Digital decluttering and minimalism is all the hype today. The trends for a multitude of digital platforms revolve around visuals, and rightfully so. Studies have shown that an average user takes approximately 7 seconds to decide whether to delve into a site or not – a short glimpse and a willing skimming is apparently all it takes. 

The media today has become increasingly focused on digital content that has heightened the importance of a pleasant digital presence to greater heights. Websites and social profiles no longer are just a means of sharing information. They serve a striking imagery and an insight into what a company may be. A good and clean design often translates into the visitors taking you seriously. A good landing page, easy navigation and a vibe that matches the work you do serves best when it comes to the ideologies of a first impression. Responsive design has been crucial for building sites that don’t shoo visitors away. 

For non-technical ones, responsive design simply means designing a website that automatically scales its contents for easy viewing depending on the device you’re watching it on. It, very importantly, reduces the strain on the users side of resizing and extra scrolling to get the message. Despite not seeming like much, it may lose you potential customers – a bad first impression is set to do its work.

Benefits of responsive web design

Responsive sites go a long way in capturing user attention and giving your site a boost. A few of its benefits are further elaborated below: 

Higher rankings on search results:

Having a responsive design for your website is highly advantageous since it is one of the primary factors that contribute towards search engine indexing. Having a site that is navigable on all designs gives you an upper hand on the user’s front, which if coupled with a strong CTA leads to significant lead generation too. Laggy sites often rank at the bottom. Who wants to deal with those anyway?

Easy maintenance:

Having separate site layouts for your large and small screen devices is somewhat of a hassle. Having a responsive site automates the management aspect since the site does it for you. Your team need not allocate additional time and effort to separately manage the contents on the sites that cater to different screen sizes. More time for useful things, that is.

Higher conversion rates:

Users stay where they like it; and no user likes a buggy site that gobbles up time to show what they are looking for. Having a responsive site means easy navigation and a seamless experience for the users. Quick access to desired information along with a site that adjusts your device means more users would like to look at what you have to offer. They won’t click out as fast. This means more potential to engage or sell and connect.

Increased user base:

Research has shown that mobile devices account for approximately 80% of the site traffic. Having a responsive site ensures that a large majority of your audience or visitors have a smooth experience when browsing your site. A smooth experience does not shoo them away; it captures them – all for your good.

Lower bounce rates:

A properly responsive site usually guarantees a seamless navigation and user experience. The visitor is likely to stick around for longer and take a thorough look at your site. A less engaging site does not hold the user’s attention span for long leading to users “bouncing” away from your site. A responsive site reduces your bounce rates. 

Should you invest?

Constant exposure to multiple screens is the norm for us today. As the user base and craze for devices of all sizes multiply, it’s important to develop a site that enables smooth viewing across all devices. Recent stats suggest a massive rise in the number of mobile users. The number is set to explode further as global smartphone accessibility increases. It also reduces the hassle of having to invest separately for different devices – the limitations of which go beyond comprehension. Your site will be more flexible and easier to change. Quick design modification, content additions, minor corrections will be done in an instant and at once since making changes for multiple devices need not be done any more. 

Further, mobile friendly sites also help in SEO through higher rankings on search pages improving overall visibility. Cost effectiveness, a great first impression and a lasting connection of comfort – all add up to a great reasoning to invest in web design. Because, why not?

Limitations?

Like all other tactics, responsive design is not perfect by any means. You may come across minor inconveniences, few of which have been elaborated below:

Visual (and unplanned) changes in the layout:

Websites are prone to advertisements and banner ads so your site may not turn out exactly as you expected it to be. Where and how the images you have put appear is not under your control and ad space may disrupt how you planned your site to look. 

Potential site lags:

The code is set up for the images to be visually scaled down. They are not automatically resized unless you manually do so. As the site settles its images, the loading time is increased by a bit, depending on the size and the number of images it has.

Navigation is a hassle:

The seamless usability that a website is designed with is difficult to be compressed into a small screen. Smaller devices have less screen space to work with making navigation difficult in comparison to larger screen sizes. 

Final thoughts

Responsive site design holds utmost importance when it comes to maintaining a strong digital presence. Having a site that embraces all screen sizes has a significant contribution to make in terms of capturing and retaining attention of your visitors. Turning them into potential customers and further developing that relation into a profitable relationship becomes easier with a responsive site. Hence, enabling it is a winning strategy for sure!