Mobile Friendly - One Website Fits all Devices

The world is changing fast, only a few years ago the majority of website visitors came from desktop PCs.

Desktop dominance started to erode in 2007, with the release of the Apple iPhone and later that same year Google Android.

As a result, the number of Mobile users now outstrips Desktop users and continues to grow at a phenomenal rate.

The vast majority of websites are still “fixed width” and this causes problems for mobile visitors who have to pinch/zoom the screen so finding the website experience to be poor.

The Mobile Problem

How to deliver a website and cater for a wide range of screen widths from smartphones to larger tablets and desktop browsers?

Three solutions exist:

Do Nothing - the website may work but the visitor experience will be poor.
Mobile Website - a separate set of pages will be delivered to smaller devices
Responsive Web Design - All website content will available to all devices and will respond appropriately

BBC Switches to Responsive Website

"The old site that we had, which is now four-plus years old, was really designed with PCs in mind. Moving to a fully responsive solution which works across mobile, tablets and desktops is the way to go. It means that we can have one solution that is a web solution for all of our users."

23rd March 2015

Source: BBC News - bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31966686

Mobile Websites - a Compromise

Maintaining separate mobile websites requires more resources (man-hours). Quite often mobile users will be penalised and not given access to all content.

New mobile devices are appearing in the marketplace on a regular basis.

Responsive Web Design - One Fits All

Responsive Web Design (RWD) retains one website across all devices, responding automatically, even as new devices arrive in the marketplace.

As a web page loads, the device width is detected and rules applied which immediately affect how the page is laid out. So for example if a user switches their tablet from portrait to landscape mode, the number of columns displayed may grow from 1 to 2.

Navigation menus respond appropriately to changes in device dimensions. Scrolling is always be up-down and never across, so simplifying user control. Visitors to the website have complete access to all content and on all devices.

RWD enables content to be easily navigated and consumed, whether on a small mobile phone or a large screen desktop monitor. As a result RWD has emerged as the preferred solution.

The Rise of Mobile Devices

The graph below illustrates the rapid rise of Mobile, which now outstrips Desktop use.