Digital Marketing

The Difference Between Responsive and Mobile-Friendly Websites

According to data from Google Analytics, in 2020, 61 percent of all visits to websites in the U.S. were made from mobile devices. The other 35.7 percent were from desktops (computers or notebooks) and only 3.3 percent from tablets.

This opens up a new world for businesses that want to have a solid digital presence. Just having a standard website is no longer enough. The habits of people using the internet on their smartphones are entirely different from those using a computer from home or work.

In other words, your business website should be properly optimized for mobile devices because customers won’t continue to use it for long if it isn’t convenient. After all, if you’re a business owner in New York City, you already know that time is money. There are major ways you can make your website more attractive for those accessing it from a mobile device.

Why Web Design is So Important

The changes in user behavior require the development of less complex versions of websites to be accessed more quickly from mobile devices. Web designers initially made “shrunken” versions of the original desktop sites to fit on cell phone screens. But that didn’t work well because most websites were designed for larger screens. In their “miniature version,” the text appears too small, the images too big, and you had to scroll down to find essential information.

Because of this, the user gave up and moved to another website. Just imagine someone in a hurry using a smartphone with Wi-Fi and about to step onto the NYC subway. People today simply don’t have the time to keep searching for the information they need on a website that isn’t mobile-friendly.

What Makes A Website Mobile-Friendly?

Essentially, a mobile-friendly design has a layout and features that are specially developed for mobile devices. They’re also considered simpler than the desktop version. Some of the major differences include:

  • The central theme is presented more prominently on the mobile version, so the users don’t have to scroll down the screen to find the info they’re looking for.
  • The visual is as light as possible to open quickly.
  • The layout avoids large blocks of text and uses shorter sentences with larger font sizes.
  • Important buttons or links are highlighted to be found more easily.

To find out if your company’s website is mobile-friendly enough, copy and paste the link into this free Google tool, which shows you exactly how your page’s layout will look on a smartphone screen.

The Use of Responsive Web Design

While mobile-friendly design requires you to create a second, simpler version of your main website, responsive web design is a natural evolution of the process. It’s a layout designed from the start to fit any device and screen size. Therefore, it’s one single website that automatically adjusts to different screen formats.

When you adopt responsive web design, your customer will be able to access your website from a computer, tablet, or mobile. The different page components will contract and morph to fit the device’s display in use: the text body and the size of the images increase, the content adjusts to the bigger or smaller screen, etc.

But it’s not just about ensuring that the elements fit across different screens. Responsive design also makes the core elements of your website shift and stand out when someone is accessing from a smaller display, so the users won’t have to spend a lot of time looking for what they need – menus can be accessed more efficiently, for example. It’s an entirely different user experience than accessing the desktop version.

If you are interested in optimizing your website design for responsive web design, look for a branding agency near NYC to help you. Also, gain feedback from your loyal customers. Ask them what they enjoy about the design and what could be improved.

Offer the Best User Experience

Depending on the focus of your business and your target audience, a mobile-friendly web design already meets most of the needs of a standard user. But if you work with something that requires speed, the time your customer will be required to stay on the website is crucial.

While responsive designs take more time and planning to develop, they are the best choice for e-commerce or news, for example, because they allow users to access critical information dynamically and quickly.

Whichever format you choose, remember that just a standard desktop website is no longer enough. In these new times of mobile devices with increasingly smaller screens, it is necessary to adapt and offer the best user experience.

Adrian

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