Determining When Responsive Web Design Is a Good Idea: A Few Harsh Truths

With increasing web traffic on mobile phones and tablets, most of the firms have come to the point to optimize their online business sites to almost all devices, browsers, and screen resolutions. Well, thanks to the great idea of responsive design but again optimizing for the mobile Web isn't a simple task.

Before you get to step in, understanding RWD's simplicity and convolution will help you decide when to leverage it to meet their customers' mobile needs.

Pros for Using RWD

• RWD website from an adaptive site, using which it is possible to build one website with different implementations for different devices.

• Includes a single code base thus makes it developer’s desire.

• Reduced maintenance time and

• A single device-agnostic URL structure which doesn’t requires two or more domain names as used for mobile website.

Here, The Question Of The Hour Is When Should You Pull The Trigger On Going RWD?

Here Are 5 Strategies To Help You Make That Decision.

1. Greater the number of different presentation venues, more chances for RWD arguments.

2. The cost factor may be an issue if it eliminates the need for a company to build different sites for desktop, tablet portrait, mobile portrait and mobile landscape, etc.

3. How many unique page formats are there? If to reuse templates and other components- RWD certainly aggravate.

4. Top notch skill sets for HTML, CSS and JavaScript are required.

5. In case your project’s life span is short, it might not be worth the time and cost.

The sum of your answers shall determine where your project falls on the scale between standalone mobile site and responsive site. Responsive web design is a good step not only to the device of the visitor but a call-to-action for all designers out there. Aside from responding to the device or the browser of the end-user, a true design means responding to the end-users.

What Brings Responsive Design to a Great Investment Factor?

There has been an explosion in the use of responsive web design when developing any website that use one base of code and one base of content that are optimized for the devices they are displayed on. In this age of burgeoning smartphones and tablets, the value of this technique is increasing in proportion adapting to changing user behavior. Let’s have a few reasons compiled here to why a online business lead should invest in responsive design?

Google Recommends

Google owns more than 70 percent of the search engine market share and they are telling us that responsive Web design is the industry’s best practice. Not only that it allows search engines to crawl faster and easier but also to indexes multiple versions of the same website.

The Most Cost Effective Option

Regardless of the device you can contact your designer/developer to fix any issue across all platforms. Can you ever imagine another method to ensure a website that works beautifully across multiple device platforms with less maintenance costs?

Good for SEO Efforts And Social Sharing

Not only that it is cost effective but the combination of all traffic into one domain results in one site with larger traffic. This increases search engine appeal which theoretically improves its ranking to be applied across all versions of your site in one unified process.

Easy To Focus Target Audience
As a matter of fact, every website is developed for some targeted group. Adopting to responsive website design and UX remains paramount which means a visitor surfing from their laptop, tablet, and mobile will have the same great feeling every time. Incompetent user experience!

CMS Platforms Support

Millions of websites are hosted on Content Management System like Joomla, Drupal or Wordpress which you might be already aware of. And, these CMSs have extended their support to responsive factor as mobile computing is going to be the integral part of Consumer level UX.

In a nutshell, Responsive is the future…and present of Web Design.

Amazing Key Info’s About Responsive Web Design

Highly recommended by Google, a responsive website design comes to enhance your website optimization process. It is an important aspect for online merchants who consider enhancing a website user interface as highly adaptive to all screen sizes for major devices like tablets, laptops and desktop viewing.


The Future Of Web

Over 65% of users say they are more-likely to purchase from a responsive/mobile friendly website which means it clearly offers a great competitive advantage for businesses. Whether it is purchase or to make an enquiry, a well designed responsive website makes it intuitive and user friendly, keep them engaged increasing the chance of them taking your desired action.

This is the right time to jump into responsiveness for mobiles and tablets or else you will find your bounce rate increased, resulting in Google less likely to rank your website for mobile.

Better Search Ranking For Your Website

The ease of indexing the URL of every web page and on the same HTML platform even on different device viewing by the search engine which benefits the efforts of any SEO services.

Website visitors of a site tend to enjoy a better viewing experience when there is an ease of transition of the website according to the kind of device used by them. The search engine is able to index and rank a responsive website with better accuracy

Advantages of Responsive Website Design

• Living in a 24/7 environment, responsive website design accommodates everyone to finish an assignment to the busy city professional. It requires no resizing or scrolling which means visitors can access your website- whenever and wherever.

• For merchant, there is no need to have two websites- one for mobile and one for desktop. Instead, one responsive web design enhances your SEO efforts.

• With the growing number of mobile phone and tablet users, making your site responsive helps you stay ahead of your competition.

Your website is the hub of your dealership expansion. According to 2014 U.S. Digital Consumer Report, 80% of working class Americans now own approximately four digital devices and consumer spends 60 hours a week consuming content across devices. So why not go responsive?

3 Terrible Blockages When Creating A Responsive Web Design

Gone are the days when mobile website was an optional for growing in online business but now- it is a compulsion. Well, as many designers are turning to responsive web design, the fact that it is much more complex than a standard site or a dedicated mobile site is undeniable.

