Why Responsive Web Design?

Today, not surprisingly, about one third of the world’s population – 2.3 billion people – are internet users. Due to the mass adoption of hand held devices such as smart phones and tablets, by 2015 it’s predicted that 2.1 billion of those internet users will be mobile internet users.

Believe it or not, these handheld devices that offer internet on the go have in fact changed the way we websites. As consumers’ expectations are changing in response to the changing landscape of web browsers, they expect to be able to browse the internet on their phones or tablets just as they would on a desktop.

So, what’s the solution for a visually and functionally perfect website? A responsive website.

You may have heard this buzzword floating around for a while now, but it’s nothing new for web designers and developers. The term was coined in 2011 in an article by Ethan Marcotte, which you can read here. However, responsive development today has become more than just a trend, it’s become an essential requirement for all websites moving forward.

Ultimately, a responsive website provides an optimal viewing experience by automatically adjusting to its environment. While a responsive website keeps all of your views happy, it also makes Google happy as one fully responsive website ranks better than having a number of sites designed for different devices making Google’s algorithms to work more efficiently and also allowing Google to crawl your site more proficiently – but that’s getting tricky.

So know you know the story behind responsive websites, do you know if your website’s responsive?