To enable your web pages to look
good on all types of devices, you need responsive website design. This web
design method is aimed at coding a website to give an optimal viewing, reading
and navigation experience with minimal resizing, scrolling and panning across
different devices, such as desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones.
The designer should make sure
that the website's images, text, screen-layouts, audio/video payers, navigation
elements, as well as other UI elements, are able to re-adjust on a range of
devices. Therefore, a website owner does not need to spend more time and money
to create and maintain two versions of a particular website, like one for
mobile phones and another for desktop computers.
Time & Money
Some people think that it would
cost a lot to make a responsive website. Though it is true that a responsive
website can cost more than a conventional website, the expenses involved in
duplicating a website for other devices are eliminated in its entirety. This
results to a significant reduction of total development costs. Moreover, a
responsive design reduces the total cost of ownership by removing the effort to
maintain various versions of a particular website, such as a version for
desktop computers and one for mobile devices. Therefore, investing in
responsive design is a smart decision and long-term solution.
The Internet traffic that comes
from mobile gadgets is significantly increasing each day. Since a lot of people
are using their tablets and smartphones to browse the web, it is certainly foolish
for a website publisher to disregard the importance of responsive website
design. Soon the standard will be "One Size Fits All Devices".
Though content and its ability
to be found are the primary metrics of success, it is the user experience that
lets visitors use content on websites by means of the device they choose.
Therefore, responsive website design is all about offering an optimal user
experience regardless of the device used, whether it is a desktop computer,
tablet, smart-TV or smartphone.
Agnostic to Devices
Responsive websites are not tied
to particular devices and their operating systems. Responsive website design
guarantees that users obtain the best, reliable experience of a website on
whatever device they prefer to use, whether it is an iPad, iPhone, Windows OS
or smartphones running Android OS, among others. Therefore, content publishers
and website owners do not have to build other versions of their site for
different device platforms that viewers might be using.
The Way Forward
As a result, instead of dividing
website content into different experiences for specific devices, it is wiser to
take on the responsive website design method. However, this does not mean that
there is no business case for other sites aimed at specific devices. For
instance, if content viewed on a mobile device is limited compared to when it
is viewed on its desktop counterpart, the best approach is to serve different
content to each.
Nevertheless, this way of
design-thinking need not be our default. At present, digital content is
intended to be viewed on a wide range of experiences and responsive design
offers the away ahead.
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Karina_Popa/1432444