The Pros of Responsive Design [Plus Examples]

July 27, 2018

You’ve more than likely seen it in action when accessing a favorite website and it having a scaled-down look and feel (but not stripped as you might find with a mobile design (though there is a slight overlap between these two)).

Consider that we surf from many different devices:

  • PC’s
  • Tablets
  • Smart Phones
  • TV’s

A site that doesn’t have responsive design causes issues depending on the connecting device. The site may appear too large and require frequent horizontal scrolling. The site may also appear too small for those accessing on larger screens. The real loss is when the design appears broken (such as with navigation) which instantly creates a negative impression of the site to the new user.

If this recommendation and study isn’t enough to sway you toward revamping your website to one that is responsive in design – here are some other pro’s to consider:

  • Consistency. A responsive design allows your site to scale to match the screen size of a device which means your site keeps the same branding and overall experience whether it’s larger or small. Having this consistency certainly helps with keeping people assured they are working with their chosen brand instead of being confused when seeing variations between desktop and phone sized sites.
  • SEO (via Single URL). Many businesses that implement a mobile-friendly version will use a sub-domain (you’ll often see it at m.example.com). Though you can set redirects and canonical linking between the two it would still be better, in the long run, to use a single URL since your link building efforts won’t be divided and there wouldn’t need to be a huge change if suddenly you were to adopt a truly responsive design (and needed to change many links).
  • Development. Think about how long it took for your website development to reach completion. Now add a completely new version of the site meant for mobile. Then consider the work required to keep the two consistent. Having a unified responsive design cuts down on this work from the get-go which ultimately saves you a lot of money and troubles.

Go now to one of your favorite sites on your computer and then load it on your phone. Compare the differences and make note of the ease of use and feel of a site that uses a responsive design.

Here are a few quick pics if you’d like to see the differences:

Smashing Mag
Solo
Life in Greenville
Food Sense

For more examples view this list (which these came from).

Question(s): Is your website responsive? What’s stopping you?

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