responsive web design

5 Steps

The most important thing about any website is the user experience it delivers. Your UX is what is going to make your website memorable and keep your customers coming back and remaining loyal. Your website has to offer a good UX and this can be achieved in many ways, some more technical than others. Ensuring your website is as user friendly as possible, as quick as possible and as well organised as possible will really help impress your potential customers.

User experience can broadly be defined as all aspects of end-user interaction with your company, your services and your products. Something as broad as that can be hard to focus in on but here we’re looking at five ways you can definitely make a different to your UX for the better.

1. Faster Page Loading Time

Around 40% of all visitors to website will abandon them if they take longer than three seconds to load. That doesn’t give you much leeway and highlights how important fast loading time actually is. Three seconds isn’t much time to make a good impression but you need to use every second you can. A professional design can help speed up that page load time but simple tricking include resizing or removing large images that aren’t central to the content, eliminating flash files and reducing the number of plugins you’ve added to your site. You can also make use of the cache for your site so it doesn’t have to fully reassemble every time someone visits.

2. Clickable Images and Logos

Many of your visitors will want to visit many different pages of your website and have gone from page to page without returning to the homepage. This means they will have the click back several times before getting to the homepage, which can be inconvenient. Instead make it easy, make all logos clickable so users can navigate with ease.

3. White Space

We’ve talked about white space in several blog posts but it needs to be mentioned here again. Your text matters but the spacing between your text matters too. White space helps your users absorb the information you’re providing and it’s aesthetically pleasing and inviting too. White space can also be used to help the most important elements of your website stand out and become more noticeable.

4. Search Friendly

Note we’re saying SEARCH friendly not search engine friendly. SEO matters but it has no role to play in your UX and in fact all this point means is that you should ensure you have a functional search bar on each page of your site. A search bar allows your potential customers to seek and find exactly what they’re looking for.

5. Responsive

We’ve already dedicated a whole blog post to responsive design but once again it needs to be mentioned. You want your customers to be able to access your website, whatever device they choose to use and this includes those with smaller screens. To ensure this is possible you need to ensure your design is responsive as this allows your design to adapt to any screen and be perfectly accessible and usable in every context.

These five elements of your website can really help or hinder your UX. You want your potential customers to find your site easy to use as well as being impressed by its design so ensure you keep these points in mind for success across the board.

If you would like to find out more or have any questions then please get in touch with The Web Surgery.

Sep 05

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What are responsive websites?

By Grant The Web Surgery, Web Design, Web Design London, Web Design Solihull, Website Design Business

In 2014, a website that isn’t responsive is unlikely to be anywhere as near as effective as you’d hope. Responsive design has become essential as experts are suggesting that by 2017, 90% of internet users will be accessing the web via their phones. Your design needs to be responsive if you want to access these potential customers you need to ensure your website is responsive and here we’re looking at what this means and why you need it.

Responsive design is simply a website which responds to the device in which it is loaded. This can mean that the design includes a wide range of different graphic sizes and styles so it can load effectively onto devices with different screen sizes including mobile phones and tablets. Responsive design allows your website to be easily accessible to almost anyone.

Here is a closer look at some of the key reasons your website needs to be responsively designed.

1. Mobile Use is everywhere

As mentioned above, mobile web access is increasing at a rate far faster than almost any other kind. Statistics from Smart Insights show that over 20% of Google searches are performed on mobile devices and 25% of users in the US only access the internet via their mobile phone and no other means. More and more people are exclusively using their mobile phones and tablets to do business, make purchases and even arrange business services, so you need your website to be accessible and user friendly through all methods.

2. Boost your User Experience

You need to make a good impression immediately. People aren’t going to stick around on your website if it doesn’t load quickly enough or doesn’t load properly. Google research has shown that users who are frustrated when trying to load a website have a high chance of simply clicking off. Up to 61% of all users will go immediately to another website, usually a competitor’s. Having a properly responsive website in place should ensure a positive experience all around, with Google’s statistics suggesting that a positive mobile experience can be the driving force behind them using a service or making a purchase.

3. SEO Friendly

Responsive design is Google’s best friend and this is true for many other search engines as well. When Google came out and announced that they preferred responsive websites and would rank them more positively in their search engine pages, other search engines followed suit. A single URL to provide both mobile and regular access to your site is easier for bots to crawl and therefore they tend to perform better in terms of SERPs.

4. Ready for the Future

The most beneficial thing about responsive design is that you’re primed for the future. Simply the word responsive tells you all you need to know and as new devices are launched, a responsive design should be ready to work effectively without the need for any chances. Responsive design templates are designed based on screen size, not model or device type, which means whatever device is being used, your website will resize itself effectively.

The advent of people using internet on their TVs and even Google Glass means that your website, if designed responsively, will be easily accessible and if not, will once again not be accessed by this new class of potential customer.

When choosing a professional web designer, opting for one who commits to offering you a responsive result is a must. In the current climate and with more and more people relying on their mobile devices for internet access, your website simply needs to be responsive.

Find Out More About Responsive Web Design and Responsive Websites

If you would like to know more or find out how we can help you then please call us on 020 8144 6540 or contact us at www.thewebsurgery.com/contact

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