What is Responsive Website Design?

2013 has been declared the year of Responsive Design in many web circles. If you haven’t heard of  Responsive Design yet, you will soon. The reason it was created and gaining popularity is because of the need to optimize websites on different devices. These include mobile, tablet,  laptop & desktop, with the growth of the mobile and tablet markets being the driving force for Responsive Design. 

Increased Demand for Mobile-Friendly Websites

In the last 12-24 months at Bear Web Design, we have seen a significant increase in customers requiring their sites to be mobile friendly.  In the last few years, mobile strategies have ranged from building completely separate standing mobile sites (which have been expensive to develop and quite often require double web content entry) to adding multiple separate templates to a website which would detect the device and execute the appropriate template.

The Challenge of Multiple Devices and Browsers

Similar challenges have also emerged with the tablet market. When you add the various browsers and operating systems into the mix of devices, you can easily see the challenges that are facing websites today (and Web Designers and Developers).

Introducing Responsive Website Design!

Responsive web design is a web design approach aimed at creating sites to provide an optimal viewing experience. This includes an easy reading and navigation, with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling. This happens across a wide range of devices – from desktop computer monitors to mobile phones=.  Basically your website responds to the device and browser to give an optimal user experience.

How Responsive Templates Work

Designers generally build responsive templates from the mobile level up, rather than adapting an existing full-size website. They then customize the template for each device by adjusting image sizes, content layout, and display elements. The key is that all images, content, forms, buttons and other elements fit attractively (and usably!) into the device viewing the website.

Bear Web Design Commences Responsive Website Design

We have commenced designing and developing our custom templates using Responsive Design in late 2012 and we have our first client sites coming online in this quarter.  We will be sharing these sites with you and highlighting the sites on each device so that you can develop and increase your knowledge in this area. 

Responsive Upgrades for Existing Clients

We are also very excited be able to offer Responsive Designs upgrades to our existing client base. This includes upgrading from Joomla 1.5 to Joomla 2.5 as part of that process. There will be cost and time involved in these upgrades and we will be sharing the process with our clients. But the rewards will be immense, as there is no doubt that websites, which are not mobile and tablet friendly, are going to lose a large segment of prospects and customers in the upcoming years!