The subject of responsive design has been coming up a lot lately, and I thought we should mention a couple of points regarding this trend, and how it might affect the industry and our customers.
First, what is responsive design?
Responsive Web Design (RWD) is an approach to coding a web page or a website in a fluid way, where the mobile page adapts to the screen size of the visitor, providing the optimal viewing experience (without having to scroll or zoom). With responsive design, the same HTML is displayed for all devices, and CSS media queries are used to trigger different CSS rules based on the device.
Needless to say, with responsive design all device versions of the website are using the same web address (there is no need for a separate m. or .mobi).
Why does it matter?
Some of our clients have expressed concern over how this is going to affect their business:
1. With responsive design, there is no need for the business client to build a separate mobile-optimized version of their website.
2. Google has specifically mentioned that when it comes to search engine optimization, "sites that use responsive web design, i.e. sites that serve all devices on the same set of URLs, with each URL serving the same HTML to all devices.." is Google's recommended way. (Google also mentions that having a separate mobile site on its own URL is also supported).
The benefits of responsive web design approach:
1. Probably one of the biggest benefits is simply the fact that responsive web design eliminates the need to maintain a 2nd version of the site (which makes ongoing website updates a lot easier to manage, since the same content is shared across all device versions). This is especially significant for larger sites with frequently updated content.
2. You don't have to worry about the mobile SEO (submitting mobile sitemaps, using "canonical" attributes to avoid duplicate content penalties, making sure your mobile site does not compete with your desktop site in desktop SERP), as there is only one set of content for Google to index.
3. Since Google now mentions that responsive design is the recommended way, there is a serious concern there: will the "recommendation" turn into a "requirement" in the next year or two?
Here is our take:
1. The biggest issue with responsive design implementation is that it requires an investment of time and money into a full renovation of the desktop site. While building a new desktop website based on RWD approach is a no-brainer nowadays (most new Wordpress templates are designed with RWD), older desktop sites need to be re-coded. Not every business owner is up to this task and investment.
2. Displaying the exact same content for all device users is not always a benefit. In fact, optimizing your navigation and message for smart phones can lead to higher conversions and better user experience:
3. And lastly, the topic of mobile metrics has been a rising trend lately, specifically regarding measuring user proximity, location and life patterns.
Marketing for desktop users has been agnostic of these factors, since the desktop or laptop user is always in the same place - at the computer.
With mobile engagement things are changing, and now marketers and industry analysts are beginning to consider additional factors such as the user location or time of the day.
For mobile users these additional factors really matter. A mobile user looking at a restaurant website inside a restaurant at lunch time would probably be interested in a lunch special. While a mobile user looking at the same website from his office at 4pm is probably interested in making dinner reservations. While in 2012 it sounds crazy to be that granular with your content, ultimately conversions and improving user experience is what drives the trend and expectations.
There seems to be a growing interest in identifying and understanding these patterns and potentially offering the right variable data at the right time and place. (Certainly not something responsive design is suited to do).