Why Responsive Design Matters

The day has finally come.  Internet ad spending beat broadcast TV for the first time in 2013, thanks to a surge of spending in mobile ads. It's no surprise that businesses are putting more advertising dollars towards the Internet; highlights of the Pew Internet Project's 2014 research shows that 58% of American adults have a smartphone and 42% of American adults own a tablet computer...and that we're spending 11 hours a day consuming electronic media...and over an hour a day on our smart phones.

As more people consume content via smart phones and tablets, it becomes even more important for marketers to deliver our content in a way that is consistent in our brand and messaging and easy to consume. Wikipedia explains that responsive web design "is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience--easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling--across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors)."

Awwwards has compiled several examples of the best website designs using responsive design. The screen shots below show how www.reddeerspca.com appears seamlessly and consistently across different devices. This site is one of many that received an honorable mention for its design. See the rest here.

When someone is viewing the Red Deer SPCA website, no matter on what device, the menu options stay the same, but the image size and layout (such as the featured pets' photos) automatically adjust to suit the orientation and size of the browser size. This means that all users are going to get the same experience every single time.

Responsive Web Design example - Red Deer SPCA's website as it appears on desktops & laptops

Responsive Web Design example - Red Deer SPCA's website as it appears on a tablet

Responsive Web Design example - Red Deer SPCA's website as it appears on a smart phone

If you're building a new website, it's important to consider your audience--and your audience is likely accessing your website via desktops and other devices. Create-your-own website provider, www.squarespace.com, offers dozens of templates that utilize responsive web design...creating a better experience for your users, one website at a time.

World Wide Wow

Reflections

The Week 1 materials and topics were very interesting! I'm familiar with social media strategy as it relates to businesses, as well as how individuals can use it--for professional or personal gain, or sometimes, to one's detriment. However, I was not very familiar with the history of the Internet, and I was surprised to learn that its infancy was actually way before the 90's! It certainly makes sense that the development of such an infrastructure wasn't driven by a need for social or informational purposes, but actually for a very specific need with the location of the missiles!

One of the reasons I am taking this class is to have a better understanding of how to strategically use Internet marketing in business. This week's materials helped provide a clear roadmap to thinking about how this should be applied. Part of my job involves acting as a Marketing Concierge for our company's resellers. They are generally small to medium sized businesses, and while they are very good at building relationships with their customers and providing great customer service, they are not always as sophisticated when it comes to marketing, let alone internet marketing. This week's materials have given me some good content to be able to go back to my clients and give them a baseline level of knowledge of internet marketing, and why it's important to consider certain things.

Some Surprising Statistics

One of my favorite quotes, as it relates to business and one's professional development, is from Charles Darwin.

"It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change."

• Pinterest is only 3 years old (established in March 2010). In May 2013, they had a whopping 25 million users. As of March 2014, Pinterest had 70 million active users. Many companies have capitalized on Pinterest's popularity by calling out items as "most pinned." For example, The Container Store sends out emails featuring their "most pinned" items.
• www.express.com, a major clothing retailer, does not have a pin to Pinterest button on their website, even though 68% of Pinterest users are females (and Express does offer men's clothing as well) 

A few smart phone stats from 2 years ago

• 37% of adults and 60% of teenagers admit to being addicted to their smart phones
• Smart phones represent 24% of all mobile phones sold around the world 

For comparison, a few smart phone stats from February 2014 

• The average person owns about 4 mobile devices and spends 60 hours a week consuming content on them (that's 8.6 hours per day) 
• Smartphone sales made up 53.6% of all mobile phone sales last year 

Given all of these #s, and knowing that mobile device usage is increasing, as is the # of mobile devices per person and per household...I wonder why so few companies have good mobile websites.

I was surprised to see that www.michaelkors.com does not have a mobile site; some similar brands like www.katespade.com and www.coach.com do.

What are some some websites you have come across that don't have a mobile interface? Did it surprise you?