In order to ensure that the site is properly optimized regardless of the device, listed below are the 3 major obstacles that designers face and some tips on how to overcome them.

Website Loading Time

The main objective behind responsive websites is to provide convenience for mobile users. Yet many of which fails. A recent study tested over 300 sites and found that regardless of the site being tested, the page size and load time results were nearly the same. All you need to do is:

• Avoid using larger Image Files and Videos

• Avoid using JavaScript as it is usually the largest asset on a web page.

• Use of unnecessary Links and personal comment icons

• Ads and Social Media Pop-Ups

• Including too many Widgets

Over-Resourcing

Responsive web designs rely on multiple image sizes and CSS scripts in order to get a customized layout matching varied screen sizes. At times, this might leverage a user to download all the images which is not required.

This is when you should use conditional loading. If you want your web design to run on desktops as well as a dedicated mobile website, double and triple check the coding to ensure that it’s fully optimized and running smoothly.

Poor User Interface

Even though your eCommerce website functions well on desktops, it needn’t be mobile friendly. Don’t only think about aesthetics when creating a mobile web design but rather consider the differences between user needs when visiting your site from different places.

Above all these, get to know your customer’s feedback on what they want to do on a mobile device vs. their desktop, and make sure your responsive design meet those needs.

Should You Build a Mobile Friendly Site? But How

Of the 2.1 billion mobile web users in the world, 60% of them use it for shopping purpose, every day. This infact tells that you better be sure you are providing a good mobile experience. With options like Responsive Web Design, mobile app or a simple mobile site, figuring out how to optimize your site might seem confusing.

The right mobile solution for your ecommerce website depends on how your audience look at it. With that in mind, here are guidelines to help you decide on whether to build a separate mobile version or update your Ecommerce Website Design to a responsive.

Pros and Cons of Mobile Site

Basically a scaled-down version of your main website, a mobile website (.domain.com) works by redirecting smartphone and tablet users to the mobile version of your site.

• Dedicated images designed for a small screen will provide better results for the mobile visitor, letting more conversions.

• Uses modern front-end technologies like HTML5 web development without the need to code for backward compatibility with older desktop browsers. Thus enhancing the user experience and cut down on maintenance costs.

• Since the work is done on the server, mobile sites are almost always faster and better designed for small screens.

However, The Drawbacks Are:

• Spreading your content across two domains dilutes the SEO “juice” from both sites thus lessens organic traffic.

• Occasional redesigning your ecommerce website is a must but any errors can create a bad user experience.

So...What’s up With Responsive Design?

It doesn’t matter whether your customers are using a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop- a responsive Ecommerce Shopping Cart can adjust to fit any screen size.

• With one website, it is easier to pull organic traffic for SEO purpose.

• Since the content simply adjusts to fit the size a responsive design will be compatible with the latest smartphone and tablet models. This guarantees a great user experience.

• Unlike mobile site there is no need to update every time which help you save on website maintenance services too.

Cons

• Compared to mobile site, designing a responsive ecommerce site is bit expensive.

Summing up, as you begin to think about how you might mobile-optimize your ecommerce site, be focussed on “target audience” and decide.

Ecommerce Web Development: What Should You Consider Before Going Responsive

 

Responsive Web Design or RWD approach in ecommerce web development is a “device-agnostic” approach that justifies it to be customer-centric. A recent survey shows with this, user engagement is higher than ever. It has bounced from a whopping 72.43% down to 19.3%, unique visits increasing by 37.58% and the average visit duration going up by a staggering 69.76%.

This end results is enough to convey how an ecommerce web development company satisfies not only ‘mobile strategy’, but also ‘web strategy’. Listed below are some influential factors you might want to think about when deciding will your Magento store “go responsive”.

Before Deciding To Go Responsive, Remember...

There are a number of reasons to cheer for responsive approach and here’s what you need to do before inducing it in your Shopping Cart Development.

• Enable your customers to have a good mobile experience of your site.

• Promise yourself to give your customers the best possible user experience, regardless of his platform and resolution.

• Developing a responsive Magento store means, you are saying a big “yes!” for easier upgradeability.

• Should be easier and more efficient for Google to crawl, index, and organize content.

• RWD site don’t require separate campaigns and versions (desktop+mobile) of your store but one SEO strategy.

The only drawback is that RWD is tricky to implement as it requires a sophisticated commitment and understanding. But, with a good sum of time, experience and skills no doubts it can help improve your business dramatically.

Summing up, the success of any site is driven not only by Ecommerce Website Design and Development but the way it is delivered and marketed. Although the responsive website is more expensive and complicated to build, it yet saves management costs and administration time.

Ready-Made Vs. Custom Ecommerce Templates- What’s Merchant-Choice?

Online merchants, in recent times, look so confused when developing their online store-front as in choosing between readymade and custom Ecommerce Template Development as both options are different in functions and outcomes.

