Over the years, our web designers in Melbourne have seen many web design trends come and go. From the pure HTML websites and animated GIFs of the 90s, to the brief obsession with skeumorphic design in the early 2010s, web design is an ever-evolving field.
One recent trend that shows no sign of falling off however is responsive web design. In fact, it’s one of the keys to building “good” website nowadays. Businesses, organisations, and brands risk losing traffic, market share, and ultimately leads if they fail to account for responsiveness. This is one trend our team has seen picking up steam in real-time, with more enquiries about responsive web design in Melbourne.
What is responsive web design, and how does responsive web design work?
In essence, responsive web design is design that automatically adjusts to fit the user’s device. It adjusts web content and layout to account for screen size, aspect ratios, screen resolution, device orientation, and more. This can involve code, scripts and flexible page elements that automatically:
- Resize images and text columns
- Move or rearrange content
- Hide or disable certain elements
The goal is to ensure that your website is functional, visually-appealing, and offers a good user experience (UX), regardless of device.
Prior to the widespread adoption of responsive design, users were frequently served the exact same website, leading to frustration for anyone not on desktop. Reading text, clicking links and filling out forms was often impossible for mobile users. Since the mid-2010s however, businesses, organisations, and brands are increasingly endeavouring offer consistent experiences to all users.
Why is responsive web design important?
Responsive web design is crucial for maintaining traffic
With today’s users frequently bouncing between mobile, tablet, and PC, responsive web design has gone from “nice to have” to an absolute essential. According to Statista, in 2023 PCs only accounted for slightly over half of all internet usage in Australia. Mobile made up 42%, with tablets making up the difference.
A website that is difficult to use on tablet or mobile risks driving those users away. The result is losing out on a large number of potential leads.
Responsive web design is a key factor in SEO
In the hyper-competitive digital marketplace, getting found amidst a crowd of competitors is the key to generating traffic. And since 2020, Google has ranked webpages based on how well their mobile versions perform.
Rankings are now heavily determined by mobile-compatibility, which in turn makes responsive design one of the most important criteria for being found online. For websites that rely on search engines to generate traffic, failing to build a responsive website can mean losing traffic (and ultimately, leads and revenue) to ones that are. Consequently, SEO services are increasingly prioritising responsiveness.
Responsive web design is good for accessibility
It’s estimated that over half a million Australians live with low vision. For many of these individuals, scaling or resizing web content to a size where it’s easier for them to understand is crucial to their ability to interact with digital content.
Without responsive web design, this would be impossible, rendering many websites effectively unusable for people with disability.
Previously, our web designers in Melbourne discussed the importance of accessibility in web design. Click here to learn more about accessible web design.
Responsive web design is more time-efficient
Prior to responsive web design gaining popularity, many websites had to maintain and update separate versions for both mobile and desktop. Needless to say, this often led to a duplication of work and unnecessary waste of organisational resources and time.
Responsive web design means the same website can be served to all users regardless of device. As such, businesses, organisations, and individuals still running parallel websites stand to save valuable time by making their websites responsive.
Future-proofing your website
While our web designers in Melbourne can’t predict the future, one thing we’re certain about is that the number and types of devices out there are only set to grow. Fortunately, responsive design ensures that your website is relatively “futureproof”, as design is not tied to a specific aspect ratio, screen orientation, or device.
How to design for responsiveness
Start with mobile and work your way up
Our digital team has experience providing responsive web design for Melbourne businesses and organisations. During that time, we’ve found that it’s often easier to scale up than it is to scale down.
What this means is that when designing, it’s more common to encounter breakpoints when trying to adapt a design made for larger screens to smaller ones. Larger screens give designers more flexibility, making it more efficient to prioritise smaller screens and their additional limitations.
Establish the technical groundwork
Fortunately, most modern content management systems (CMS) such as WordPress have responsiveness built-in. That having been said, more sophisticated websites or bespoke features may require additional plugins, third-party themes, or even custom code. When implementing these, it’s critical that your web developer chooses ones that are compatible with responsive design.
Consider more frequent calls-to-action
Good calls-to-action (CTAs) are key to driving engagement and generating leads. When designing for responsiveness however, more thought needs to be paid to CTA placement. Specifically, since mobile screens fit less content, more frequent CTAs may be needed to ensure users are still being prompted to take action.
Not all content needs to be visible
More website content means longer load times – a critical consideration when designing for responsiveness. Moreover, too much content can actually result in overload on certain devices. Being selective with which elements should be hidden on certain screen sizes can help with both of these issues.
Remember, responsive web design is an art AND a science
Responsive web design is more than just additional code. It’s an approach to design that influences all parts of a website from content, to graphics, to page layout, to menus. Implementing responsive web design starts at the very beginning, and requires close collaboration between web designers and web developers.
On the technical side, web developers create the technical foundation that allows websites to be responsive. This can mean implementing code, plugins, and page elements that are responsive.
Web and graphic designers on the other hand have the task of ensuring that their designs meet responsive criteria:
- Designing logos that are simple and easy-to-read at both large and small scale
- Filetypes that scale without losing clarity
- Considering how designs will look in both landscape and portrait mode
- Designing banners that are visually-appealing across a range of screen widths
Even choices like typeface and font size and weight come into play when designing for a wide range of screens. Simply put, responsive design requires designers to keep flexibility and adaptability in mind when making decisions. It requires a web design team who that has experience thinking about responsiveness, and who incorporate it into every stage of their design process.
Looking for responsive web design in Melbourne?
At MOO Marketing & Design, our digital team combines web development and web design to create responsive websites for our clients. We are a full service marketing agency in Melbourne with a long and proven track history of successful digital projects for nationally-recognised brands and organisations.
We don’t just do design – we also offer comprehensive brand creation services that account for different devices. By choosing us as your website design agency, you ensure that regardless of device your website is:
- Functional
- Visually-appealing
- Consistent with your brand
Interested in responsive web design in Melbourne? If you’re considering designing and developing a website that’s fast and responsive, please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.