If you have a smartphone or tablet, you might have noticed that some websites look different on your mobile device than they do on your desktop or laptop. They look different because they were specifically built to work on those devices. Building mobile friendly sites can happen in a couple different ways. A completely separate site can be built, or my new favorite is to create a “responsive” site. Having a mobile responsive site will save a company time and money, while giving mobile users a better browsing experience.
But why is it so important? 28% of Americans use their mobile device as their primary way of accessing the web. If the site you are visiting isn’t optimized for mobile devices, it may not display properly, the load time of the site could be enough to make the mobile user give up on visiting the site, or it could be completely unsupported by a mobile device (i.e., a flash based website).
There are ways to determine what percentage of users are accessing your site on their mobile device. Google Analytics does a very good job of this. They even tell you what operating system your visitors are using such as an iPhone or an Android phone. If more than 20% of your vistors are accessing your site with a mobile device, it might be worth considering making your site responsive.
If it’s time for a new site design, creating the responsive option would be much easier than creating it from an existing site. The web developer will be able to take the new design and decide what is the best option for mobile users. Here at Design the Planet, we can create an awesome website for the desktop and make it just as attractive on a mobile device with our web designing services. So if you are considering going mobile, give us a shout! 504-391-1550 or nova@designtheplanet.com
