Responsive Web Design

Over the last twenty years technology has continued to progress exponentially in usability and functionality, which has created an “always connected” world where people want, or need to be online all of the time. Because of this more and more people have been eager to use the newest gadgets on the market. None of these gadgets have advanced in the past few years like the smartphone and the tablet.

Every generation, young and old, is becoming more accustomed with these products; which means that they are being used more than ever to access and research the web. This trend has heightened the importance of companies in all types of industries to have a responsive website, one that looks great on desktops, tablets, and smart phones.

Here at Five Technology there has been an influx of clients requesting their new web design to be a responsive one. Some of the companies that have recently requested responsive web designs have been Inn at Lost Creek and Hotel Madeline in Telluride, Colorado. These businesses were sister vacation rental firms. Automation.com, an industry portal for automation professionals, also wanted a responsive website. As well as Incline Ski & Board Shop, which wanted its custom e-commerce website easily accessible from any device.

All of these businesses wanted a responsive web design so that customers could easily access and navigate their websites from any device. What is a responsive web design you ask? Simply put, a it is an adaptive website that has the ability to respond to whatever device is accessing it. This provides users with an optimal web experience regardless of how they are accessing your website.

“Responsive web designs are essential for businesses that have potential customers researching their industry via tablet or smartphone.”

Designing and implementing a responsive website is not all fun and games. It involves a lot of consulting and communication and has the potential for many design challenges. However, Five Technology’s success in designing and implementing responsive web designs has proven that it can overcome these design challenges. Its past experiences have helped it realize the key to development and successful implementation of a design for mobile and tablet devices.

Communication is key in developing and implementing a successful responsive web design. Strong discussion and consulting upfront will help carve a route to success with less headaches and more progress. Five will help facilitate these discussions, as well as provide frequent prototypes for clients to make sure everything is well defined before the slicing and markup build take place.

A lot of time and energy go into creating a powerful responsive website. First the layout of the desktop website needs to be designed. This should be designed with the smaller versions kept in mind. From that layout comes the tablet and smartphone layout. Breaking points in the web page need to be defined in order to create accurate size adjustments for different devices. Once these breaking points are discovered, the layout for a tablet web page can then be designed. The process is then repeated to layout the mobile design.

As one might imagine, this could easily turn into a long and strenuous process if the client and designer are not on the same page. The client should be actively involved in the process of laying out and approving all three designs so that the final prototypes meet everyone’s standards. The final prototypes are then sliced and the buildout process begins.

Once all three of the designs have been sliced and built they are tested to make sure they look good on as many different devices possible. Not all tablet and mobile screens have the same dimensions so it is important to test on multiple sources. Once the designs are proven to work on multiple devices the website is implemented into Five’s custom content management system (CMS), the Site Management Console (SMC); and then content entry, search engine optimization (SEO), and functionality testing take place. Again it is important for the client to remain in the loop through this process, and Five Technology will make sure to do just that.

You might be wondering why go through all of this work to create a responsive web design. The answer is simple. Responsive web designs have several benefits that will help drive business results.

The primary benefit of a responsive web design is obvious:  One website is built one time, and it works effortlessly across thousands of different screens and devices.

If a potential customer accesses your website from any device other than a computer, and they find it difficult to navigate or read, there is a good chance that they will back out and move on to your competitors website.

There are many other advantages to implementing a responsive web design for your company or organization:

• Easy access and navigation from desktop, tablet, and mobile.
• Only one website and one URL is needed.
• Webmaster only has to manage content for one website.
• Reaches a greater online market due to the increase of people using mobile devices to access the web.
• Search engine ranking takes into account user satisfaction.
• Responsive web designs have been endorsed by Google.

Almost 30% of United States residents have stated that they routinely use a mobile device to access the Internet. This number increases every year. Do you want to run the risk of not being able to reach 30% (and growing) of people in America. Expand your business’s reach today by contacting Five Technology for your responsive web design.