Responsiveness is the ‘in thing’ in the software design and development field. Mobile web world is categorically divided into regular mobile websites and responsive web design.
The first one is the exact copy of any website developed for mobile devices while the latter is a site designed for all types of mobile gadgets and is adaptable to mobile devices of all shapes and sizes.
Let’s check out the benefits and hinderances of responsive web design. The points in favour of it are:
Unlike separate mobile website, responsive sites give fuller user experience. Being adjustable to all gadgets these sites justify the design requirements of devices with diverse screen sizes.
- Instead of maintaining two separate websites a single site can justify all screen sizes making it an affordable and low maintenance solution.
- In the eye of SEO experts also responsive sites are beneficial as the links of these sites don’t pass to other domains and thus get faster and higher SERP rankings.
- Creating mobile site for different devices is a costly affair. And it engulfs a lot of design and development time and effort.
The flip side of responsive web design are as follows:
- The loading time of responsive sites is more as it has to adjust all the design elements, Javascript and HTML code in accordance with the screen size of the device.
- The content of responsive websites is minimalist and don’t give absolute information. Visitors who are looking for detailed information gets disappointed with these sites.
The software industry is divided into different cults for the use of responsive web design. But majority of them support it for their sheer usability and market demand of mobile software industry. So, responsive is the way to go!!