Part III of the blog series takes us into the myths and misconceptions that have been acquired throughout the years by web responsiveness.
RWD (Responsive Web Design) is highly recommended by Google as a site configuration. This is important to take note and remember since Google has a market share of 67% when it comes to searches. With this design, Google is able to easily crawl and index a website. It increases the website to rank higher in terms of page rank and page authority because it is able to accumulate the data into one url. Also, it lessens the amount of time to get used to on the site when visiting it on mobile.
Myths and Misconceptions
Like any new idea or concept, there are a lot of things that are yet to be explored and understand with RWD. This resulted into the creations of myths and misconceptions (M&M).
M&M 1: It is not the solution to the website’s content problems. Just because the site had a great design overhaul and is able to adapt to different screen sizes, that doesn't mean that the site’s lack of content is answered. Now more than ever, the site needs to have better content and call to actions words. As site owners, one would like to give its visitors a reason to stay longer.
M&M 2: It is not just for big Brands, companies, and names. It is for everyone that includes small and medium businesses. Local business owners can gain a lot from having a responsive website. It is able to quickly provide the needed information such as contact and location with the use of handy gadgets. This makes the brand more accessible to people.
M&M 3: Dangerous to Typography. One of the things that are often sacrificed is the site’s readability. It’s because developers and designers have the tendency to use device breakpoints rather than design breakpoints. This doesn't have to be. To maintain the site’s readability use ems for the layout, padding, font-size, and margin.
M&M 4: It makes mobile apps obsolete. Applications still carry an important spot in the mobile world. An app brings brand equity to a company who had a place on one’s digital device. As the owner or the marketing strategy, one has to look into the brand experience that should be provided into the company’s specific audiences. An app is good for frequent users while a responsive site is better for casual users.
M&M 5: It is not just about the design and layout. It is also about the content. Why is this idea being reiterated? It is because many concentrate more on how their site looks like than what their site should have. Remember that having a great site also means good site content.
One by one, these myths are busted with the development of web responsiveness. Each of these statements is mere excuses and reasons for a sloppy work from designers and developers. So before saying yes to a site developer and designer, be sure to have a talk with them about the site’s design and demand on having a great responsive site. With this in mind, one is sure to get the best website design that will be able to adapt to just about any screen sizes.
5. Loading Time. This is the downside of a mobile responsive site. The site takes a longer time to load due the html/ccs codes that needs to be downloaded. With all of these disadvantages in mind, one could simply say that making sure that a site is responsive is time consuming. A lot of working hours is needed in assuring that the site is working.
A lot of tests and monitoring on different platforms are done to see if the site looks exactly the way users should see. It may be time consuming but the benefits to both party, the consumers and the company or brand or organization is great. But what do you think about it? Are the advantages outweighs the disadvantages?
Web Responsiveness is time consuming but it has a lot to offer to site owners and its site visitors if done properly.