What Is Responsive Design?

Undoubtedly the biggest trend in digital in 2013 has been the inclusion of responsive design frameworks across countless websites throughout the online landscape. The extension to mobile and tablet devices has seen a massive shift in design, dictating how we think, visualise and create websites. Now more than ever, our designs must adhere to the visual and usability considerations of the devices our sites are experienced on, and the innovations they continually develop.

So what is responsive design? In its simplest form it’s the reaction of your website to the environment you are using to view it, whether it be a laptop, desktop, tablet or mobile. Whether through transitions or device detection your website’s form, layout and content will realign, redistribute and resize itself to deliver the optimum experience on the selected device.

What are the Benefits To Your Site?

The biggest positive in adapting your website to responsive design is the newfound ability to target the visualisation and interaction of your website to different devices. Breaking away from the confines of a ‘one website fits all’ approach allows us to present users with a recognisable, legible and most importantly usable experience that’s truly made to measure.

In recent years the number of mobile, smartphone and tablet users has increased dramatically, leading to predictions that by 2014 mobile internet use should overtake desktop usage. As more and more users choose to access the internet while on the move, the need to deliver a tailored tablet and mobile experience has never been as important, and certainly can no longer be ignored.

How We Approach Responsive Design

Responsive design can’t simply be an afterthought that’s bolted onto the end of a desktop build, and so we consider the responsive implications of a project during the very first creative discussions. How the style, content and arrangement of the website will translate to multiple devices dictates the way we think, visualise and create the site from the outset, encompassing everything from simple to more complicated layouts.

In certain circumstances a mobile first approach is the right way to go. This is where we visualise the mobile version of the site first and then scale this up to tablet and desktop versions, rather than the other way around. We often use this approach when the project has a heavy emphasis on content. By considering the mobile experience first, we condense the site to its simplest form, helping to establish the delivery of the message and the content hierarchy. We find this approach results in the clarification of key content, and completely avoids the temptation to place content simply to fill space.

In other cases mobile is not the place to begin as the creative direction lends itself to wireframing and conceptualising the desktop version of the site first. From here we gracefully scale the site downwards, with creatives from both design and build working in tandem to incorporate graceful breakpoint transitions as we reach new device triggers. The strategy implementation here is key to project success, as all iterations of the site must maximise device usability while continuing look and feel conventions.

Conclusions

Statistics underline the fact that responsive design is very much here to stay, and has now become an integral part of they way we create websites. This doesn’t have to come with limitations however. There’s no reason to stick to certain layouts, hold back creatively and be restrictive on content. Any website no matter how complex can be scaled down to suit a user on the move, translating style, form and content in a way that’s most digestible to someone on a smaller device with different usability considerations.

That’s why at Empire, we include responsive design with each of the projects we conduct, delivering a digital presence that depicts you and your business in a consistent yet tailored experience across various devices. With innovations in mobile technology showing no signs of slowing down, can your business really afford not to go responsive?