Nearly every website owner knows (or should know) that easy navigation and a user friendly design, but just designing an easy to browse site is no longer enough. Today, responsive web design is a necessity when planning and implementing your site design. So, what is responsive web design? Keep reading.

What it is:

Responsive web design refers to the concept of designing one site that can conform to any medium potential viewers may be using. This may include versions that will work well on smartphones, tablets, computers, and any other device being used. The key is to ensure function is maintained across all devices. This means making them easy to navigate and read from anywhere a user may be.

Why you need it

More and more users are logging on using devices aside from conventional computers. In fact, it’s projected that 1 billion people will be using smartphones by 2016, according to Forrester, a research company who studied the matter. Many of these people will be using those phones for shopping, web surfing, work, and other activities that used to be confined to much larger devices. As phones and tablets grow more sophisticated, the number of people viewing your site from them will continue to increase. If you fail to provide easy access and navigation to this group, you will likely lose out on a lot of business.

Even more importantly, your competition will likely be implementing responsive web design principles on their own sites. As it becomes standard practice for web developers, any sites not using this new technology will be left behind, and in turn, will become less desirable to a large part of your market. If your competitors are using responsive web design practices, you may lose out on a lot of business now, and in the future.