What is responsive design and why is it important?

In the coming years there will be more people accessing the web on smart phones than from desktop computers.

Responsive Web Design for Skykomish Washington

In the next year it is predicted that tablets will surpass laptop sales. Currently there are more wireless devices in use in the United States than there are people. Long gone are the days when you knew a potential customer would be viewing your website on a desktop computer. There are smart phones, tablets, laptops, net books, and desktops now in heavy use every day.

You could have a website built for standard computers, then a mobile app for iPhones and an app for Android phones. You would still need a modified site for tablets and smart T.V.s. unless you wanted your site visitors to have to pinch and scroll to see all of your content. Even then most native apps for phones only serve up a dumbed down version of your regular website. How many times do you have to pinch and zoom on your phone to get to the navigation and information that you are looking for when browsing the web on a phone?

This is where Responsive Web Design comes in to play. One site is built that is fully usable with the same content on all devices. The content re purposes itself automatically to fit on the viewers screen regardless if they are using a iPhone, iPad, Windows phone, tablet, or desktop. This allows for less cost for developing and updating because there is just one website to maintain instead of many.