Chart of the Day: How does your site compare to these benchmarks?
Website performance, as perceived by the download speed for pages by users, has become more important with the increased adoption of smartphones which typically have lower bandwidth connections than desktops. This research from Google on the impact of page load time shows why speed matters!
Recent research by Google has shown that the recommended average user perception of acceptable download time to page load is two seconds, while for the average European website it is around eight seconds.
Google and others have much guidance on how to improve site download speed, yet achieving fast download speeds has become more challenging with the widespread adoption of responsive website design (RWD), which adds to the page weight of HTML and Javascript…
Responsive Web Design is expected by consumers and backed by Google
With the continued rise in mobile usage, and 'with 25% of internet users only using mobile devices', companies are adopting responsive design. Responsive design is typically more cost effective than maintaining different versions of our websites for various devices - even Google are recommending this as best practice from an SEO and experience POV. That's why we use it at Smart Insights!
Note though that the thinking "mobile responsive design is always the best option" may be oversimplistic. Yes it may be for smaller businesses, but for larger businesses who want to maximise conversion and experience adaptive design may be best. Our recent research on managing customer journeys shows that although responsive designs dominate adaptive is a valid alternative.
Still we felt that this infographic from Verve does a great job of raising awareness…
Resources and examples to inspire effective mobile experiences
Responsive Design (RWD) is a key trend in creating effective online customer experiences driven by the need to cost-effectively build sites across desktop, tablet, phablet and smartphone.
I featured it at #13 in the digital marketing techniques that would be important in my 2014 digital marketing trends post and Smart Insights readers voted investment in mobile as the second trend with the most commercial potential for 2014.
To help marketers to create effective experiences we have featured many articles discussing best practice, examples and implementation for responsive design on Smart Insights through 2012 and 2013 which I thought it might be helpful to collect together here:
An Introduction to Responsive Website Design for Marketers
Planning your RWD
Case Study on Oxfam in Ireland on RWD
…
A group debate discussing the best way to make your site work on all devices?
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of presenting at the J. Boye conference in Aarhus, Denmark about developing mobile optimised websites and applications. In the spirit of J. Boye I had decided to run an interactive session as opposed to the more traditional presenting method of lecturing people on personal experiences.
There was a fascinating cross-section of people from different businesses at the session. Among the 50 that attended there were people from a variety of industry sectors including banking, charity, government and other public sector organisations, pharmaceutical and many more!
The group was mostly made up of fairly senior people working across IT and marketing departments (with a fairly heavy emphasis on digital in their role!). Many, if not all, had some recent experience of…
Planning your Responsive Web design
You will have noticed that responsive web design has become a real buzz phrase in 2013. However, responsive design is not a new concept, in fact far from it. Making something that looks great on all browsers and across all platforms should be the benchmark for all web design. Reaching that benchmark requires Designers and Developers to slightly alter their outlook on a project.
There are a number of practices you can adhere to which will help to ensure your site is viewed in the best possible light. Below are some pointers both planning and technical.
Planning your Responsive Web Design
Responsive doesn’t just mean ‘squishy’. The majority of users will view these sites on different platforms, but won’t switch between them.
Just make sure the user can view the content in the most effective way. Alternate versions of sites are just as effective as a site that re-scales.
Responsive web…
A checklist of issues to consider in a responsive website redesign project
If there’s one thing that every Web and Digital marketing manager has had on their agenda in recent times it’s responsive design! Responsive Web Design has become the defacto standard of web sites in a very short space of time. But is it a silver bullet? Is it a magic cure for many digital illnesses our sites (and visitors!) have been suffering from? It certainly gives many challenges, and in this post I'll share 9 key issues that site managers need to talk through with their designers.
When I first started looking at the concept of responsive websites back in 2010 - I fell in love. This seemed like a proper working implementation of the “fluid websites” that were largely a dream back in the days when we were moving from table based layouts to CSS based ones.
Over the past…
An introduction to responsive website design for marketers
The Olympics were fantastic this year, the atmosphere was electric and the performances were first class (not to mention Danny Boyle's staggering opening ceremony).
The only problem that I had was that I kept on missing the first and last 5 metres of each race. You see, my television is very old, and can’t cope with content that has been created for the panoramic screen. If only my television was as responsive as an increasing number of websites...
So What is the Responsive Web?
Responsive Website Design (RWD) is a concept widely attributed to Ethan Marcotte, who takes inspiration from the experimental movement Responsive Architecture (see pioneering Nicholas Negroponte for further reading).
The aim of RWD is to create one website design that adapts to each environment that it is being viewed in. Whether being viewed from a traditional PC browser, or perhaps a new android tablet,…
Oxfam Ireland's new responsive design
With the dramatic increase in mobile site users all businesses are experiencing, there has been a lot of discussion of responsive design as an approach.
Responsive design gives the option to deliver a great experience for smartphone, tablet and desktop users without the need for creating a separate mobile optimised site or apps. So it can be a cost-effective solution.
If you want to learn more about the approach I recommend this primer on responsive design approach shared with me by Dan Croxen John.
Examples are often the best way to understand the potential of an approach, so in this post I focus on a single example which shows the benefits of the approach.
Oxfam Ireland responsive design example
I saw this Oxfam Ireland example mentioned in the excellent LinkedIn Web Managers Group and thought it was an interesting example of a responsive design that was worth sharing.
It was…
