The Importance of Responsive Web Design in Business

The rise and rise of smartphones has been a great influence to the way we have progressed on a technological level in recent years. The last 18 or so months has seen one of the biggest reactions to such advances in mobile technology – responsive web design.

A result of heightened smartphone use has seen companies and individuals alike realise the need to respond to the growing number of users viewing their websites on a limited-sized screen. Some businesses have seen masses of growth in the number of mobile users on their site, but have been without a design that caters to this increase, as well as their existing mobile visitors.

Viewing a normal website on the likes of an iPhone screen usually forces you to have to scroll endlessly and resize the screen for every new page clicked on. Responsive web design looks to remove such annoyances.

Before the emergence of RWD, companies were forced to create a separate website solely for mobile use if they wanted to conquer the world of phones and tablets. Now, they can cater to desktop and mobile with a singe site, giving consumers greater access to their business and increase visits to their site as a whole.

RWD is all about convenience for the user. All information likely to be important to the user is coded in a way that it appears above the fold of the page, with links to vital elements of the site placed in accessible menus at the head of the page.

With people on the go every hour of the day, businesses need to have their website appeal to busy individuals on the commute to the office, on their lunch break and in the bar after work. As a result, all manner of industries are ensuring they are available on all platforms, including automotive, ecommerce, blogging and magazines.

It’s not just an advantage to those who use such sites, either. SEO types have been largely enjoying the niceties of RWD thanks to it removing the need to optimise two separate sites for two different audiences. Substantially lower costs for companies able to design and produce just the one site haven’t gone unnoticed, too.

Examples of responsive design across various industries include:

• Ecommerce: Curry’s Electrical Goods
• Blogging/Wordpress: Anything Motor (Gonzo Theme)
• Automotive/car dealership: Stoneacre Motor Group
• Food and Drink: Starbucks
• Magazines: GQ Magazine

As you can see from the above examples, RWD can work in different ways, but all offer convenience for the variety of users likely to visit the site in question, whether that’s to make it easier to buy an item, read an article or to find your local coffeehouse.

It’s likely we will see more and more websites adapt the RWD mantra as more companies see the advantages of having a single website that covers all audiences. Those without a responsive website are likely to fall back in terms of both revenue and visitors, so it’s important not to fall behind when competitors are moving forward.