Responsive Design, What Does It Mean?

Hello, My name is Sam, and I’m addicted to my phone. 

Whew, that was hard to admit. It’s always with me. It sleeps next to my bed. It’s the first thing I touch in the morning, and I’m not ready for bed until I’m finished scrolling for the night. I work on it, I play on it, I study on it. It’s my phone, camera, calendar, yellow pages, calculator … I could go on, but as I’m writing this, I’m starting to glance over at my phone to see if someone emailed me yet.

Yes, I have a problem, but the reality is more and more people are using their cell phones for more than just phone calls. As the technology improves, the number grows too. In late 2019, people tapped, swiped and clicked an average of 2,617 times per day. What this means for your brand is that everything connected to your business needs to not only be desktop friendly, but mobile (and tablet) friendly as well. I know what you’re thinking, and no, this isn’t automatic. You’ll need to pay attention to a little thing called responsive design.

What Is Responsive Design?

Responsive Design is the approach that suggests design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. This means no matter what device the customer is using to look at your material, they will see what you want them to see. This doesn’t mean you have to redesign everything to fit each type of format. This can be done using a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries. When a user switches from iPad to mobile device to laptop, the website should automatically switch to accommodate for resolution, image size and scripting abilities.

Shopify is a Canadian based e-commerce platform used all over the world as a quick and user friendly option to sell online. Using responsive design, visitors are able to see the whole scope of information regardless of their device without zooming and scrolling from side to side. 

Why Is This Important?

As we increase mobile activity, the need for these types of design elements is no longer optional; it’s a requirement. Having a flexible design will not only increase your ability to reach your customers on smaller devices, but also show a consistent experience for the user, making them more comfortable to make the sale or contact your company for more information. This will also help you stay ahead of the competition. As of late 2019, 44 percent of Fortune 500 companies are not mobile ready at this time. 

Am I Good?

There is a helpful Google tool to check your website’s mobile friendliness, and it’s super easy to use. Simply type your URL, wait a few seconds, and then review the data. As we’ve come to recognize through life, GREEN means GOOD and RED means BAD. If you get some red flags, review them with your website designer.

Don’t have a web designer or anyone to help you make your website more mobile friendly? Rooted Web has a designated team of web designers and developers in-house who are here to make sure your business has all the tools you need for success. Give us a call today!