Pros and Cons of Responsive Design

Feb

Pros and Cons of Responsive Design

If you have started to consider giving your company’s website a design face lift, perhaps you have seen the term ‘Responsive Design’ on the web. While the design industry is quickly moving towards adopting a ‘mobile first’ approach to design, it may or may not be the right idea for your business at the moment. Here we will briefly discuss what responsive design is and what the pros and cons to responsive design are.

What is Responsive Design? By 2014, internet access from mobile devices and tablets are set to surpass desktop and laptop access¹, which is why Responsive Design is one of the biggest current trends of the design industry. Responsive Design allows the design of a site to adjust based upon the size of the device used to access the site, allowing site content to fit on the user's screen with only a minimum of re-sizing, zooming in, and panning by using a fluid grid layout. Pros & Cons of Responsive Design As with every other form of technology, Responsive Design has its benefits and drawbacks. Pros * One website design across multiple platforms. Desktop/Laptops, smart phones and tablets rely on one set of code. * Save money by not having to pay for a separate site design for each individual device.² * Columns and pictures are automatically organized and resized to meet the needs of the browser size * 6 billion of the Earth's 7 billion people own a cell phone.³ Responsive design makes your site accessible to wider number of potential customers. Cons: *Responsive Design sites require all content to be downloaded first before loading on the smartphone or tablet, which leads to longer wait times for pages to load. * Did you know that 40% of mobile users are likely to abandon a site after waiting 3 seconds or more?⁴ Going through this transition is a timely endeavor from the ground up. * Resizing content shrinks text, menus, buttons, etc. making it a strain on the eyes. What Next? Currently you have three choices when deciding what to do with your website: Keep Your Current Website or Go Responsive It could be quite possible that the standard version of your site looks just fine on a tablet and smartphone. Take a look at your marketing strategy before changing site design to figure out if your product or service would be affected from a lack of a mobile only site. Doing the right kind of research on the needs of your customers can save time, money and help keep focus on your company's other needs. Investing in a responsive site could help increase sales and the number of pages viewed by offering ease of use to mobile and tablet users. Keep Your Current Site and Build a Separate Mobile Site A final option is to consider having a separate mobile site designed to meet the needs of your audience. Do you see your business benefiting from an online site? Depending on the situation, a mobile site could be the right fit. Call Perlinski Design if you'd like to set up consultation with us regarding your site design and marketing strategy to see if a responsive site is a good fit for your company!