It’s no secret, or at least it shouldn’t be, that mobile devices are everywhere. Mobile phones, tablet computers, and even e-book readers help deliver web content to readers anytime, anywhere. I remember how ecstatic I was to get my first laptop, because I was OFFICIALLY MOBILE. Now, I weigh the benefits of taking my laptop when I leave the house, in case I can do what I need to do on a smaller, more portable device. Strange how quickly time flies, especially where technology is concerned.
So this begs the question: what does your website look like on a mobile device? Do you even know?
It’s called “responsive design” and the idea behind it is that your website has one look and feel on a computer with a nice large screen, and a similar style but different feel (response) on a smaller device with limited computing power. As great as mobile devices are, many of them can’t play Flash videos, which in and of itself is drastically changing the way websites are designed. And while mobile devices technically can view almost anything on the web no matter how it’s designed, the constant “pinch, pull, drag” of standard web design will drive your mobile visitors away in a heartbeat.
I had a client contact me the other day about an article she had read, praising the virtues of responsive design. I’m pretty sure I had mentioned this concept to her way back when we had first talked about her site, but her situation at the time was one where she was under a tight deadline and needed just “something”, so we didn’t really discuss all of the possibilities. But, whenever possible, we do everything we can to ensure a good quality responsive design for every site we build, and hers had been no exception. It felt really good to respond to that client’s email today and let her know that we had already anticipated that need, and that her site had already been built to look beautiful and function smoothly on absolutely any screen possible.
So I’ll ask again: do you know what your website looks like on a mobile device?
