Through responsive design and development, we can make website pages respond to different browsing devices, dynamically adjust the layout structure, element specifications and styles, and present the same content to users of different devices in different formats.
When is it appropriate to adopt responsive Web design
When customers demand mobile product functions, there are some solutions for us to choose, including native client applications, Web applications, etc;What kind of method is more appropriate depends on the specific needs.In addition, consider whether the website itself needs to be mobile.Although a responsive site is not a pure mobile solution, it is worth considering in some cases.
You have no idea
The whole process of designing and developing a new mobile version site or client application is very challenging.Unless the product is officially launched, you cannot really know whether it will succeed.Instead of simply spending resources to build a mobile version of the site or develop client applications for the sake of mobility, it is better to spend some time to build the original website more resilient, so that it can have the best user experience in various mainstream mobile devices.
You want to save costs
To build a responsive site, it is natural that experienced interaction, visual design and front-end developers are indispensable.The required resources, especially the time, are about 20% to 30% more than those of ordinary websites;But it is much cheaper than building a mobile version of the website alone or designing and developing client applications.From the perspective of maintenance, it will be much easier.
You want the website to be compatible with future new devices
The so-called mobile version site is usually built separately for a specific type of equipment, with poor flexibility.New mobile devices are emerging one after another. Traditional mobile version sites need to be updated and maintained constantly to ensure that they work well in new devices.Responsive design can be judged according to the specific specifications of the device browsing environment, and different presentation methods can be used to display the content. There is no need to maintain for a specific specification, so it has better adaptability.
Design process of responsive website page
We will use a real hotel website as an example to demonstrate the process of responsive Web design.This website was just created for Macdonald Hotel Chain in September.In the whole design and development process, there are several key steps that we will learn one by one:
1. User research and equipment specification estimation
2. Make wireframe prototype
3. Visual Design
4. Front end construction
So is a responsive website good for search engines?
Some people say that Google "likes" respondingBeijing Website DesignAnd reward responsive websites with higher search rankings.I think Google likes websites that can meet users' needs, no matter what technology is used.
Two messages
First:
Google announced that it will officially implement the mobile search algorithm adjustment from April 21, 2015. When users search on mobile phones, the mobile friendliness of web pages will become one of the factors affecting the ranking of mobile search results.
What are the characteristics of a mobile friendly website?Google said that it is best to comply with the responsive web design principles, adjust the page layout, make the text large enough, and make the page links quickly respond to touch screen points.
Second rule:
In April, during the Baidu webmaster salon, a webmaster asked Baidu whether it had updated the algorithm for responsive websites, and Baidu officials put forward three conservative replies on responsive websites:
1. Baidu is trying to support responsive websites technically;
2. Baidu official suggested that webmasters use HTML5 when building websites and optimizing code;
3. High quality mobile stations are similar to PC stations, but they still have their particularity.
It can be seen that Baidu still recommends that webmasters have separate mobile stations to improve the user experience when visiting mobile sites.
Google suggests using responsive design. Even if it is the right choice, we should also know what is the website users really want and how to design responsive websites.
The website page design below is composed of pictures, and there is no content that customers want.This website design does not consider why users come to your website.
The website shown in the figure below knows that most users are car enthusiasts and want to see car options or find a dealer. It is a good website and may improve their sales rate.
How do you know what your users want to see?
1. Page survey
One of the best ways to understand what people are looking for is to ask them directly.We can use the Qualaroo tool to quickly know what people are looking for.If you already know what people are looking for, you know what their top priority is.If price is most important to your buyer, it should be highlighted in the design.
2. Use split test to understand customer intent
We can establish a hypothesis between test pages, and then try to think about whether our conclusions are correct and whether we have created content that can solve user problems.It can achieve very good results by using the Optimizely tool for testing.
3. Research market segments
Try to find out where your users are in the market segment and what they want to see.For example, if you enter a family service website, real estate, employment, hotels, new cars and furniture are all information that people want to know.If users use mobile devices to access websites, our website should have responsive information and navigation options.
In short, responsive websites are indeed the simplest multi device browsing method so far, but it does not mean that search engines will punish a website that can provide excellent mobile experience on different terminals.Responsive design is usually the right choice, but not the only one.The most important thing is to build a website that can meet the needs of users.