display all of your content on any device. And you can do it with one website that gives a consistent user experience across the board. A responsive website doesn’t only adjust the visual components of the site, it also taps into the innate functionality and capability of whatever device it’s being viewed on.

Fluid Grids, Flexible Images, CSS Media Queries

The number of columns adjusts based on the screen real estate, Text size and line spaces grow for readability, Images and videos are dynamic, Negative space is increased to make selection easier, Buttons, links, and menus are bigger to accommodate finger size

Dont’ forget to prioritize content and menu items.

The more content, the longer the load time which can chase users away. So prioritize. And use content caching where you can to reduce bandwidth and download times.

Parting Thoughts

46% of mobile users report having difficulty interacting with a web page. 44% complain that navigation was difficult. But despite countless studies conducted by digital experts this year showing clear ROI, Responsive Design is still viewed as a “nice to have” and marketers are running into a brick wall when it comes to getting buy in.

Responsive design is viewed as a luxury that requires expensive programming experts and a complete overhaul of content and design. But in reality, it’s a vital component to any digital campaign that will soon become the standard for mobile web design.

If you want to stay ahead of the curve, but are you’re not quite sure how to get started, call us or send us an email to discuss your latest project with a Multimedia expert. We’ll make sure that you’re communicating 100% of your message to 100% of your audience- on any device at any time.