What is responsive web design?
Technology is continually evolving, but every once in a while, technology takes a big step. Many problems are solved, but most importantly, new standards are created. Not too long ago the concept of websites that “conform”, or more descriptively, “respond” to screen sizes were being discussed. Fast forward several years to where we are now. We are beginning to see this idea take form in a big way.
This technology gives a web designer greater freedom and confidence because the sites they are creating will work on a wide range of devices. In addition, it helps small business owners’ marketing dollars go further.
One website, many devices
The number of devices (laptops, tablets, and smartphones) will continue to rise. Every one of them displays websites differently… and some are drastically different. The screen you see on your home computer is different than what you see on your phone. At home you have the luxury to browse websites with a larger screen. But when you are out and about and trying to find a business location on your smartphone, you notice different display capabilities.
So how do you design for that? Do you create a different website for each device? The thought of that gives me a headache! And I’m pretty sure there are only a handful of companies (Fortune 500) with the marketing budget big enough to develop a website for every single device.
With responsive web design, you need only one website – one website that “responds” to each of these devices. You instantly can see the benefits. One website, many devices. Two birds, one stone.
All the cool kids are doing it
Google itself uses responsive web design as their main method when building websites. Shell, Chase, facebook, twitter….the list goes on and on.
How it’s done
This method requires an entirely different way of planning and structuring, yet is very simple in its delivery. It utilizes html and css, but introduces a new concept called “media queries” to load different styles based on the size of the browser. As with anything that’s made simple, it requires a certain degree of skill.
We use it for our customers!
We are more than excited to be using responsive web design for all of our small business website customers. We believe that at a technical level, it is the best choice to have one website that can be seen on multiple devices. At a business level, it helps our customers get more for their money.
