Device Adaptability
The purest reason to implement responsive web design is natural adaptability across multiple devices. Whether your users interact with your website on an iPad, cell phone, 4:3 monitor, or ultra-wide-angle monitor, your site will display properly across the board for your users. Consider the alternative, if you do not have responsive design implemented, your users will see skewed design while browsing your page unless they are looking at the exact aspect ratio you or your web designer created the site in.
Mobile-First Web Design
Creating your website for the smallest device possible initially makes it easy to translate these items into wider screen versions. Placing an initial priority on creating a well-performing mobile site leaves no room for having to hack things up to make it work down the road. Since the smaller mobile versions of websites are so restrictive, it is easy to push things out into larger display devices.
Built for Users
We talk quite a bit about user experience and interface as there is more and more prominence placed on these items in Google’s algorithm. Building a website that adapts to various devices also adapts to various users. Understanding how your text and pictures will display on different devices lets you also understand how users will interact with your website. Are your CTAs clear and large enough to show importance? Are your colors, pictures, and navigation all operating as they should? Does the hierarchy and structure of your page still make sense on different devices? These are all important questions to pay attention to.
Natural and Intuitive Navigation
Different devices have different ways of interacting. Someone on a desktop will primarily work through on their mouse and keyboard while someone on a phone will be using fingers and doing a lot of scrolling. Giving attention to this variation in interaction gives you the opportunity to consider how you want people to interact with your site. Creating a natural and intuitive process for your users to experience is vital to successful web performance. These processes will, in most cases, be different for various devices.
A Consistent Experience
Providing your users with a consistent experience on the various pages on your website promotes usability and overall effectiveness. If you have a different type of header on your home page than your sub-pages, your users will get confused and may even bounce off the site to browse your competitors. This is obviously not what any of us want. Implementing and testing the various ways your users will interact with your site places a heavy emphasis on making sure any user will have the best possible experience on your website.
As you can see, there are quite a few reasons to implement responsive web design and we could keep going for hours on the various reasons to work through this process. If you are interested in developing a responsive website or wonder if yours is responsive now, be sure to give us a call today.
