The importance of responsive web design
What is responsive web design?
As web designers, we realise that many people are confused about the meaning of responsive web design. People often think it just means that a website is more interactive – but the truth is of much greater importance. A responsive design will adapt to a user’s device – for example, where a page normally has 3 columns of text, these would be split into separate rows so that they can be more easily read on small screens. This means you don’t need to frantically zoom in and out or scroll horizontally to get all those tasty goodies from your favourite webpages.
But why is this important?
As we mentioned in our previous post about speeding up your website, Google is in the process of making the web more accessible and generally a bit more beautiful. Speeding up websites is one avenue they’re going down, but another is how your website looks on mobile and tablet devices. As of May 2016, Google started penalising websites that aren’t classed as ‘mobile friendly’, meaning that if your site isn’t up to scratch, you’ll find yourself dropping down the rankings.
How can I make sure my site is mobile-friendly?
Once again, Google has put together a little tool which will check this for you. Head over to the Mobile Friendly Test page, pop in your web page URL and click Analyze (doesn’t this seem somewhat familiar…). If you get a lovely big green message stating your page is mobile-friendly, congratulations, Google loves you! If not, you could find yourself falling down the rankings.
If Google’s tool highlighted any issues, don’t worry, thats where we come in. Give us a call on 020 8400 6164 or pop us an email on info@mercerdesign.com, our team will be able to help you on your way to being mobile-friendly.
What does a responsive site look like?
Mercer Design’s responsive website for Paul Ratigan was designed to reconfigure itself for each and every screen size, creating a new virtual art gallery depending on the viewer’s screen format. Based on a modular website design system, and powered by WordPress, we created a fully dynamic and completely bespoke solution.
Paul Ratigan – Responsive website design for art galleries
Responsive sites are particularly important for certain sectors, such as travel. People spend a lot of time on mobiles and tablets looking for the right holiday! Our site for Exeter travel works brilliantly across all devices and is optimised to guarantee that pages load quickly. Again a plus for Google!
Exeter International – Responsive website design for travel agencies