Even though choosing a readymade Ecommerce Solution brings limitations and fails to delivers unique solution while custom solution is a step ahead in functionality and proves affordable too, here is the proof of it.
  

Pros And Cons Of Pre-Made Ecommerce Template

Pre-made Ecommerce Templates are available at affordable rates at high cost, usually under $100. One advantage is its future-proofing and the large/active community offers regular updates, and good support for customizing and troubleshooting after Ecommerce Web Development process.

Coming to the disadvantage, there are many questions arises when choosing pre-made ecommerce templates like: how is their support? Is the code clean? Does it support optional best practices ecommerce development?

Pros And Cons Of Custom Ecommerce Template

One of the most excellent advantages of custom templates is that you are the admin or company to sport that theme online. Amidst the millions of templates online, it is right to be different from others by taking advantage of custom ecommerce template. One more advantages is its custom functionality that takes help from developers to succeed in your exact areas.

The biggest disadvantage of adopting custom theme is its high cost depending on the size, type and functionality of your theme. The only thing to remember is that whether your custom theme comes with future updates, bug fixes, etc or your ecommerce developers address you about such things.

To sum up, it doesn’t matter what kind of template you are choosing for your Ecommerce Website Development. Instead, prior your requirements first and then decide proper alternative for your business.

Openwave Computing Services, a reputed Web Development Company, NYC is a gateway to build most unique web solutions opening from simple production websites to more obscure ecommerce solutions, web-based applications, Content Management Systems, etc.

The Two Sides: Responsive Web Design vs. Mobile Website

Mobile optimization is becoming more and trendier in Ecommerce Shopping Cart Development and so what could be the best way to go mobile? Well, here’s the answer.

Any one of these mobile optimization methods should best suit your particular business

1. Responsive Web Design

2. Mobile Website
  
But to have a clear picture, here are the pros and cons of each of them.


Responsive Web Design

This method allows you to have a single website that automatically fits the screen size of the device on which it is being viewed.

 

The Pros:

• A single URL makes sure your users will find you on mobile devices without having to worry about redirects and slow connections.

• Easy SEO lets you create specific content for mobile devices, while you still enjoy the benefits of your desktop website SEO on mobile devices.

• Not much effort required for marketing department to promote your website on mobile.

The Cons:

• At times having single website for all devices may be easy for you, but not always for your users.

• As Responsive Web Design is a relatively new technology, but not all browsers will load the shopping cart fast.


  Mobile Website

A mobile website is designed specifically for smart phones considering all the limitations and opportunities of the platform say the small screen size, interaction methods (touch) and limited connection speed (2G/3G).

 

The Pros:

• A website that is specifically optimized for mobile devices will have a good ground to create a beautiful and usable UX.

• Your website will load fast and easily on mobile platforms.

• Search engines tend to provide good UX nearly as much as you do making way for better search results and chance to rank.

The Cons

• Building a mobile website is not a cheap option as compared to responsive web design.

• Your customer has to remember at least two URLs, otherwise be redirected to the mobile website, which takes several seconds. This requires additional SEO work as well.

So Which Solution Is The Best? Simple! Consider your business needs and the budget you are willing to allocate for the project.

Hire Openwave Computing Services for your Mobile Websites/website design needs.  For Project Related Enquiries, Contact Us on (212)209-1537.

Responsive Web Design The Best Option For New Online Store Owners

People are often curious to know what a Responsive Web Design is and how important it is to enhance web browsing experience. It is a web design style that responds to the device of the user (desktop, mobile phone or tablet) and automatically changes the layout of a website to suit the screen size, orientation, resolution, platform, and other elements of that device. 

Read On To Learn More About The Importance Of Responsive Web Design.

Why Responsive Design Is Important

Any website that is designed with Responsive Web Design acclimatizes the layout in accordance to the fluid and grids that are proportioned based. Instead of two or three separate links, it offers one URL with JavaScript, CSS, and CSS3 coding for the creation of flexible web designs for any device size. Since they render the CSS to become compatible on a variety of devices, the base of viewing size depends on the device used for browsing through the internet.

Benefits Of Responsive Web Design
• The Fluid Design:  Since it makes your entire website fluid, the responsive web design is most beneficial, which means that the content easily and automatically resizes no matter what device or screen resolution the user has.

• Easy Management:  Responsive web design accommodates to all devices thus improving the user experience at the same time eliminating scrolling and resizing to enhance readability.  One of its key advantages is that its single SEO campaign is far logical and efficient than managing multiple websites. A better user experience encourages visitors to stay on your website and become customers.

• Cost-Effectiveness:  Considered as a more economical option, maintaining a responsive website is far better than supporting both a desktop and mobile version of your website. It also improves SEO for digital marketing, ultimately increasing ROI.

Google recommends responsive web designs.  If you surely think all these efforts can make your website are more appealing and informative, hire Openwave Computing Services for your web design needs. We offer an individualized and comprehensive approach to website design that goes far beyond the typical graphics and technology and make sure you deserve the high search engine rankings.