Design for the environment

The term Responsive Web Design is at the top of nearly every web developer’s thoughts when it comes to planning the perfect website.  At first, web developers had to consider how their design would interact with different operating systems. The next issue they faced was the use of various web browsers displaying content in different ways.  Back in the day, a good webpage would be both platform- and browser independent. However, Technology is an ever growing industry that demands users and designers to constantly improve on their previous creations.  What is considered a good design today might become old school and outdated within a short period of time. This has been the case when looking at what makes a good website great.

Today, users all over the world have access to the Internet not only from their homes, but in portable devices that accompany them where ever they go.  Tablets, smart phones and laptops alike give users the freedom to stay connected regardless of their location, and it is slowly taking over the way users surf the web. So how does this piece of information influence web design?

A Responsive Web Design is one that responds to its environment, making your website looks great regardless of the screen size of the device used to view it.  It is aimed at keeping design standards and overall feel consistent and optimizing the user’s experience on your website. A user does not have to zoom and shrink text or images to be able to see the content on your website.  Another plus side to having this type of design is that the designer implements the website as only one design, but with different elements that will respond differently depending on the environment it is accessed in.

Not only is the use of a Responsive Web Design important in catering for all possible user devices, it is also a sure way to gain ranking in Google’s SEO index, making your website visible to users and ultimately gaining more traffic to your website.  Also, separate websites for mobile and normal viewing will result in separate SEO indexes, as appose to an accumulative index rating that will ensure better visibility.

The flip side of this is that a site that does not incorporate Responsive Web Design to cater for mobile devices will lose some of its ranking points, putting competitor’s websites in a higher ranking than yours, leading to the loss of potential customers.