With our redesign of the Cement Marketing responsive website, we knew we wanted awesome content to be readily accessible to each user. This meant that every device had to be accounted for–desktop and mobile. We follow a strict policy of building our websites without the necessity of a separate mobile site and without limiting our design to one single fixed width.
In a time not that long ago, most websites were nestled neatly into the maximum width of 1024 pixels. The idea was that the least common denominator of computer monitors didn’t have a resolution smaller 1024×768 pixels. As designers, we needed to produce websites so that users didn’t have to scroll left and right in order to see all of the content. It was a safe zone. Today, these rules don’t apply. Responsive design has made the safe zone for designers nonexistent.
How can responsive web designing affect my business?
A website doesn’t live in a fixed width anymore. The number ‘1024 pixels’ is irrelevant in a world full of Kindles, iPads, iPhones, Androids and pretty much anything else that surfs the Web. This means that your website’s content must be easily accessible to every device imaginable. If your website was built based on these old standards, your audience can still access all of the information on its mobile device but without an adequate user experience.
Is a mobile site the answer?
Building a mobile website is an option. The issue lies in only targeting phones, so you now have two websites to maintain or pay to maintain. Also, businesses typically sacrifice content for the sake of having a mobile presence by creating a separate mobile site.
Responsive web–the future?
While this might just be a buzzword, what it means is that your website is built on a fluid width that can adapt to all screen sizes. Not only is it important to get the content to fit into all browser widths, but also to establish a content hierarchy when the site begins to form the shape of its browser; this awesome website shows hundreds of responsive design examples. This means that your website will work and be organized beautifully on an array of devices anywhere from 0-100,000 pixels wide (theoretically, of course).
If you want to see how this works, grab the corner of your browser and resize the width right now on our Website.
So how much does a new responsive website cost?
The good news is that when we are building a responsive website, the time and cost is relatively the same as a traditional website. The process is similar, but we equally account for mobile users and desktop users. But, it is far easier to redesign your site entirely than to take an existing Website and make it responsive. The way of the Web is heading toward website optimization working efficiently across all browsers and devices. If you would like to know more about what responsive Web design can do for your site, please email scott@cementmarketing.com