How do you access the internet? Do you use it to get to various websites from your desktop at work? From a laptop at Starbuck’s? Do you read the news from a tablet at the breakfast table? Or scroll through your phone in bed?
Believe it or not, each of these internet access points requires a different kind of “response” from the websites you visit. You may not even notice—responsive design is a major part of today’s internet landscape—but when you encounter a poorly designed site, you’ll know. Images and text may be out of place or even overlapping. The web page may be wider than the screen, so you have to scroll left and right to see everything.
In short, without responsive design, websites are ugly, awkward, and hard to use. They’re user-repellent. And that’s not good when it comes to your business.
Like I said, responsive web design is a big part of today’s industry, so all the big international companies should (hopefully) have websites that are easy to use no matter your device. It’s a concept that’s evolved as internet-ready technology has evolved, and it continues to evolve as new devices are made. Today’s websites have to account not only for computers and phones, but for smart TVs, game consoles and more.
But when it comes to small businesses, and especially small-time, inexperienced web designers, responsive web design may not be part of the conversation. Some people still build sites from desktops without ever knowing that the sites aren’t compatible with the full spectrum of internet devices.
And frankly, it’s not your job as a business owner outside of this industry to know about it. But it’s my job to build the best possible site for your business, and that means taking every device into account.
You don’t want to lose customers just because they use a certain kind of tablet or phone, but if they go to your website and it’s hard to navigate, they’ll move on, and quickly.
Responsive design is important, and it’s just one of the many under-the-radar things I take into account when I’m building a website.
