If you have just opened your business or prioritized marketing, you’ve likely heard you need a business website. A well-designed, functional website is the online foundation of your business, providing a presence and voice. However, just publishing a website is not enough. Your website should act like a full-time salesperson who never sleeps. To ensure your website looks and works great on all devices, our team at Rize AVS can build a responsive website for you. We’ve discussed the benefits of a well-designed website on our blog, The 1O1, and now we’ll dive deeper into what makes your website responsive.
What is Responsive Web Design?
According to HubSpot, responsive web design refers to a website designed with mobile-friendly features, content, and media. Responsive websites change and adapt to any device, including smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. If you only optimize your website for desktops, smartphone viewers will see a poor representation of it. A website optimized and responsive on all devices will give viewers a positive experience that could build a strong relationship.
Why Do I Need a Responsive Website?
Roughly 50% of total Internet activity is via mobile devices. A responsive design allows you to reach a broader, more engaged audience wherever and however they choose to browse. More importantly, a lack of responsive web design does the opposite and can alienate your website and brand from customers looking for an engaging mobile experience. In today’s fast-paced world, users expect an immediate response when accessing a website, no matter what device they choose to view it on.
An online article by Neil Patel discusses how people read on mobile versus desktop computers. Desktop users are usually drawn to the content in the top-left section of a website, also called the golden triangle. However, mobile device users may focus on a different area. Readers often disperse their gaze on mobile devices since the screen is much smaller than desktops. Essentially, there’s no “most important” area to optimize first. All the content needs optimization.
Additionally, responsive designs impact accessibility. While these are different but related concepts, understanding that effort in both areas will give your users the best possible experience is crucial. Let’s see where you should dedicate your efforts when you begin creating a responsive website.
How to Create a Responsive Website
Though a responsive website seems easy to achieve, it requires a few steps and factors. Understanding the patterns for viewing on different devices is the first step to responsive design. Other steps include adding call-to-action buttons, scalable graphics, and modifying the content. Each of these affects responsiveness, and here are a few tips and tricks to remember when creating your website.
Call to Action Buttons
When people visit your website, the ultimate goal is for them to take action. Adding a call-to-action button will give them easy access to you. However, when designing a responsive website, you should consider the placement and the device functionality. For instance, you might place a “Chat With Us” button in the header, but this won’t fit into the header on a mobile device. Instead, add it to your hamburger menu. You might even consider changing the wording to “Call Us” and include your phone number. Mobile users are already on their phones, so your call-to-action button should connect to you instantly.
Optimizing Images and Graphics
Scalable vector graphics (SVGs) should be used for any illustration or icon on your website, as they can be scaled infinitely, never losing their quality. For images and other graphics on your website, we recommend you upload different resolutions of each image and designate them for viewing on different devices. For instance, websites viewed on desktops may require images at 1200 pixels, while mobile devices might want those images to be smaller. This technique is called responsive images and, as Cloudinary shares, it decreases loading time, creates a better user experience, and helps improve SEO.
Typography
Choosing responsive typography is crucial in modern web design as it offers enhanced readability, improved user experience, and cross-device compatibility. A responsive font will ensure the text remains legible and standards, such as height and length, are followed. Responsive typography ensures users don’t have to zoom in or out to read and that the text doesn’t break or become unreadable. Search engines also consider factors like mobile-friendliness when ranking websites, and responsive typography contributes to a positive user experience and indirectly impacts your ranking.
Content
Being mindful of tablet and smartphone users is very important when adding content to your website. It’s necessary to ensure you are “chunking” your content because long walls of text on smaller screens can be a nightmare. There are several ways to chunk your content, including using short titles and paragraphs, replacing wordy text with simple terms, adding images between blocks of text, and adding whitespace where necessary.
Rize Responsive Websites
Are you ready to invest in a responsive website? Look no further than Rize AVS. Every website we build is fully responsive and tested extensively on many different devices and browsers to confirm they all look great. Getting websites right takes effort, but our team at Rize AVS is here to help with decades of industry experience and expertise. Contact us today to get started!
