The number of portable devices in use throughout the world is rapidly increasing. According to statistics, over half of all individuals possess a mobile phone, and nearly half of smartphone users say they couldn't live without their gadgets.
It's time-consuming, resource-intensive, and costly to create styles for each screen size. Even if you manage to cover all breakpoints, the website will be severely overburdened, lowering performance and, as a result, reducing conversions and user engagement with the brand, not to mention wasting a lot of money without a good return on investment. So, how can business owners avoid this destiny and effectively navigate the ever-changing digital landscape? The solution is simple: use a responsive design.
The only way to remain afloat these days is to invest in a website whose pages are responsive and accessible, regardless of the type of browser, platform, or screen that your reader must use to view it. Responsive web design is no longer a trend; it is now a must for making the internet a better place.
What is Responsive Web Design, and how does it work?
Responsive web design, according to Wikipedia, is a technique that guarantees that all of a website's pages appear, operate, and feel great on any device. So whether it's a tiny old phone with a 320px screen, a modern phablet with a 7-inch screen, a giant iPad, or a TV with a massive diagonal line, all of the main aspects, such as content, design, and especially functionality, should perform consistently to provide users with an excellent user experience.
Responsive web design, in technical terms, refers to a set of instructions that allow web pages to adapt their layout and look to multiple screen sizes and resolutions.
Due to ineffective and ill-suited methods of addressing screen widths, the notion of a responsive website arose. Initially, pages were created with a particular gadget in mind. This method entailed building several designs for each responsive layer, resulting in many copies of the same page. However, when the mobile web became a reality and additional devices with non-standard resolutions arrived, this strategy rapidly became obsolete due to its inability to handle such diversity.
Developers began to transition from popular adaptable design (a technique that included producing several versions of one design) to responsive design in the early 2010s, due in large part to a brilliant Ethan Marcotte (an approach that suggested only one yet flexible version of a website that stretched or shrunk to fit the screen). Even though the method was relatively new and unproven, its advantages were challenging to overlook. Even now, those benefits demonstrate that having a responsive website is the only way to go. So let us think about them.
The advantages of Responsive Web Design
The primary advantages of adopting a responsive website are as follows:
- a visual experience that is constant;
- improved user experience;
- there is no need for redirects;
- decreased bounce rates;
- fewer maintenance requirements;
- a fast loading web page;
- there are no additional costs for producing and maintaining several versions;
- reporting analytics is simple.
Even while responsive design is not without flaws, it does have certain drawbacks, such as
- It hasn't been adequately optimized;
- It has the potential to slow down performance;
- It may be incompatible with some web browsers;
- It isn't easy to run advertising campaigns as a result of this;
- It isn't easy to provide various things to different people based on the device they're using;
Despite this, it had and continues to have considerable benefits over alternative options. As a result, responsive web design is becoming the industry standard for websites.
What is the importance of Responsive Web Design?
The rise of mobile devices, tablets, and innovative gadgets like Kindles and gaming consoles has a lot to do with the emergence of flexible design. The contemporary user expects to be able to visit any website from a variety of different devices. Any circumstance should be able to be handled by your website. Because numbers don't lie, you can't disregard their demands: According to new research,
- In 2019, mobile devices were used by more than 80% of people to access the internet;
- Moreover, 60% of Google visitors are made using a mobile device;
- Worldwide, mobile devices accounted for more than half of all website traffic.
This is a trend that your company cannot ignore. If you can't keep up with these rising expectations and demands by swiftly adjusting to the new reality, you're bound to fail, and your brand will perish.
Consider the following arguments for the need for responsive web design:
- Google gives websites that appear well on smartphones and other mobile devices preference. For those that care about search engine rankings, a responsive design with mobile-friendly behavior has been a must-have since 2015.
- A consistent user experience across all devices improves engagement, leads generation, and sales and conversions. According to research, one out of every two consumers has visited a competitor's website following a bad mobile experience.
- You may miss out on new leads and sales from the mobile web if you don't have an adequately responsive website.
- It allows you to communicate with consumers and send messages on various devices (tablets, phablets, smartphones), allowing you to reach a larger audience.
- It increases customer awareness and confidence in the brand. People are more inclined to suggest a firm that has a well-designed mobile website, according to statistics.
- It retains visitors on your site for longer by offering a consistent experience and giving immediate value.
- It is a cost-effective solution. Responsive design is less expensive than building numerous versions of the same website to accommodate different screen sizes. It's also easy to keep up with. To manage your multi-version platform, you don't need to employ a whole agency.
- Last but not least, you'll have an opportunity to remain ahead of the competition since almost half of all businesses across the world still disregard mobile behavior and flexible design.
The best way ahead for web design
Even though responsive web design was first picked as a suggested option owing to the absence of a suitable alternative, it has proven to everyone that it is a dependable method with several benefits for the business over the years. For example, it can handle a wide range of circumstances and scenarios, giving a stable basis on which developers can build, and entrepreneurs can execute marketing campaigns to earn income and keep their company afloat.
