The Importance of Responsive Website Design [Infographic]

With the smartphone trend now cemented as an almost daily necessity and the number of people who use mobile devices to access the internet consistently increasing year after year, many businesses are taking note.

The most important element of website design is user experience. Having a responsive website design allows for users to have an optimal viewing experience no matter what device they use.

In order to get a better understanding of how responsive website design works and why your business should have it, Verve has created the below infographic for you to read through. It covers the specifics of web browser sizes for certain devices, gives a great explanation for what website responsiveness means, and highlights some important statistics that support the switch to this smart website design decision.

What is Responsive Website Design?

Think about the last time you searched the internet with your phone. Were you given the option to view an article on the mobile version of a website or did it automatically recognize you were a mobile user? 

A website designed to be responsive will adapt to whatever device you view it on, allowing for easy reading and navigation with minimal resizing, panning and scrolling. The functionality of the website isn't compromised and it will respond to any movements you make.

How Does It Work?

Responsive design targets the width of each user's web browser to determine how much space is available and how it should display the website. Breakpoints are set up to allow us to target ranges that define specific displays. For example, you generally see breakpoints for phones, tablets and desktops. In using this, the most important parts of your website will be visible on each screen size without compromising the user experience.

Why Your Business Should Make the Switch to Responsive

The decision to switch should be an easy one. The amount of mobile users continues to climb and they are using the internet more than ever. They want the same level of experience that they can get on a desktop, so it's up to you do give them a responsive website they feel comfortable using and can easily find what they're looking for. 

These convincing stats are all the proof you need to make the switch to responsive website design and gain an edge on your competition: 

• Desktop internet users will increase from 1.4 billion to 1.6 billion users in 2015.
• Mobile internet users will increase from 800 million to 1.9 billion users in 2015.
• Smartphone users check their devices 150 times a day.
• 46% of mobile users report having problems viewing a static site.
• 44% of people surveyed claim that navigation was difficult on smaller devices.
• 69% of tablet users have shopped with their tablet in the last 30 days.

The Stamp of Approval from Google

"Google recommends webmasters follow the industry best practice of using responsive web design, namely serving the same HTML for all devices and only using CSS media queries to decide the rendering on each device."