There is no doubt about it, if you have a web presence; you need to make sure it’s accessible from as many different devices as possible. If you do not do this you stand to lose out on a significant potential audience. If you speak to a specialist in ecommerce website design, they will tell you how important responsive website design is, in order for your business to be as accessible as possible.
As important as responsive web design has become; it still has to be done well to be successful. Just using a responsive web design solution is not enough to ensure an effective web presence. We are going to take a look at three of the most common mistakes that are made which can potentially reduce the effectiveness of responsive web design.
Thinking desktop not mobile
There are many web designers out there who are still in the mindset of thinking about designing for desktop first. The whole concept of responsive web design is that the content fits to the screen on which it is being viewed. The problem is that content which reads well on desktop does not necessarily always read well when using a mobile device.
If you automatically consider desktop first when designing a website you run the risk of adopting a design that causes mobile uses to disengage. It’s generally a good idea to start with the mobile device user in mind when designing a responsive website. Of course, now that Google’s mobile-first indexing is officially being tested you have another good reason for putting mobile first. Pretty soon your search engine rankings may depend on the effectiveness of your mobile website.
Not creating the simple navigation required
Problems with creating a navigation system for a responsive website often stem from thinking desktop first. If you adopt a rigid navigation system that is best suited to the desktop experience it may not translate very well to being used on a mobile device. The only way to avoid doing this is to experience your website using a mobile device. You need to make sure that your website is designed from the mobile experience point of view.
It’s important to remember that ease of navigation is very important when it comes to attracting visitors to your website, and keeping them engaged. If people access your website using a mobile device, and then struggle to find their way around the pages, they are unlikely to want to visit the site again.
Neglecting the touchscreen experience
The touchscreen experience is no longer just restricted to mobile device usage; many laptops now use touchscreen technology. The fact is that a large proportion of people who access the Internet now use their fingertips to do so. These people want to be able to just touch the screen, and swipe, to access everything they want to see.
One of the most common mistakes that designers make is to not take into account the touchscreen experience. If a user is touching the screen they need to be able to touch an individual element without interfering with other elements on the screen. You should always bear this in mind with your online content. Remember, you do not want people to have to zoom in in order to easily access your content by touch. All users need to be able to read your online content easily so you need to pay attention to font size when designing your website.
Using responsive web design is an excellent way of enabling people to view your content using different devices. That being said, you still need to bear in mind the end user experience for each type of device. The fact that you decide to adopt a responsive web design solution when creating your website does not automatically mean that your site is optimised for viewing across all devices.
Hopefully, we have shown you how important design is when it comes to making the most of responsive web design. You need to ensure that the design of your website is geared to mobile first as this means that the viewing experience should end up being of a high quality no matter what type of device is used for viewing.