Responsive design has been around for some time now and is often the topic of much debate among designers. Responsive design is about making the website or application fit the viewers “view port”. A viewport is the portion of the screen available for the design, for example a mobile phone has a much smaller viewport than a browser on a 22 inch widescreen. It’s also important to note that the viewport may not be the entire screen size, it’s always the size of the browser, which may have been re-sized.
This blog is a good example of a responsive design (as you’ll see in the featured image), if you are reading this on a tablet or mobile phone it should be easy to ready and fitting your device nicely. If you are using a PC or laptop feel free to play around with your browser size to see the page change and adapt to your selected size.
An increasing number of people are starting to use mobile phones and tablets of all shapes and sizes to access and view the internet. If your website is not configured properly for these people to view you are going to lose out on readers/customers/clients.
Using WordPress there are two main options for making sure you take advantage of all this extra mobile traffic they are responsive design or a mobile plugin/app. There are many great responsive WordPress themes available today, if you are going to use a theme it’s definitely worth thinking about getting a responsive one as it will save you so much time and hassle. If you already have a site that is not responsive a mobile plugin such as wptouch may be the best option, as making a website responsive after it’s already been created can be a tricky task and will need a professional web developer to change it.
Top 3 reasons for having a responsive design
1. All mobile and tablet users will be able to see and read your sites content.
2. Covers all devices Mac, iPhone, Android, Samsung, 10inch tablets – you name it, responsive design will haver you covered.
3. Easy for beginners to buy an already responsive WordPress theme.
Responsive design is going to become more and more important in the coming years. The number of mobile users is only going to grow. Responsive design should be something you consider highly in your next website or theme change.
I’d love to know how you are currently/planning on taking advantage of mobile and tablet customers – let me know in the comments below!
