What is Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design is a web design approach aimed at building websites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).
A responsive design will respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. As the user switches from their laptop to iPad, the website should automatically switch to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities. In other words, the website should have the technology to automatically respond to the user’s preferences. This eliminates the need for a different design for each new gadget on the market.
Why should you choose a responsive website?
- A responsive design will insure that your website looks great whatever device it is viewed on.
- It is more cost effective. Though a responsive website will take longer to build and cost more upfront, it will save you money in future development to keep up with the quickly changing technology.
- It will help your SEO.
- Google wants to send visitors to sites they want to see. In fact, they will rank sites optimized for mobile higher in mobile searches.
- The shift to mobile is happening at an extraordinary speed. Today 30% of web traffic is mobile. By the end of next year, this may exceed 50%.
- 91% of US citizens have their mobile device within reach continually. And they are checking their phones an average of 150 times a day.
- Mobile web browsing is projected to take over desktop Internet usage by 2015 or maybe even sooner.
- 90% of people use multiple screens to access the web.
- 90% of smartphone searches results in a purchase or a visit to a business.
- If your site doesn’t work well on their device, 61% of visitors will return to Google to find a site that IS easily readable.