Responsive Web Design Neutral Bay, Sydney

If you are searching for "responsive web design" then this article will explain what responsive design is and why you need a responsive website. We offer responsive web design at affordable prices in Neutral Bay and throughout the Sydney and NSW area.

So what is a Responsive Website?

A responsive website "responds" to the device it is being viewed on and automatically adjusts to fit the screen no matter how big or small.

This website is responsive, try it! Simply drag the right hand edge of your browser towards the left to make it thinner and watch the website adjust to fit.

Responsive design is a revolutionary way of building websites to meet the needs of modern internet browsing. Screen resolutions today range from 320px wide on an iPhone for example to 2560px wide on a large Mac monitor. People don't browse the web with desktop computers alone; we now use mobile phones, notebooks, tablets, such as the iPad or Galaxy Tab, to view websites. While I have always built sites that "work" on all these devices, there is now an improved way to build them so that websites are optimised for the device they are being viewed on. The traditional fixed width website can now been improved so it can adjust in a fluid manner to fit all display resolutions and devices. Responsive web design uses HTML and some JavaScript to adjust the elements automatically.

What are the benefits of Responsive design?

Up until recently, best practices recommended either creating dedicated mobile or tablet sites with their own web addresses or sub-domains, such as m.websitename.com for example, by using a device detection script that will determine the target device and then redirect the user to a device-specific site. There are two distinct challenges with these approaches however. First, some device detection scripts can have difficulty keeping up with the massive amount of mobile devices that continue to hit the market, making them a less-than-perfect solution. Second, creating and maintaining separate mobile and tablet-specific sites increases development costs and extends time scales.

So by far and away the most cost effective solution to the problem is responsive web design. Responsive design is a great way to improve user experience, as there is no need for redirection. Providing a consistent user experience will have a positive effect on your conversion rates because people are familiar with site and navigation across devices. With a responsive design you can avoid certain issues such as performance, functionality and lack of consistent look while saving money and maintaining one site rather than three.

Responsive design layout is an essential part of today's internet but like anything, if it is done badly it can be really annoying. We have all used those really irritating mobile websites that are slow to load and jump around all over the place. So you go to click something, you press the screen and it has moved and you click something else.

Before responsive web design, the old way meant the text was always the same size on all devices. So viewed on an iPhone for example the text was very small. While the iPhone has the ability to double tap the screen to zoom in it still doesn't make for the best browsing experience. With responsive web design we can now increase the text size for smaller devices removing the need to zoom in and out all the time.

It is important to note the information we need when we view the internet on mobiles particularly is very different to the information we might need when using a desktop. You know what it's like when you are viewing a website on your mobile and you want to find the address or phone number for a certain pub or restaurant. More often than not the website is badly designed or the connection is slow and it is impossible to find that information. Another benefit of responsive web design is we can turn off certain elements that are not needed on smaller devices which decreases loading times and promote the most important information such as the phone number to the top of the home page.

Another benefit of responsive design is that you don't necessarily need to build an app. Apps are good because they are written specifically to work on IOS or Android like installing software on your PC or Mac so you can build whatever you want and you are not constrained by web standards and what you can conceivably achieve with a website. Responsive design changes that to a certain extent so you can basically have the app experience without the cost of developing it.

Responsive design has come a long way and now works really well. It will make a big difference on e-commerce websites especially now more and more people are comfortable purchasing products using their mobile phone. So if your website or online shop is not responsive, give me a call as a responsive website will massively increase sales and improve the user experience for your customers.