Responsive Web Design and it’s Importance in the Global Market

Fact: There are nearly 2 Billion smart phone users in the world as of 2015

Fact: India is the 3rd largest smart phone using country with 337 million users.

Responsive Web Design involves designing a website to cater to the screen size of smartphones and mobile devices . This is due to the fact that websites designed for desktop screens will look very small and out of place to mobile users

One of the things that we learnt after monitoring traffic to the Internet Academy website in India is that almost 50% of the users were accessing from a mobile device. That is a staggering number of users. Users who want quick access to the information and details. So the current trend is to obviously cater to these individuals and make sure they receive the best user experience.

While page content and discoverability are the most important metrics for a website, it is the user experience that enables visitors to consume content on any website through the device of their choice and preference, anytime. Thus, increasing user satisfaction which directly co relates to an increase in sales.

I am happy to be part of the initiative to make this possible in India. We must adopt a completely different approach while designing a mobile page. One of the key points to keep in mind is that, when users access pages through their mobiles, they are generally on the move. They just want to get in get the information they are seeking and leave. Keeping this mind a successful responsive web page should display all the relevant information and USPs at first glance!

Right now, only 11% of the websites in the world are responsive but over 72% of those websites deliver the same amount of data regardless of screen size. What this means that a user on a mobile device will be needed to download the same amount of data as a user on a desktop. This is one of examples of poor design especially if the website caters to a global market because if a visitor’s mobile speed is low the website will take a long time to load and the visitor will not wait for that long and just navigate away from the page.

One of the methods to counter this is by using a “m.” sub domain or by manipulating javascript to deliver only the data relevant to mobile users. Which are currently being used by sites like facebook and Youtube, who have to cater to users from all over the world.

In closing, I would like to say that Responsive Web Design is the future and we must adapt and be a part of it. Think Responsively!