Responsive Web Design Continues To Rise In Popularity

In 2007, Steve Jobs took the stage and announced that Apple was poised to introduce a revolutionary phone and a breakthrough Internet communications device. The big reveal during this announcement was that these 2 products were actually 1 product and it was called the iPhone. This device would make the Internet and the web more accessible than ever.

However, for website administrators this new form factor also introduced numerous challenges. These challenges included a limited screen size, missing Flash support and clumsy touch-based interactions.

These challenges might’ve been easy to ignore in 2007, but today there are numerous smartphone options and these devices have gained widespread adoption. In fact, smartphone sales today exceed those of desktop computers and by 2014 mobile-Internet traffic is forecasted to exceed desktop traffic.

To address the “rise of smartphones” many organizations were forced to create a mobile strategy. Sadly, most organizations chose to create an alternate website, a “mobile website,” to operate alongside their existing “normal-website.” In essence, these organizations “forked” their website; choosing to create and maintain two branches of similar web content to address the two form factors (mobile and not-mobile) they had identified. This might look like a sound strategy, but it’s short-sighted and fails to address the core challenge.

“Forking” Doesn’t Scale & Fails to Produce Optimized Results

In 2010, Steve Jobs once again took the stage and expressed Apple’s vision of a new device that would exist between a smartphone and a computer. This device, Steve expressed, would need to do some tasks better than either a smartphone or a computer. Web browsing was the first of these tasks to be identified and Apple unveiled the iPad tablet to address this task.

Like smartphones, tablet devices are now becoming widespread and creating opportunities and challenges for website administrators. Tablet devices have mid-sized screens (between a smartphone and a desktop display) and rely on touch-based interfaces.

As a result, the two scenarios that had previously been identified (mobile and not-mobile) were no longer sufficient for addressing the full spectrum of Internet-devices being used by visitors.

However, in reality these two scenarios were NEVER sufficient. Real-world web statistics show that across computers, smartphones and tablets there are many different display sizes being used. There were never 2 classes of Internet-devices.

Instead there has always been a gradient of devices ranging from smartphones to widescreen monitors. By only targeting 2 narrow scenarios organizations neglected numerous other common devices.

Furthermore, this problem is getting worse, rather than getting better. Technologies like Google Glass demonstrate that we’re not finished innovating and new Internet devices will continue to be introduced and potentially gain mass adoption.

“Forking,” as a solution for targeting different devices, is ineffective and inefficient today and will become even worse in the years ahead.

Responsive Design as a Scalable & Effective Mobile Solution

The core problem is that most websites target a single screen size. For example, a website might be 800 pixels wide. On a widescreen monitor this simply results in wasted space. But on a smartphone it becomes almost unusable. “Forking” enables organizations to add an additional set-width website to their arsenal, but fails to create an optimized experience for ALL devices.

Why responsive design is the future

Responsive design is a new technique that enables you to have just one solution that works well on any device or platform. Technically speaking this is achieved by having a presentation layer that adapts to the device, screen size and platform. Using responsive design will make your site work well independently of the GP accessing your product site from his computer, smartphone or tablet.

Following a short list of the benefits:

Eliminates the need for multiple solutions which enables you to spend your money on customer’s needs instead of multiple technologies.
Improves the user experience and extension of reach because all content and functionality is available across devices and platforms.
Decreases the work hours spent internal review/approval cycle due to no redundancy in content or features, thus making releases more efficient.

How do I go responsive?

It is fairly unchallenging to build solutions using responsive design. You may not have heard about HTML5 and CSS3, but these are the technologies that you should ensure are being used when new solutions are built. These technologies are strongly supported on all major mobile platforms; however you should be aware of compatibility for the older Internet Explorer versions which are running at some hospitals and internally in a number of pharmaceutical companies. When building new solutions, responsive design should not be foregone. Responsive design is the answer to the rise of platforms and higher complexity.

For existing sites we recommend introducing responsive design within the next 12 Months – if you still want to reach customers with great functioning digital solutions. The question is: For how long do you want to leave a significant part of your customers behind because you are not meeting their needs and expectations?

For more information on how responsive design can help you and your customers, do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation on a new website makeover here.