Selbinraj B Mathew
Aug 25, 2017 · 6 min read

It’s one of the basic natures of a human being to adapt to various situations. They adjust themselves to different situations by going through some changes.

Same’s the trend we see now on the browsing platform. All are in need of the so-called ‘Responsive‘ websites. Can’t seem to blame them knowing the advantages provided by them.

So without much fuss let’s move on to the topic. When do we say a website to be responsive?

Starting with a case study,

You have your website. It’s got perfect viewing experience in desktop (which obviously you paid for, during its development). Now you’re checking your website on your mobile phone. How does it look??

You get the same look as in desktop which makes it hard to navigate through the page(Now that’s an issue).

OR,

You see shorter images, shorter texts and shorter everything that’s perfect for your mobile’s screen. Bingo!! It’s a Responsive website.

Image Courtesy: Wikipedia

Moving on to the definition of a Responsive website — It gets an optimized viewing experience across various devices like phones, tablets, and PCs with different screen sizes. By optimizing I mean everything about the website is fluid like Screen layout, Text, Images, UI elements, Grids, Navigation elements and Audio/Video players.

Got any confusion in its relevance? I’ll go through some key points hoping it convinces you.

The concept of Responsive design was recognized by the developers in mid-2000’s as the consumers using mobile devices increased. As of 2014, mobile phone users surpassed users accessing the web from traditional laptops and PCs. More than being a mere option, it’s inevitable now to make the website responsive. Which directly connect with the 60% of users accessing the web from mobile devices.

Brief on its history

(history tends to bore, though I’ll try being true to ‘brief’ I mentioned)

It all started in 2001 when Audi.com designed its website which adapts to the size of its viewing platform. The term ‘Responsive web design’ was coined by developer Ethan Marcotte, until which it was described using words like ‘Fluid’, ‘Flexible’ and ‘Elastic’. He wrote a whole book on Responsive web design. Getting detailed on it could be frustrating though.

Let’s move to the cons and pros of Responsive websites.

DISADVANTAGES

While we get started with the cons, these could stir some disagreement. There’s been time, I too have wondered if those could be accounted as disadvantages. Anyways let’s have a look and I’ll let you guys decide.

DEVELOPING TIME AND IMPLEMENTATION

The development of a responsive website comparatively time-consuming as it takes much longer to code and as a result of which tend to be expensive. Anyways it’s better or much easier to build a site from scratch that’s responsive than updating an existing non-responsive one.

LOADING TIME

In most cases, because of the complicated codes, responsive websites take little more time for loading. Even though it wouldn’t be noted in many situations, it needed to be listed as a con because it’s real.

LIMITED INFORMATION

As the mobile-optimized viewing will be more concise than that of the desktop browser, the specific data looked up by a user may be more hard for him to find, which could disturb him. This accounts as an advantage in some other scenario — you don’t need to show the whole content on the website to the ones who use mobile devices as they would be having a different need. Although it’s not the same for every site.

LAYOUT AND NAVIGATION

It becomes a disappointment to those who expect to have the same kind of pixel-perfect website with all the elements of the same quality as in desktop. And as the screen sizes vary, for much smaller sizes the navigation becomes a complex activity and the quality of the contents would be questionable.

That’s pretty much I could muster on the cons’ part.

ADVANTAGES

Heading to the pros, which convincingly outdo the cons.

REACH

Desktop Vs Mobile Users

Obviously, the primary advantage of having a responsive website is that you can easily reach out to around 60% of the total internet audiences, who are on mobile devices. Recent researches show there is a shift in the number of users of the desktop to mobile devices. The graph shows its statistics. It’s evident that people nowadays prefer mobile devices, as they provide on-the-go access. Apparently, you wouldn’t want them to have a poor experience while browsing through your website on their devices.

USER EXPERIENCE

As it goes by the definition of responsive, the website will be accessible across various devices in different resolutions which help customers interact with your website more effectively. As the contents will be flexible, Irrespective of the screen sizes, they adjust themselves, which ensures simplified reading and navigation which increases the usability of your website. Quality user experience means satisfied users who tend to come back for more.

MAINTENANCE

Apart from the traditional method of having a separate mobile website, it is easy to maintain a single site that can be optimized for viewing on any devices. It drastically cut downs cost and time for development as well as maintenance. Which in turn helps us concentrate on other important aspects, like marketing.

RECOMMENDED BY GOOGLE

Google prefers responsive design as it enhances them in organizing the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful (as per their mission statement). It also prevents Google from penalizing you for content duplication that could happen if you maintain multiple versions of your website. These penalties could have a lasting impact on your rankings.

SEO — RANKINGS IN GOOGLE

Having said before, two separate mobile and desktop version websites could lead to duplicating issue and thus poor rankings in search results. A responsive website means single URL, which makes it easy for google to recognize your website and index them in results. Google identifies mobile-friendliness as one of the ranking factors. Bounce rate reduces as the website becomes easily accessible from any device which helps in acquiring a better position in rankings. Thus Responsive design is critical in SEO.

SALES AND CONVERSION RATE

As your reach increases, by having a responsive website, so does your business. The consistency of your website determines satisfaction of your customers. As it becomes same across the different platforms they use, it helps to maintain a brand consistency, and thus they become more familiar and satisfied with your website which pushes them to come back to you.

ANALYTICS

Monitoring the whole activities of the website becomes easier with the responsive design. Keeping a track on all of them for different version soon becomes a headache and is time-consuming. The tracking of traffic, user interactions, sharing etc gives you ideas on improvement of your website which would be easy to record if it’s responsive. Google Analytics and similar tools provide a single concise report on the performance of your website across various devices.

CONCLUSION

Maintain the Cool factor by being updated. Responsive is preferred by almost everyone. Embrace it and stay ahead in the competition. It’s beneficial in almost every aspect from less maintenance time and cost, better rankings reach and user experience etc. These all will definitely account for a profitable online business. As the mobile and tablet audiences are increasing without a cease, it’s crucial to adapt to the latest trends that set us on the right track to interact with those users. Update your website to a Responsive one soon. It’s high time to be in the race of digital media and make sure you won’t be left behind.


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