Responsive website design – New trend for 2012

In the words of Shakespeare ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’, we ask the same question when we are looking at building a mobile website – should we or shouldn’t we?  However, a new trend that will be hot in 2012 is that of a responsive web design for your website. If you want to create a buzz in 2012 then you should consider a responsive web design. However, you need to do some research first and look into when, why you should and how you should design a fantastic responsive website.

Mobile marketing is already on the increase and in 2015 it is expected to break all barriers and become the main source for internet browsing, overtaking desktop browsing in the USA.  This growth will be down to the increased popularity of tablet PCs; browser enabled smart phones, televisions with integrated internet facility built in.  With this in mind most companies will not want to miss out on this niche and they will have to make their website experience for visitors a great one that accommodates all platforms. Company websites should be available to browse regardless of the platform or device being used.

Why should you design a responsive website?

If a client asks you to create a mobile solution for their company website then various options need to be considered – suitability of design, is it right for the client. These will all depend on the requirements of the client and the budget that they have to spend. Another thing to consider is the existing mobile solution that they have if one exists as this can be used as a base for the design of the responsive website. What needs to be remembered is that a responsive website is not the complete solution for a client looking for a mobile platform. However, if you are building a website from scratch it is a pretty good starting point and one that should be fully considered.

Starting from scratch?

It is a challenging and stressful process when it comes to designing and developing a brand new website. So many considerations have to be taken into account. The biggest challenge is right at the end once the site is live as this is when you will know if it has been successful or not. Wasting money developing a full website and a mobile version could end up being a waste of time and money. The best scenario is to get your new website all working and behaving well, once you are happy everything is working as it should you can then begin to develop an additional mobile version.

But I want to keep my cost low?

If you are looking to build a reliable and solid responsive platform then it requires front end development time and design time. But not so much time that development is hindered. In terms of time to develop a responsive website, you are looking at increase of 20-30 percent longer. However, this is still not as much time as it takes to create an additional mobile site. Where you can save money is on the development and maintenance as it is one site only.

It has to work on new devices when they are released

The most important factor of a mobile site is that it needs to be able to recognise the device that it is being browsed on.  New devices are constantly being released and each time a new device hits the market the site needs to be updated so it knows a new device is being used to browse the mobile site.  However, the responsive platform only recognises the width of the browser which means no additional updates are required, making it scalable to all devices and future-proof.

3 of our favourite responsive web sites

These are 3 of our favourite responsive website templates that look amazing on all devices:

• http://2011.dconstruct.org/
• http://www.fork-cms.com/
• http://www.bambootheme.com/