Learn about Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design can be best described as a method of accommodating a website for any browser capabilities. It mostly deals with the differing width and height settings across a wide range of devices. The best way to see this in action is to open one of such websites in your browser window and start resizing it horizontally and vertically to see what happens. Responsive sites will adjust automatically 2-4 times depending on the size and orientation of your screen.
From desktops to smartphones, responsive web design resolves the issues that arise from viewing websites on different interfaces and maximizes the quality of viewing experience for all Internet users across all browsers. Both text and graphic elements are automatically resized and moved around the screen according to the design’s code, with a minimum of panning and scrolling involved.
How is Responsive Web Design Useful for a Small Business?
With the growth of smart phone use, the popularization of tablets, and the varying sizes of screen resolution in general, a valuable quality of websites built using responsive web design is the fact they can be viewed equally well on the computer and mobile devices. It lets the business reach a wider audience without coming off as unprofessional.
Having a responsive website eliminates the need of building separate code for each version of your site and it can often mean faster load times. Forget about rerouting mobile viewers and embedding additional codes to your site, with responsive design your site wil lbe built for all browsers. This fact highlights one of its most important advantages for small businesses, essentially providing them with the ability to cater to mobile device users at half the cost.
Advantages for a Business
The aforementioned cross-browser and cross-device functionality is enough of an advantage to make any business consider to incorporate responsive web design in to their online development projects as quickly as possible.
No separate versions must be created. Not only does this lower development costs, it also has a positive impact on search engine optimization.
Notably, the visual effect created by website elements that are usually present in responsive web designs will give it a brand new, modern look. At least for the next few years.
Disadvantages for a Business
Overall, there are no particular disadvantages to this type of design. There is absolutely no risk of it becoming dated at this point in time and it serves a very important practical role.
Trouble can arise if the design itself happens to be faulty, resulting in bugs, unresponsive website elements and bad user experience.
The Verdict
While in a couple of years no one might find it odd anymore, responsive web design is a big improvement from the way most websites behaved on mobile devices before and opens up various possibilities for effective implementation by small businesses. Small business should begin to use responsive design in their sites to stay ahead of their competitors and provide maximum user satisfaction.