Do you need a mobile website?

The content >

Last week one of my clients asked me, “Will my site  rearrange itself and change shape on a mobile?”, to which the answer was: No, it won’t.  What she was referring to was a newish kid on the block called ‘responsive design’. In a nutshell, this means that a website is designed and built in such a way that the elements on the page shift and move around to fit whatever device or screen size it’s being displayed on. The alternative approach is to have a separate dedicated mobile site that is designed and built purely for mobile devices.

Designing for mobile is something that can’t really be ignored anymore; most people have a smartphone and, depending on your source, up to 25% of web browsing is now done on mobiles. This is set to increase as phones become more powerful and faster and people demand quicker access to information on the move.

It’s easy to spot a website that hasn’t been optimised for mobiles – it takes an eternity to load and when it does you have to zoom in and do all that swiping around nonsense. It’s generally an irritating and, consequently, brief user experience garnished with dark mutterings of, “Sod it, I’ll look properly when I get home.” Look properly? This assumes that mobile devices (be they tablets or smartphones) are a secondary concern to desktop computers in the eyes of the user. Of course, they are not – but they are different, used in entirely different ways and people have different expectations of they’re experiences of desktop and mobile browsing.

When considering if it’s necessary to have a mobile site you need to think about what the purpose of your website is and, importantly, when, where and how your visitors will use it. For example, a website such as mine has only a small percentage of visits from mobile devices due to it’s subject matter. Not many people are going to be looking for a freelance web developer when they’re out and about so there’s no mobile version of this site just yet. However, a site that specialises in last minute restaurant bookings or cosy nearby pubs would have a higher ratio of visitors using mobile devices. When planning your site this has to be one of the things to be addressed early on and will define how your website is designed and built. Effective websites need to have the delicate balance of prioritising your users’ experience and communicating your message in equal measure so thinking how your site will be used is a vital ingredient in achieving this. If your site is going to be predominantly used on a desktop computer, design for desktop; if it’s likely to be used mainly on a mobile then this should be your design starting point.

So, what about the pros and cons of responsive websites? It’s certainly an interesting technological development but is by no means a panacea for the myriad issues of rendering sites equally well on all devices.

Responsive design is advantageous because:

  • only one website has to be built which can reduce development costs and result in a greater return on investment for the client;
  • any change in content or site updates need only be done once;
  • designers are forced to design for mobile first which means that the desktop version of the site will be lean, fat free and not cluttered with unnecessary content;
  • the mobile and desktop will have the same web address which makes the sharing of links more effective and could improve SEO.

 

Disadvantages of responsive design are:

  • the load time can still be slow, especially with image-heavy sites, as images need to be optimised for desktop and all the site content is loaded onto every device;
  • Google likes fast sites;
  • responsive design relies on new methods of coding (CSS3 ans HTML5) which not all desktop browsers or mobile devices can handle;
  • the mobile site and the desktop site may have different purposes;
  • the website is being designed primarily for the device and not the user;
  • there may be a compromise on content or design to suit all devices.

 

According to some sources, mobile browsing is set to exceed desktop browsing sometime in 2014. Responsive design looks like it will stand the test of time but for it to succeed as a solution it’s vital that devices’ operating systems and browsers get up to speed to be able to handle CSS3 and HTML5. But, one size does not fit all and the various browser widths across desktops, tablets, smart TVs and mobiles cannot reliably be catered for without an enormous amount of development and cross-browser testing. Responsive design is merely a viable option and not a replacement for dedicated mobile sites. To use the analogy I gave when talking to my client who asked about responsive design, “You wouldn’t put a band together that is trying to go down equally well at the Cheltenham Jazz Festival and the Download Festival. It would fall short on both sides.”

So, I’m seriously looking at responsive design, elements of it are great,  but at the moment offering dedicated mobile sites as a service because they can be reliably designed and optimised for their intended purpose. Having said that, I’ve just looked at the Download Festival website and it’s responsive. It’s pretty good too. Have a look and shrink your browser horizontally – if your browser can handle CSS3 and HTML5, that is.