Zazzle Media, by Jamie Leeson
We know what you’re thinking – first mobile first, and now responsive design? Neither of these are new for 2017!
Although responsive design is also something which has been around for a few years, what we predict to see over the coming year is an even bigger uptake in the number of brands, both big and small, who are building responsive-based sites.
For those who may not know what responsive design is, it’s essentially an approach to building a site using CSS media queries and flexible grids/layouts to create a single, dynamic site which adjusts and re-jigs it’s content to best display itself on various sized devices. It works hand-in-hand with mobile first, as mobile first designs the experience and the look, and responsive implements it.
One of the bonuses of responsive design is that it allows businesses to pay for just a single site build which effectively delivers content on mobile and tablet, all the way to laptops to big-screened desktops.
Cost-effectiveness aside, the reason we anticipate even more brand’s employing this is because of an update to Google’s ranking algorithm which dropped in April last year. To sum it up, Google’s update now boosts the rankings of sites which optimises it’s content (and thus user experience, a la the mobile first principle) to mobile devices and users. Any site which isn’t optimised for mobile is set to see a major shake up in where it ranks online. See more from Google here.
If you’re looking to see whether your site is ‘mobile-friendly’ under Google’s update, be sure to test it with this handy tool.
Rankings aside, what’s also interesting to note is how user behavior has changed over the last couple of years. Internet users have quickly taken to mobile-optimized sites which make their browsing experience easier, and any site which now doesn’t meet these standards simply won’t cut it. As this infographic from Experience Dynamics shows, 79% of users will leave the site they’re browsing and find another if it isn’t optimized – something for brands to really consider!
Our prediction: Much the same as with mobile first – we predict a larger increase in the number of brands and businesses who implement this approach to ensure that they achieve the rankings in search that they desire, as well as keep those all-important customers happy with the user experience.