Future-Proof Your Website
There’s a huge chance you’re reading this blog post on a smartphone or tablet right now. We feel pretty confident saying that because statistics indicate that 30% to 50% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices.
How do you ensure that your business’ online presence is not left out during this major shift in user behavior? Future-proof your website using the One Web approach. The W3C defines this as “…making, as far as is reasonable, the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using.” Not only is it vital to make your website easily accessible across all of today’s various platforms, but to ensure it’ll be accessible via the yet-to-be-invented technology of tomorrow as well.
There are two ways to future-proof your website. Well, three actually since there are two distinct types of adaptive design, but we won’t geek out on all that techie stuff here.
Responsive Web Design
The first way is through responsive web design. Responsive web design modifies the presentation of a website depending on the size of the device screen being used. Focusing on the browser instead of the user, responsive sites are programmed using techniques such as percentages for image sizes instead of fixed height and widths so that they will respond to fit any screen size. In other words, the website will look “normal” on a desktop or laptop but will rearrange and resize elements when viewed on a smaller device screens. If you’re reading this on your smartphone or tablet, you can see this in action now by simply rotating your device from horizontal to vertical. If you’re reading this on a desktop or laptop, you can still see how this works right now—simply resize your browser window. Reduce the width to be about the same widow size of a tablet (horizontal or vertical); keep making it smaller and you’ll see the responsive display that would appear on a smartphone.
Adaptive Web Design
Adaptive web design expands upon the principles of responsive web design to deliver user experiences that are targeted at specific devices and contexts. Simply put, it adapts to the user’s device using a predefined set of parameters. For example: Retina quality images will only be served to devices with Retina display technology; those without Retina capability (standard definition displays) will receive lower quality images.
Future-Proof Your Website Today
If your website isn’t “mobile friendly” with responsive or adaptive design yet, it needs an upgrade. It won’t be long before more than 50% of web traffic will be coming from mobile devices! Not only are your customers wanting a more fluid user experience on your site, but whether your site is “mobile friendly” or not is now displaying in Google search results and is also now a factor in Google’s algorithm for search engine rankings. Not sure if your site is mobile friendly? Use this free checker from Google tools: Mobile-Friendly Test.
Give us a call today if you’d like to discuss upgrading your website with responsive or adaptive web design.