So what exactly is responsive design? Imagine you’re a customer. You walk into a store and the first employee you meet will create the first impression for you. The owner greets you first… and her face is sideways. Or she has only one giant eye in the middle of her face. In today’s online market, the company’s website is what often makes that first impression on your customers. The above off-putting example is what it’s like for an online customer when a website doesn’t work easily on their phone.
In the global online marketplace, consumers have a lot of options of where to go and what to click. Some will be using desktop or laptop computers, but more and more people every day are searching the internet on their phones. They’re not just clicking and searching but they’re buying products and services as well. Whether or not they buy from you can be decided by the effectiveness of your website’s design. Will your first impression be like the strange-faced store owner above? Or will it be a pleasant one that keeps them coming back?
So What Do I Do?
Responsive Design is a method for laying out and coding a website so that the consumer experience is one that is easy and user-friendly across all devices, including the small screen of a cell phone. This includes factors that affect appearance and flow of an individual page, but also navigation of the site as a whole, including the amount of panning, scrolling, resizing and clicking needed to move through the experience.
If you’ve ever pulled up a website on your own phone and had a frustrating time dealing with it, chances are you’ve experienced what UNresponsive design looks like. It’s clunky, it doesn’t load efficiently, it doesn’t display correctly on the screen, and it makes people angry. It’s a big dealbreaker for many consumers. If your website frustrates them, they will find one of your competitors and they won’t be back.
How Do I Get It?
The short answer is to hire a professional web designer who is skilled in the craft of Responsive Design. An expert designer will make sure that no matter what device your customers use to find your website, they will have an easy and effective experience that they will tell their friends about.
Don’t let the face of your company be twisted or off-putting. Make sure the first impression – and every impression after – are positive ones by hiring a professional web designer to create a Responsive Design that works for you and your company.