Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design is becoming more and more popular for many businesses establishing an online footprint. Just a short five years ago, large display phones with smart internet browsers were hard to find. Now almost everyone has some type of phone with easy access to the internet, allowing us to browse websites in a flash. Even when you drive down the road, more and more websites are appearing on vehicles with hopes passengers will quickly pull up the website on their phones.
So, What is Responsive Web Design?
Simply put, it is when your website responds to the device that it is being viewed on. For instance, whether you have a large desktop display or a small 3” phone, the website doesn’t shrink or break the display, but perfectly aligns inside the browser window to compensate for lack or surplus of space. You can even take the website you are on and start adjusting the internet browser width. See the content seamlessly adjust to the width? That is Responsive Web Design.
How Does Responsive Design Benefit Skillful Antics?
Responsive Web Design benefits me and my company in two great ways. The first is that future and current clients can quickly pull up www.skillfulantics.com from any device and quickly locate our phone number, email address, location, and more right from the home page with one hand. No need to adjust the zoom on your browser and adjust a full page website to try to narrow into contact information. Everything is in one place in one column. Visitors can easily scroll down without moving left and right to view services, portfolio pieces, contact information, and more.
The second way that responsive design benefits Skillful Antics is that it not only keeps us on our toes and focusing on new technology, but as we fine tune our skills, we can also offer future clients services that will keep them first in the technology curve. Any business or individual who needs a website to target the smart phone generation can come to Skillful Antics and know they will be receiving a product that is guaranteed to work and adjust to different browser width.
When Is a Responsive Design Most Useful?
Let’s say you have a mobile business like an entertainment company. When you are at a gig, you might want to hand out your business card to someone looking to book your future services. But it would be even easier if they pulled up your website on a phone and placed a contact request. Instead of having prospective clients walk away with some basic information, within a minute they can share their contact information.
If you didn’t have a responsive web design and a visitor had to load a large page that took a few minutes, then zoom around to find a contact form, and then scroll down on each field, it becomes too cumbersome for visitors. But with a simple responsive design, it’s easy for guests to navigate and find what they need all on one vertical page.
What is the average cost of a Responsive Design?
This all depends on whether you are starting from scratch or reformatting a current website to be responsive. But asking the cost of a responsive website is like asking what is the cost of a 2 bed/3 bath 15,000sf home. It depends on so many factors. A reputable web developer will usually include responsive web design in any website project. It may take a few extra hours of work and a couple hours of testing, but usually when starting from the ground up and preparing for a responsive designed site right from the beginning, it isn’t very difficult at all.
Taking a current site and converting it into a responsive website is where the expense begins. Many things have to change and sync with the current stylesheet (CSS). If you are using a set pixel width or “em” larger than the maximum width of the smallest browser one will want to convert those measurements into percentages or specify web browser dimensions within the CSS and make necessary adjustments starting from that point. This could take hours and hours of work. In some cases, depending on your previous development company, it might even be easier to start from scratch.
Conclusion: Responsive Web Design
There are studies that show that over 55% of all cell phones on the market are smart phones. 50% of global website users use their cell phone or tablet as their primary or only means of accessing the internet. That being said, having a website that is built not only for computer access, but also cell phone and tablet access is becoming more and more prevalent in today’s technology age.
Give Skillful Antics a call or email today and ask us how to create a responsive website for you and your business.